THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD US unless stated -14 R Pampling (Aus) -10 D Clarke (NIre), Greg Owen (Eng), L Glover -9 J Bohn -8 B Curtis, G Ogilvy (Aus), S Garcia (Spa), R Allenby (Aus) Selected others: -6 V Singh -5 J Rose (Eng), L Westwood (Eng) -4 T Woods, R Goosen (SA) -2 E Els (SA) +1 N Faldo (Eng)

The Northern Irishman jumped to 10 under alongside England's Greg Owen (67) and American Lucas Glover (72).

The trio trailed leader Rod Pampling (67) of Australia by four shots in Florida, with Spain's Sergio Garcia two more back after a 71.

Tiger Woods carded another 71 for four under, while Ernie Els slipped to two under after a lacklustre 74.

Clarke began the day one under but picked up shots on his first two holes and then went on a birdie blitz for six straight holes from the ninth.

He picked up a final shot at the 16th to take the lead with Pampling only for the Australian to forge ahead with a birdie at the long sixth.

Pampling then extended his advantage with four more birdies and a bogey.

Clarke has won twice before in America when he pipped Woods to the WGC-Accenture Match Play title in 2000 and then claimed the WGC-NEC Invitational three years ago.

Other than a victory in Japan in November, Clarke has not been at his best in recent times as he focuses on supporting his wife Heather in her battle with cancer.

His return to form will be a fillip for European Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam, as will the performance of Mansfield's mainly US-based Owen, who rejoined the European Tour this year to be eligible for the K Club event.

America's former Open champion Ben Curtis was in Garcia's group on eight under after a 68, while Fiji's world number two Vijay Singh carded 68 for six under.

Swede Carl Pettersson and English duo Justin Rose and Lee Westwood were in the logjam on five under.