Weather: Mostly cloudy with temperatures reaching 70 degrees. Winds S 8-15 mph.
Martin Laird moved to 19-under 194 to take a one shot lead over second-round leader Jonathan Byrd. Rookie Cameron Percy and second-year player Webb Simpson are two shots back at 17-under.
Laird's only other third-round lead came this year at The Barclays (three strokes), where he was defeated by Matt Kuchar in a playoff.
Last year, Laird was one shot behind Scott Piercy and Chad Campbell entering the final round of the JTSHO, before picking up his first TOUR win in a playoff over George McNeill and Chad Campbell.
Last year, Laird won the JTSHO with a 19-under for 72 holes.
In 11 career rounds at TPC Summerlin, Laird has only one round in the 70s (70 in round three in 2008).
Laird's 125 total the last two rounds is a personal best. The TOUR record for best consecutive rounds is 122 by Troy Matteson.
Laird is trying to become the fourth golfer to successfully defend their title this year: Geoff Ogilvy/SBS Championship, Dustin Johnson/AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Steve Stricker/John Deere Classic.
Laird matched his career best round on TOUR with a 62 in the second-round. Laird's other 62 came at the 2009 Frys.com Open (T13).
The third-round leader/co-leader has won 19 of 43 times on TOUR this season, including the last four (Jim Furyk/TOUR Championship, Bill Haas/Viking Classic, Heath Slocum/McGladrey Classic and Rocco Mediate/Frys.com Open).
Jonathan Byrd missed his last two cuts in Las Vegas in 2008 and 2009. He is making his seventh start at the JTSHO, with his best finish coming in 2002 (T13).
There have been 14 first time winners on TOUR this season. Webb Simpson and Cameron Percy are looking for their first wins.
Percy is looking to become the third rookie to win on TOUR this season (Derek Lamely/Puerto Rico Open and Rory McIlroy/Quail Hollow Championship).
Simpson (T3) set a personal best with a 196 after 54 holes. His previous best 54-hole total was 197 at the 2009 Frys.com Open.
After recording four top-10s last year in his rookie season, Simpson is looking for his second top-10 this season.
Percy (T3) shot a personal-best 62 in the third round to move to 17-under for the tournament. Percy's best round on TOUR was a 66 at the Greenbrier Classic in July.
Percy missed three of four cuts coming into this week. He was ranked No. 185 on the money list coming into the JTSHO.
Percy's best position after a third-round was T8 at the Shell Houston Open, where he finished T35.
In 24 career starts on the PGA TOUR, Percy's best finish is T22 at the Valero Texas Open.
David Duval (T16) turned in his best back-to-back rounds since 2002. Duval recorded rounds of 64-67 the last two days for a 131 total. The last time Duval recorded better back-to-back rounds was at the 2002 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open when he shot a 67 in round three and a 63 in round four for a 130 total (T6). It just happens that 2002 was the last time Duval finished inside the top-125 on the money list (80th).
Aaron Baddeley (T7) is making his fourth start in the JTSHO. He does not have a top-10 in three previous starts Las Vegas.
Baddeley eagled the Kodak Challenge hole (par-5 16th hole) Saturday to join Rickie Fowler and Troy Merritt atop the Kodak Challenge leaderboard at 16-under.
Scoring Averages at the par-71 TPC Summerlin:
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The par-4 3rd hole is playing the toughest so far this week, yielding a 4.224 average. The par-5 16th hole is the easiest with a 4.493 average.