Notebook: Round 3, The Barclays

Weather: Sunny and pleasant. High in the low-80s. Winds NNW winds at 4-8 mph.

Martin Laird, No. 95 in FedExCup points
• Martin Laird birdied four of the first five holes on Saturday and went on to post a bogey-free 6-under 65 to take a three-stroke lead over Dustin Johnson and Jason Day at The Barclays -- the first event of the 2010 PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

• Laird, currently No. 95 in the FedExCup standings, is making his second appearance at The Barclays, firing a final-round 67 to finish T7 at The Barclays in 2008 (held at Ridgewood Country Club).

• Laird will carry the lead into the final round of a PGA TOUR event for the first time.

• Laird finished T4 at the season-opening SBS Championship, a spot he earned with his win at the 2009 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, but has just one top-10 since (T10 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial). He has made the cut in 14 of 22 starts.

• Laird was one of 15 players who played their way into the Deutsche Bank Championship from outside the cut line in 2008 with a T7 finish at The Barclays.

Dustin Johnson, No. 11 in FedExCup points
• Dustin Johnson equaled his season-best round with a bogey-free 7-under 64 on Saturday. He also posted 64 during the first round of the Northern Trust Open (T3) and the first and third rounds of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (1st).

• Johnson drained an 18-foot putt on the 626-yard, par-5 13th hole on Saturday, becoming the first player this week to eagle the hole. In fact, there have only been three eagles on the hole during the 2008 and 2010 Barclays (hosted at Ridgewood CC), with Johnson owning two of them (2008/R2). Phil Mickelson also eagled the hole on day two in 2008.

Jason Day, No. 28 in FedExCup points
• Jason Day chipped in from 19 feet and 6 inches to eagle the par-4 fifth hole en route to a 1-under 70. The hole -- known as the "Five and Dime" -- plays as the shortest par-4 on the PGA TOUR at 291 yards.

• Day is playing in The Barclays for the third straight year, finishing T31 at Ridgewood Country Club in 2008 and T12 last year at Liberty National. He is seeking to become the fourth Australian to win the event: Wayne Grady (1989), Bruce Crampton (1970) and David Graham (1976).

• Day entered The Barclays with eight consecutive made cuts, dating to his first-career victory at the HP Byron Nelson Championship and additional top-10 finishes at the AT&T National (T9) and the PGA Championship (T10). With 14 made cuts in 20 starts, Day has risen to No. 28 in the FedExCup standings.

FedExCup
The following players entered the week ranked No. 101-125 in the FedExCup standings. Here's a look at their standing through three rounds of The Barclays:

Justin Rose, No. 5 in FedExCup points
• Rose posted a 6-under 65 on Saturday to move to T5 and five strokes behind Martin Laird. One of five multiple winners on the PGA TOUR in 2010, Rose earned his first TOUR victory in come-from-behind fashion, rallying from four-strokes back entering the final round to claim the Memorial Tournament.

• Matt Kuchar, No. 9 in FedExCup points
Despite a double-bogey on the par-4 11th and a bogey on the par-4 fifth, Matt Kuchar posted his third round in the 60s this week with a 69. Kuchar, who leads the TOUR with nine top-10 finishes, will enter the final round seeking his sixth top-10 in his last eight starts.

• Steve Stricker, No. 2 in FedExCup points
Steve Stricker, who is the only player to have played in all 51 rounds in the four-year history of the PGA TOUR Playoffs, posted a 3-under 68 on Saturday to move to T12.

Tiger Woods, No. 112 in FedExCup points
• Woods (72) posted a triple bogey on the par-4 first hole on Saturday, his first triple since the 72nd hole of the 2007 Arnold Palmer Invitational. The last time he opened a round with a triple or worse was the first round of the 2003 British Open, when he tripled the par-4 first hole.

Despite only hitting eight of 14 fairways on Saturday, Woods still leads the field in Fairways Hit (34 of 42/81 percent). Here's a look at how he stacked up in his last two events:

PGA Championship 71st (out of 71)
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 79th (out of 80)

• Woods is currently No. 112 on the FedExCup points list. Currently T28 after 54 holes at The Barclays, he needs between a 50th and 57th-place finish to move into the top 100 and advance to next week's Deutsche Bank Championship.

• Woods has progressed with each start at The Barclays, missing the cut as an amateur in 1994, followed by T43 (1997), T16 (2001), T13 (2003) and T2 (2009) finishes.

The Barclays is one of only three PGA TOUR events in which Woods has made at least three starts yet failed to record a victory (Northern Trust Open -- 11 starts, Waste Management Phoenix Open -- 3 starts). It is also the only PGA TOUR Playoffs event that he hasn't won.

• This week represents the 10th start for Woods in 2010, with top-10 finishes at the Masters Tournament (T4) and the U.S. Open (T4). In 1998, he won the BellSouth Classic in his ninth start -- the previous longest stretch to start a season before winning. Here's a breakdown of his career:

Heath Slocum, No. 50 in FedExCup points
• Defending champion Slocum (67-71-70) sits 5-under (T12) through the third round in his attempt to become just the second player to successfully defend a title at The Barclays (Ernie Els, 1996-97).

• The Greater New York Chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation is one of the TICKETS Fore CHARITYTM participants at The Barclays, and for every birdie Heath Slocum makes at The Barclays, the tournament will donate $150 in his name to the Greater New York Chapter of Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America in honor of the estimated 150,000 children in the United States who are affected by Crohn's and Colitis. Slocum, who suffers from ulcerative colitis, has 10 birdies through the first three rounds (R1 -- 4, R2 -- 3, R3 -- 3).

Ian Poulter, No. 49 in FedExCup points
• Poulter, currently ranked No. 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking, carded a bogey-free 5-under 66, snapping a streak of 21 consecutive rounds in the 70s. His last round in the 60s in a PGA TOUR or PGA TOUR-sanctioned event was a second-round 69 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

• Poulter is making his fifth start at The Barclays, with one missed cut (2008 at Ridgewood CC) and three T9 finishes (2006, 2007, 2009).

Ernie Els, No. 1 in FedExCup points
• FedExCup leader Els posted a 2-over 73 on Saturday to fall to T66. Els entered the week having held the top spot on the FedExCup points list for 22 consecutive weeks, but that streak is in jeopardy.

Miscellaneous Notes
• The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 15 of 36 times in stroke-play events in 2010, with the most recent being Arjun Atwal at the Wyndham Championship.

• The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 24 of 42 times at The Barclays (72-hole events only), most recently Steve Stricker in 2007.

• The largest come-from-behind win at The Barclays is five strokes (Bobby Nichols/1973, Vijay Singh/1993). A year ago, Heath Slocum entered the final round four strokes back before storming back for the win.

• Scoring breakdown for Ryan Palmer: front nine (11-under), back nine (4-over).