PANAMA -- Tripp Isenhour called Saturday's third round at the $550,000 Movistar Panama Championship a fight. The best the 37-year old Floridian could do was survive the day with an even-par round of 70, which was still good enough to keep him atop the leaderboard.

Isenhour stands at 10-under-par 200 and shares the 54-hole lead with Brendan Pappas (67), who three-putted the final hole from 40 feet to drop back into a tie at the top.

Parker McLachlin (71) is in third place, three off the pace, while Tim O'Neal (63), Joe Daley (66) and Kevin Gessino-Kraft (69) are four back. Six others are five back of the co-leaders.

Isenhour, who set the Panama Golf Club course record with an opening 63 on Thursday, held a two-shot lead to begin the third round but failed to distance himself from the group.

"Today I just didn't hit the shots the way I've been doing the first two days," he said. "I hit some really good ones but I also hit some really bad ones. My wedges were awful. I had a few easy ones and I failed to convert every one of them."

Isenhour knew he was in for a difficult day on the second hole when he hacked his way in and out of the rough on the 427-yard, par-4. A disastrous double-bogey was averted when his fourth shot, a chip from 30 yards, hit the pin and stopped about five feet away. He salvaged the putt for bogey-5.

"You know you're going to struggle at some point in 72 holes and you just hope you can get out of it without too much damage," he said. "Today was the fight. To struggle and shoot even-par on a golf course like this and still be in the lead, I really can't ask for much more than that."

Pappas, three back when the day began, made a quick run at the leader with birdies at Nos. 3, 5 and 6 to grab a share of the lead and also put Isenhour on notice.

"I played beautifully and kept it in play between the trees and that's always a goal of mine," said Pappas, a 35-year South African who calls Florida home now.

"I never really was under pressure. My ball striking has been solid and I like the fact that I'm very relaxed. I'm glad I caught up with Tripp because if he put together a good round he would have separated himself from the rest of us."

Pappas added birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 and pushed his lead to three at the time but then bogeyed the 15th when his tee shot found the fairway bunker.

"I just hit 3-wood off the tee to keep it from getting that far and I guess I was a little bit pumped up and it rolled right in," he said. "From there, you're just hoping to make bogey.

Pappas bombed his tee shot on the 452-yard closing hole -- a dogleg left and found his ball in the heavy rough. He couldn't put any spin on the ball and his second shot wound up some 40 feet past the pin on a green that slopes severely from back to front.

Brenden Pappas had five birdies during Saturday's round. (Badz/PGA TOUR/ WireImage)

"I hit that first putt like I was trying to make a five-footer," he said. "These greens have so much slope to them that you're just trying to dribble it in the front edge on the high side. You can't be aggressive putting. You're pretty much on your back foot the whole time. If you have one foot of speed extra, you're going to find yourself six feet by the hole."

Which is exactly where Pappas wound up.

As for Sunday's final round and the chase for the first winner;s check on the 2006 Nationwide Tour schedule.

"It's one shot at a time, that's all you can do," said Isenhour of the race to the finish. "I have to do what I can do. I have to win the battle with myself. I can't go out and tackle somebody else and make them play bad. I can only focus on me.

Third Round News and Notes: Esteban Toledo shot an even-par 70 Saturday with 18 consecutive pars. He is 2-over through 54 holes and tied for 52nd place ... Tim O'Neal matched the course record with a 7-under-par 63 and moved up from a tie for 38th to a tie for fourth ... Saturday's scoring average was 70.275. In the three-year history of the event (11 rounds), the field scoring average has been above-par every round.