• In the 50 years that this tournament has gone the full 72 holes, 25 players who have either held/shared the third-round lead have gone on to victory, including five of the last 10. The last to do so was John Daly in 2004.

• Co-leader Sergio Garcia is in this position for the fourth time in his PGA TOUR career. In the three previous times that he has held/shared the lead, he has won twice -- at the 2001 Buick Classic and the 2004 EDS Byron Nelson Championship. His lone tie for second was a playoff loss to Vijay Singh at the 2005 Wachovia Championship. Garcia is seeking his seventh TOUR win.

• Co-leader Rod Pampling has been in this position just once before when he shared the third-round lead with Chris DiMarco at the 2004 INTERNATIONAL before going on to win by two strokes over Alex Cejka. Pampling is seeking his second TOUR win.

• Co-leader Sergio Garcia (69-68-68) is the only player in the field with a chance to post four rounds in the 60s at Torrey Pines Golf Course. The last winner to post four rounds in the 60s at the Buick Invitational was Peter Jacobsen in 1995. The last time a player posted four rounds in the 60s at this tournament was in 2001 when four players did so – Frank Lickliter II (tie for second), Mike Weir (tie for fifth), Jay Don Blake (tie for seventh) and Shigeki Maruyama (tie for 13th).

• Tiger Woods jumped up 19 spots on the leaderboard (tie for 22nd to a tie for third) after posting the best round of the day, a 5-under 67. The largest jump of the day was made by Shane Bertsch, who jumped 37 spots (tie for 67th to a tie for 30th) thanks to a 2-under 70.

• Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are seeking to become the first four-time winner of the Buick Invitational. Woods (-10/tied for third) won at Torrey Pines GC in 1999, 2003 and 2005, while Mickelson (-9/tied for fifth) won in 1993, 2000-01. Woods is looking to make this tournament the fifth one he has captured four times (Bay Hill Invitational, the Masters, World Golf Championships-NEC Invitational, World Golf Championships-American Express Championship). Mickelson is looking to do so for the first time as he has also won the Tucson-event three times (1991, 1995, 1996).

• A win this week by Phil Mickelson at the Buick Invitational would move this tournament up to second on Mickelson’s all-time tournament money list. He has earned $3,111,892 at the Masters in 12 appearances as a professional. The win here would give him $2,869,496 in 14 starts as a professional.

• A win by Tiger Woods at the Buick Invitational would give him seven tournaments with at least $3 million in earnings. At the top is the WGC-NEC Invitational with $5,302,500. Others over $3 million -- the Masters, WGC-American Express Championship, THE TOUR Championship, U.S. Open and the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

• Coming into the event, Tiger Woods had recorded 23 of his 31 rounds at Torrey Pines in the 60s and carried a scoring average of 68.32 at this tournament. This week has had added two more rounds in the 60s to make it 25 of 34 at Torrey Pines in the 60s. He has also followed his trend at the tournament of bettering his scoring average each round. Entering the week his scoring average went from 68.50, 68.25, 68.13 to 67.29. This week his rounds have gone from 71 to 68 to 67.

• Tiger Woods is looking for his eighth top-five finish in nine appearances at Torrey Pines GC. Along with his three wins, he has a tie for second (2000), a tie for third (1998), a fourth (2001) and a tie for fifth (2002). His other appearance resulted in a tie for 10th in 2004.

• Third-year TOUR player Lucas Glover is quietly making a name for himself on the PGA TOUR. Glover picked up his first TOUR victory at the end of the 2005 season at the FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World Resort (64th start) by chipping in for birdie on the final hole of the tournament. He is looking for his third top-10 in four starts in 2006 as he sits tied for eighth after three rounds of the Buick Invitational. His two top-10s this season – a tie for sixth at Mercedes Championships and a tie for 10th at Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

• The top of the leaderboard through three rounds at the 2006 Buick Invitational is quite an international affair. Tied for the lead are Spain’s Sergio Garcia and Australia’s Rod Pampling. Behind them Tiger Woods (tied for third/U.S), Nathan Green (tied for third/Australia), Phil Mickelson and Brandt Jobe (tied for fifth/U.S.), Jesper Parnevik (tied for fifth/Sweden), Lucas Glover (tied for eighth/U.S.), Arjun Atwal (tied for eighth/India), and Tim Clark (tied for eighth/South Africa).

 Current Scoring Averages for each course
Course          Rd. 1            Rd. 2             Rd. 3
North Course    69.756 (-2.244)  69.154 (-2.846)   N/A
South Course    73.910 (+1.910)  74.286 (+2.286)   73.17(+1.171)    

• The South Course has yielded just one bogey-free round through the first three rounds of the Buick Invitational. Carlos Franco posted a bogey-free 2-under 70. Meanwhile the North Course, which was only used during the first two rounds, gave up a total of 20.

• TOUR rookie Nathan Green is among four players inside the top 10 after three rounds looking for his first victory. Green is playing just his second TOUR event and finished fifth in his first, the Sony Open in Hawaii. The others: Brandt Jobe (tied for fifth), Arjun Atwal (tied for eighth) and Tim Clark (tied for eighth).

• Sergio Garcia and Rod Pampling shared this week’s honors for the AstraZeneca Charity Challenge. $100,000 will be donated to The American College of Gastroenterology on behalf of the third-round leaders, the tournament and AstraZeneca.