By Fred Albers, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent FORT WORTH, Texas — Zach Johnson is in contention because of the way he played his first nine holes in the third round at Colonial. He hit four fairways, three greens and took eight putts in shooting 31. Johnson one-putted every green with the exception of the second hole, where he chipped in for birdie. He leads the tournament in fewest putts, taking 76 strokes for 54 holes. Fortunate: Jason Dufner has played brilliantly. He's fourth in fairways in regulation, fourth in greens in regulation and fourth in total putts. Even with those numbers, a golfer can always use some good luck. At the 12th hole, Dufner drove into the left fairway bunker and the ball ran through the sand, took a strange hop and funneled into the middle of the fairway. He made birdie. Bunker play: Tournament officials were not happy with the bunkers following the 2011 competition, so they changed the consistency of the sand. Players have raved about the change, getting up and down at a rate of 57.44 percent. Matt Kuchar is 9 for 9 in sand saves this week. There is more sand in the bunkers and that leads to the occasional plugged lie, but players are able to get up and down at a remarkable rate. Par 3s: Tournament officials gave the field a different look on par 3s for the third round. The tee was moved up at the fourth, eighth and 16th holes, while the extreme right tee box was used at the 13th. Even with the change, the fourth hole still gave up just nine birdies on Saturday and ranks as the sixth most difficult hole of the week. Pregame: How did Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson spend Friday night, preparing for their grouping on Saturday? Dufner threw out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers game, a delivery he described as a "high strike off a changeup." Meanwhile, Johnson played LEGOs with his kids. Golf was not discussed. Fred Albers is a course reporter for SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio and inside the ropes this week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. For more information on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, click here.

MORE FROM COLONIAL: Third-round scores | Shot Tracker | Live FedExCup projections

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QUICK RECAP: THIRD ROUND

FORT WORTH -- Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson separated themselves from the pack during Saturday's third round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Unless things go horribly wrong for both players on Sunday, one will become the next champion at Colonial.

Dufner's 4-under 66 puts him at 15 under, one stroke ahead of Johnson, who shot a 65. The next closest player is Tom Gillis at 7 under, meaning Dufner and Johnson will essentially be in match play for the final 18 holes.

Dufner has now held or shared the lead for the 11th time this season. If he wins Sunday, he would become the first player in PGA TOUR history to win both North Texas events in consecutive weeks. Last week, he won the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

Dufner started the day with a two-stroke lead over Johnson and it became apparent early that the tournament would be a two-man race. Johnson caught Dufner at various points on Saturday, and Dufner even extended his lead to three strokes on occasion.

But some rare loose shots coming in cost Dufner a couple of strokes while Johnson posted birdies at the 16th and 17th holes to close the gap.

Johnson, the 2010 champ at Colonial, now has posted 15 consecutive sub-par rounds at Colonial. He needed just eight putts in his first nine holes and 23 putts for the day.

 

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LIVE UPDATES: THIRD ROUND (all times ET)

5:44 p.m. – Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson are done with their third rounds, both parring the 18th hole. Dufner’s 4-under 66 leaves him at 15 under for the tournament and the 54-hole leader. Johnson’s 5-under 65 puts him one stroke behind. The next closest player is Tom Gillis, who is eight shots off the lead.

5:26 p.m. – Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson both birdie the par-4 17th from nearly the same spot, 8-1/2 feet from the hole. Johnson’s approach shot landed next to Dufner’s ball on the green and nudged it slightly, with Dufner allowed to put the ball back in its original spot. Dufner is back to 15 under, Johnson at 14 under.

5:20 p.m. – Rickie Fowler salvaged a so-so day with a couple of late birdies to shoot even-par 70 – his 15th consecutive round at par or better on TOUR, the longest active streak. Fowler is 4 under for the tournament. Playing partner Harris English started well but suffered a triple bogey at the par-4 15th to finish with a 73, 2 under for the tournament.

5:15 p.m. – Key two-shot swing at the par-3 16th. Jason Dufner bogeyed after missing the green with his tee shot and failing to save par from 7-1/2 feet. Meanwhile, Zach Johnson rolled in a birdie putt of 16 feet, 9 inches. Dufner now leads by just one shot.

4:58 – Jason Dufner’s consecutive par-or-better streak has ended at 38 holes, as he bogeyed the par-4 14th, which is playing as the most difficult hole on the course Saturday. Dufner missed his par-saving putt from 6 feet after having to chip onto the green following an errant approach shot. That drops him to 15 under – but he still has a three-shot lead, as playing partner Zach Johnson also bogeyed with a three-putt. It’s the first three-putt Johnson has suffered this week and ends his three-putt avoidance streak at 52 holes.

4:35 p.m. – Jim Furyk birdied the 18th hole and has moved inside the top 10 of the leaderboard at 4 under. Furyk’s 68 on Saturday included 15 of 18 greens in regulation. He’s hit 81.5 percent of his greens this week, tops in the field.

