FARMINGTON, Pa -- Ben Curtis played his third consecutive excellent round to share the third-round lead with Charles Howell III at the 84 LUMBER Classic on a Saturday the leaderboard never stayed the same for five minutes.

Howell, experiencing a tough year in which he has changed his swing and his coach, had a 4-under 68 to match Curtis at 12-under 204 for the tournament. Curtis had his second consecutive 69 after starting the tournament with a 66.

Curtis kept his share of the lead by sinking a tough 9-footer for par on the par-3 17th. He had a chance to take the sole lead, but pushed a 13-footer for birdie wide left on the par-4 18th.

His wife Candace is due to deliver their first child in the next week or so and, if he gets the call on Sunday morning, Curtis plans to leave without completing his final round.

"I'm just waiting by the phone," he said. "That's our No. 1 priority right now."

Howell, who has won nearly $12 million on the PGA TOUR but is only No. 81 on the money list this year, picked up four strokes in three holes with the best run of the day. After consecutive bogeys on Nos. 11 and 12 dropped him to 8 under, he birdied Nos. 14 and 15 and dropped a long putt for an eagle 3 on No. 16.

"I hung in there and I have a chance to win," said Howell, who hasn't finished in the top 30 since a tie for second at New Orleans in April. "I've been through my share of swing changes, and I've had an iffy year."

Curiously, Howell is contending for his first PGA TOUR victory since the 2002 Michelob Championship at a resort, Nemacolin Woodlands, where a golf academy is named for renowned swing coach David Leadbetter. Howell parted ways with Leadbetter before undergoing his latest swing change but decided last month to start working with him again.

"Charles is a guy who's won and probably should win more," Hunter Mahan said. "I think we've got a good mix of guys who haven't won yet and who want to win and are very capable of winning and guys who have won."

"It's going to be fun," Curtis said. "There's probably 20 guys and maybe more than that with a legitimate chance to win if they post a good score."

The most surprising name on the crowded leaderboard is 2005 qualifying school graduate Robert Garrigus, who is 165th in the money list but briefly found himself leading by two shots on the back nine. But after being 8 under for the tournament on the par-5 holes alone, he bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16 -- a par-5 -- in succession before regrouping with a birdie on the par-3 17th. He is joined by Mahan and Greg Owen a shot off the lead, with Greg Kraft, Bo Van Pelt and Ryan Moore another shot back at 10-under 206.

Garrigus' two bogeys came immediately after he glanced at the leaderboard and saw him name atop it for the first time, an unaccustomed spot for someone who has yet to have a top 10 finish.

"It was the coolest thing I've ever seen," said Garrigus, whose 19 birdies through three rounds are the most in the field. "I just really got pumped up."

Two of the five Ryder Cup players who entered, Chad Campbell and Scott Verplank, missed the cut on Friday. None of the other three -- David Toms, Chris DiMarco and Brett Wetterich - were in the top 50 in a tournament that has featured a stream of scores in the 60s since Thursday.

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