• Travelers Championship, Round Three

Curtis hunts down leader Rose in Connecticut

Justin Rose played a patient game on day three © Getty Images

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Justin Rose remains the outright leader at the Travelers Championship but he is being hunted down by Ben Curtis, who enters the final round three shots off the pace.

Rose began the day four strokes clear of Kevin Sutherland, who failed to maintain his challenge by carding a one-over-par 71 in round three. However, where one American struggled another prospered, with Curtis shooting a flawless round of 64 to ensure Rose an uncomfortable night's sleep on Saturday.

World No. 33 Rose was just one shot away from equalling the course record on day two, but he played much more conservatively in round three, mixing three birdies with one bogey to return to the clubhouse with a two-under 68. Combined with his opening two scores of 64 and 62, Rose enters the final round with an overall score of 16-under, three strokes clear of Curtis's tally.

If Curtis is to deny Rose back-to-back PGA Tour triumphs after his victory at Memorial earlier in the month, he will most likely need to emulate his performance in round three. Hitting the turn at one-under, he rattled off five birdies on the back nine to hand himself a glimmer of a chance of clinching his first PGA Tour title since 2006.

Fellow American Vaughn Taylor is in Curtis's vicinity on 11-under, but he and a clutch of seven players on 10-under appear to have left themselves too much to do as Connecticut prepares itself for a two-way shootout on Sunday.

Quite staggeringly, Rose's main threats from the second round evaporated quickly, with Sutherland carding just a solitary bogey through the first 15 holes to slide seven shots behind the leader.

Vijay Singh, the former world No. 1, fared even worse, slumping from nine-under to six-under to fall into a tie for 32nd position. Back-to-back bogeys on the opening two holes set the tone for Singh's round, and he added three more in a shoddy day around the fairways.

Charlie Wi, who also started the third round on nine-under, dropped back to eight-under after carding a 71, including a double-bogey at the par-three 11th. Rose's other closest competitors, Corey Pavin and Bill Lunde, also failed to keep up the pressure, returning to the clubhouse in one-under to slide down the pecking order.

Elsewhere, Padraig Harrington continues to make little impact on the competition after a one-under round of 69, leaving him on six-under.

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