4:30 p.m. – Good note from CBS: At the start of the day, 10 players were within seven shots of Jason Dufner’s lead. Now just one player is – Zach Johnson, who’s three back.

4:25 p.m. – Make it three straight birdies for Jason Dufner. Another great approach shot at the par-4 12th left him with a 4-foot putt. He’s now 16 under, three shots clear of Zach Johnson. By the way, Johnson holds the Colonial 72-hole record at 21 under. Kenny Perry has the 54-hole record at 18 under.

4:11 p.m. – Jason Dufner with another birdie, this one at the par-5 11th. After laying up with his second shot, he hit a wedge shot for 108 yards to within 4-1/2 feet. After Zach Johnson missed his 6-foot putt on a similar line, Dufner rolled his in to move to 15 under, two shots ahead of Johnson and at least seven shots ahead of everyone else. Dufner has now gone 36 holes without a bogey.

4 p.m. – Solid 3-under 67 for PLAYERS champ Matt Kuchar, who hit 15 of 18 greens and was perfect in two sand-save opportunities. Kuchar is 2 under for the tournament.

3:50 p.m. – Jason Dufner’s now at 14 under and regains the solo lead after rolling in a birdie putt from 19 feet, 10 inches at the par-4 10th. That puts him at 14 under. Meanwhile, Zach Johnson recorded his first two-putt of the day and remains at 13 under.

3:37 p.m. – Interesting note about Zach Johnson – he needed just eight putts in his first nine holes Saturday. He one-putt eight greens and holed out from the fringe for birdie at the second. His prowess on the greens allowed him to shoot 4 under through the first nine holes despite missing six of nine greens.

3:36 p,m. – The final twosome has made the turn, and it’s a tie for the lead. Zach Johnson rolled in a putt of 26-1/2 feet for birdie at the ninth hole after a terrific approach shot from the rough. Meanwhile, Jason Dufner saw his birdie attempt from 15 feet come up short. That leaves both players at 13 under for the tournament, five shots clear of the rest of the field. By the way, Dufner has now gone 34 straight holes without a bogey.

3:30 p.m. – Bo Van Pelt has made the turn at 1 under for his round and 8 under for the tournament. Van Pelt has not made a putt longer than 12 feet in his first 45 holes this week.

3:16 p.m. – Jason Dufner has regained the solo lead with a 17-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh. He’s now at 13 under, one ahead of playing partner Zach Johsnon.

3 p.m. – Kelly Kraft on his 6-under 64: “I started out and made a bunker shot on one for eagle. Then the putter started rolling and it seemed like everything went in.”

2:55 p.m. – Zach Johnson has birdied No. 5 to reach 12 under to tie Jason Dufner atop the leaderboard at Colonial. Johnson's ball-striking hasn't been great today; he's hit just two of five greens. But he converted birdies on both greens he did hit and added a chip-in for birdie on No. 2.

2:43 p.m. – Rookie John Huh is 4 under through his first eight holes and has moved into a tie for third at 8 under. Huh has suffered just two bogeys thus far this week, fewest in the field.

2:40 p.m. – FedExCup champ Bill Haas shot even-par 70 on Saturday. Since winning the Northern Trust Open in a playoff in mid-February, Haas has played 23 rounds in stroke-play events, and has only broken 70 one time (a first-round 68 at THE PLAYERS Championship). This week at Colonial, he’s shot 72-71-70 and is 3 over for the tournament.

2:30 p.m. – Scoring conditions seem to be good on Saturday. With about half of the field having finished their third rounds, the scoring average is currently 70.205. That’s more than a stroke better than Friday’s second-round average (71.295) and more than a half-stroke better than Thursday’s first-round average (70.919).

1:57 p.m. – Corey Pavin is a machine at Colonial. The two-time champ, who’s now a regular on the Champions Tour, carded a 3-under 67 that leaves him at 2 under for the tournament. For Pavin, it’s his 11th round in the 60s in his last 15 rounds at Colonial.

1:50 p.m. – 36-hole leader Jason Dufner has birdied the first three holes at Colonial in each of his first two rounds this week. “I feel pretty good on that starting stretch,” Dufner said. “I would assume that 1 and 2 are probably some of the easier scoring holes on the golf course, so they kind of give you that chance to maybe pick up one or two birdies early. That third hole is really tough but I’ve been fortunate to be in the fairway on both occasions and have a perfect number.” Dufner will try to keep the streak going, as he has just teed off to start his third round. Click here to follow Dufner’s third round

1:20 p.m. – One reason Jason Dufner has a two-shot lead going into Saturday? His iron play. No player in the field this week has been hitting approach shots closer to the pin this week than Dufner, whose proximity to the hole average is 23 feet, 9 inches. That’s 3 feet closer than the next best player (Bo Van Pelt) and 13 feet closer than the field average.  Dufner and playing partner Zach Johnson tee off in the final twosome in 30 minutes.

