O’Hair watches birdies to share lead with Furyk

Sean O’Hair hasn’t made many birdies lately. He saw more than his share Saturday in another day of low scoring at the Deutsche Bank Championship, and some of them were even his own.

O’Hair was eight under par in an eight-hole stretch in the middle of his round, sending him to a seven-under 64 and a share of the lead with Jim Furyk after 36 holes on the TPC Boston.

O’Hair and Furyk were at 12-under 130, two shots clear of Retief Goosen and Marc Leishman, who had a tournament-low 62. Nearly half the field of 99 players shot in the 60s.

O’Hair and Furyk, who made six birdies in his round of 67, played in the same group with Goosen, who had a 67. The threesome combined to make 17 birdies and one eagle.

“It can either help your or it can really hurt you,” O’Hair said of watching his partners keep making putts. “If you get impatient out there, it can be a detriment. But with the attitude I had out there the last couple of days, it was nice.”

No one needed to make birdies quite like Tiger Woods.

He was on the cut line when he made the turn and was desperate to secure a tee time for today and make up as much ground as he could. After an unlikely par save from a buried lie in the bunker, Woods gave himself seven consecutive birdie putts inside 12 feet. He made four of them for a 67, although he still was seven shots behind.

Scott Verplank made an eagle for the second straight day on his way to a 68, leaving him in a group of players at nine-under 133 that included Justin Leonard, Mike Weir, Kevin Sutherland and John Senden, who recorded the rarest shot in golf.

Senden made a double eagle on the par-five second hole, holing out from 250 yards with a four-iron. He shot a 64.

“It looked like it was just going to roll to the back of the green or just over the back,” Senden said. “And then when the I saw the cheers go up, I knew it was in the hole, so it was exciting.”

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LPGA Tour

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen shot a five-under 66 on a difficult day at Priddis Greens, taking a five-shot lead over Angela Stanford into the final round of the Canadian Women’s Open at Priddis, Alberta

Pettersen was at 14-under 199 and in position to end a 43-tournament winless streak. She won five LPGA events during her breakout 2007 season, but hasn’t lifted a trophy since -- finishing second six times, including a playoff loss in Portland last week.

South Korea’s Song-Hee Kim followed her tournament-record 62 with a 77 to fall into a tie for 21st at three under.

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Champions Tour

Loren Roberts closed in on his second consecutive title, shooting a six-under 66 at Pebble Beach to take a two-stroke lead over Mark O’Meara in the Walmart First Tee Open.

Roberts, coming off a one-stroke victory over O’Meara last week in the Boeing Classic in Washington, had seven birdies and a bogey to finish at 12-under 132.

O’Meara, playing at Del Monte, shot a second 67.

“I didn’t hit it quite as good as I did yesterday,” said O’Meara, a five-time winner of the PGA Tour’s AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am but winless on the Champions Tour. “I hit it on one side, then the other, but never in a lot of trouble. I gave back a few shots.”