Golf:Luke Donald, who won the week after being picked for the 2004 Ryder Cup, led by one with nine holes to play as he tried to do the same at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
Two behind Australian Jason Day entering the final round, Donald almost holed his 119-yard pitch to the first and then birdied the long second as well with an eight-foot putt.
His third birdie came with a 12-footer on the sixth and with Day covering the opening stretch in one over the Englishman moved two in front.
However, 22-year-old Day chipped to two feet on the long next to halve his deficit as the second of the FedEx Cup play-off series headed for a tight finish.
With Donald out in a fine 33 they were 18 under par and 17 under respectively, with Americans Brandt Snedeker and Charley Hoffman one further back.
Tiger Woods, meanwhile, looked certain to remain world number one after finishing with three birdies for a 68 and 10 under total of 274. He was in a tie for 14th, but Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker were not where they had to be to take over at the head of the rankings for the first time.
Stricker had to win and turned in a tie for seventh, while Mickelson, for whom a top three finish would do it, took two penalty drops on the 10th, triple-bogeyed the hole and fell alongside Woods.
American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin names his four wild cards tomorrow and when asked if he was expecting a call Woods, needing a pick for the first time, said: “We will see — hopefully he has my number.”
Things were looking bad for Ireland’s Padraig Harrington as he waited to learn whether he was among the top 70 who qualify for next week’s event in Chicago.
Harrington, another of Colin Montgomerie’s wild cards, missed the cut on Saturday and was lying in 74th place on the points table.