GULLANE, Scotland (AP) - Lee Westwood passed his first big test Saturday when he outplayed Tiger Woods and grabbed a two-shot lead in the British Open.
The next one figures to be the toughest test of all.
Westwood somehow salvaged a bogey from the knee-high grass on the 16th, pulled ahead of Woods with a birdie on the 17th and was solid down the last hole for a 1-under 70 that gave him a two-shot lead going into the final day at Muirfield.
Widely considered the best player of his generation to have never won a major, Westwood is the 54-hole leader for the second time. Phil Mickelson overtook him in the Masters three years ago. Two other times, Westwood missed a playoff by one shot.
After three days on brittle, brown Muirfield, only three players remained under par.
Westwood was at 3-under 210, two shots clear of Woods (72) and Hunter Mahan, whose 68 matched the best score of the third round. Mahan, also going after that maiden major with far fewer credentials than Westwood, will be playing in the final group at his second straight major.
Woods lost his chance to get in the final group with one swing.
Tied with Westwood as they played the par-5 17th into a stiff breeze off the Firth of Forth, Woods tried to hit 3-wood over a series of bunkers to allow for a simple wedge into the green. With his ball on the slightest slope, he got it up in the air just enough that the wind grabbed it and deposited the ball in the bunker. Woods had to blast out sideways and missed a 15-foot par putt.
MARATHON CLASSIC
SYLVANIA, Ohio (AP) - Spain's Beatriz Recari birdied the two closing par 5s to catch Paula Creamer atop the leaderboard through 54 holes in the Marathon Classic.
Recari, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, matched Creamer with a 4-under 67. They were at 12-under 201.
Creamer, who won in 2008 when the tournament was known as the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, led by as many as two shots before Recari's late surge at Highland Meadows.
Rising American teen Lexi Thompson had a 67 and, along with Jacqui Concolino and Japan's Chie Arimura, was three shots back. Concolino, whose career-best tie for 11th came at the event last year, had a 69. Arimura three-putted the final hole for bogey and a 68.
Top-ranked Inb