Notebook: Round 3, Arnold Palmer Invitational

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Weather: Partly cloudy and breezy. High of 78. Winds E 10-20 mph.

• Due to the possibility of inclement weather on Sunday, players with go off two tees in threesomes. The leaders will tee off at 10:30 a.m. with an estimated finish time of 3:30 p.m.

• Ernie Els moved to 10-under after the third round to take a one-shot lead over Ben Curtis. Chris Couch is three shots off the lead at 7-under.

• Els has won 11 of 16 PGA TOUR events when holding the third-round lead/co-lead, including the last seven.

• Els has a 70.2 final-round scoring average when holding the third-round lead/co-lead. Els has shot in the 60s in four straight final-rounds when holding the third-round lead.

• Els has won back-to-back starts two other times in his PGA TOUR career (2003 SBS Championship and Sony Open in Hawaii and 1997 U.S. Open and Buick Classic).

• Since 1980, only four players have won two events in the same year on the Florida swing.

• Els (1st) and Jim Furyk (T6) are trying to become the first golfers to win back-to-back starts on TOUR since Tiger Woods in 2009 (Buick Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Furyk would be the first golfer since Woods in 2009 to win back-to-back events.

• The last time Els opened a tournament with three rounds in the 60s was at the 2008 Deutsche Bank Championship (T3).

• Curtis and Arnold Palmer both won the Ohio Amateur. Curtis, Palmer and John Cook are the only players to win the Ohio Amateur in back-to-back years.

• Curtis (-9) had missed the cut in his last two starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational following a fourth-place finish here in 2007.

Related

Leaderboard: Round 3
Furyk's amazing comeback
Live Report: Round 3
What they said: Transcripts
Round 4 Tee Times

• Curtis has not been able to put together back-to-back rounds in the 60s this season. This week is the first time since the first two rounds at the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this year that Curtis has put together back-to-back rounds at par-or-better (70-67-70).

• Italian Edoardo Molinari (T4), who earned a spot in the field this week by being in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, is making just his third start as a professional on the PGA TOUR. Molinari lost in the first round at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and finished 61st at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship. Molinari played seven TOUR events as in amateur in 2005 and 2006.

• Edoardo Molinari teamed with his brother Francesco to win the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup last year. Francesco is currently in eighth place after the third round of the European Tour's Open de Andalucia de Golf in Málaga, Spain.

• Steve Stricker shot a 7-over 79 to record his worst round on TOUR since a 79 at the 2007 Masters. Stricker was T3 (69.22) coming into this week in scoring average on TOUR this season

• Stricker avoided an 80 today with a birdie on No. 16. Stricker's last round in the 80s was round two of the 2004 Bell Canadian Open (80). Stricker has only 10 career rounds in the 80s in 1,198 career rounds.

• Couch, who missed the 2008 season and played in only eight events in 2009 due to a shoulder injury, gained entry into the Arnold Palmer Invitational by being ranked 67th in FedExCup points through the WGC-CA Championship/Puerto Rico Open. The Arnold Palmer Invitational takes the top 70 players from the 2010 FedExCup points list through the WGC-CA Championship/Puerto Rico Open.

• Couch is playing on a Major Medical Extension in 2010. At the start of the year he needed 21 events to earn $796,087. Couch has already earned $313,677 in seven starts this season.

• After finishing T4 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Couch missed the cut at The Honda Classic and withdrew from the Transitions Championship after the first round with a leg injury.

• The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 50 percent of the time (6 of 12) on TOUR so far this season, including the last three weeks (Camilo Villegas at the Honda Classic, Ernie Els at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and Jim Furyk at the Transitions Championship).

• Scoring Averages:

• Bogey-free rounds:
R1 -- J.B. Holmes (66), Chris DiMarco (69), Boo Weekley (70)
R2 -- Joe Ogilvie (66), K.J. Choi (69), Chris Couch (70)
R3 -- None