1:10 p.m. – In his first 16 holes at Colonial this week, Louis Oosthuizen carded three bogeys and no birdies. Since then, he’s a bogey-free 8 under in his last 23 holes. Oosthuizen, the Masters runner-up, has started Saturday with three consecutive birdies and is now 5 under for the tournament. Click here to follow the rest of Oosthuizen’s round

1:05 p.m. – PLAYERS champ Matt Kuchar is moving up the leaderboard. He’s a bogey-free 4 under through his first 12 holes and is now 3 under for the tournament. Kuchar, by the way, is paired with Kevin Na on Saturday; those two were paired together in the final round at TPC Sawgrass. Na is even through 12 holes and 1 over for the tournament.

1 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, who tees off in 20 minutes, has shot par or better in his last seven rounds on the weekend. At 4 under and seven strokes off the lead held by Jason Dufner, he’ll need to make a serious move today. “He’s firing at sticks out there and hitting a lot of good putts,” Fowler said of Dufner. “I’ve just got to go out and try and do the same thing and see if we can chase him down.”

12:50 p.m. – Kelly Kraft, the 2011 U.S. Amateur champ who turned pro this year after the Masters, has the low round of the early finishers. He shot a 6-under 64 and is now at 4 under for the tournament. That puts him inside the top 10 of the leaderboard at the moment. Kraft grew up in the North Texas area and went to school at SMU, but has missed the cut in his only two professional starts, in San Antonio and Dallas.

By Fred Albers, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

FORT WORTH, Texas -- With temperatures in the 90s and winds whipping at 30 mph during the second round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, it was quite difficult to keep moisture in the greens on Friday.

There is a notice in the player's locker room warning players the greens will be syringed during the course of play. That means penetrating jets of water will be applied to the putting surfaces. It changes the speed of the greens but the bentgrass would not survive without water in the brutally hot Texas heat.

Iced: Tom Gillis walked to a ice chest on the 15th tee and put his hand into the ice. With the hot conditions, Gillis says his hands have a tendency to sweat and swell. By soaking them in ice for just a few minutes, Gillis says the swelling is reduced and he gets a better feel when gripping the club.

Scrambling: Sergio Garcia has made great progress in his putting. He is ranked 38th on the PGA TOUR this season in Strokes Gained-Putting but he also continues to lose shots around the green.

Garcia is ranked 165th in scrambling and 142nd in bunker play. It showed on Friday. Garcia put his approach into the water hazard at the ninth hole, took a drop and chipped it into the hazard a second time. He would up with an 8.

Par 5s & 3s: Zach Johnson did not birdie a single par 5 in the opening round and played them in 3 under on Friday. He eagled the opening hole and added a birdie at the 11th. Johnson is also 4 under on the back nine par 3s. Johnson has birdied the 13th and 16th holes in each of the first two rounds.

Ball-striking: Jason Dufner is ranked sixth this week in hitting fairways, eighth in greens in regulation and is sixth in Strokes Gained-Putting. That is a hard combination to beat. Mark Carnevale of PGA Tour Radio is not given to hyperbole and yet says Dufner is hitting the ball as good -- or better -- than anyone he's seen on TOUR in the last quarter-century. If you need more evidence of his ball-striking, Dufner has played the "Horrible Horseshoe” (Nos. 3, 4, 5) in 4 under.

Bo knows: In 2010, Bo Van Pelt was ranked 82nd on TOUR in Strokes Gained-Putting. Last year he was 144th. This season Van Pelt is ranked second in Strokes Gained-Putting. He attributes the turnaround to a renewed dedication to practice and setup.

Fred Albers is a course reporter for SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio and inside the ropes this week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. For more information on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, click here.

FORT WORTH, Texas – David Toms entered this week having not missed the cut at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial since 1999. But he won’t be around this weekend to defend his title.

Toms shot 74-71 to finish at 5 over, two shots above the cut line at 3 over.

Local favorite J.J. Henry, the former TCU player who played so well at last week’s HP Byron Nelson Championship, also missed the cut, shooting 71-73 to finish at 4 over.

Other notables who missed the cut include: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love (6 over), Japanese star Ryo Ishikawa (4 over); and last week’s runner-up, Dicky Pride (9 over).

Among those inside the cut line:

Pat Perez, who suffered a quadruple bogey and a double bogey on his front nine but birdied his final hole with a putt from inside 5 feet to make the cut on the number

FedExCup champ Bill Haas also made the cut on the number

Two-time Colonial champ Corey Pavin, making his 29th start in this event, made the cut at 1 over. It’s the 25th time he’s made the cut here

Ben Crane made the cut at 1 over; he was at 3 over and right on the cutline until he eagled his final hole

2007 champ Rory Sabbatini made the cut despite carding just two birdies in the first two rounds

Matt Kuchar made his 19th consecutive cut on TOUR, the longest-active streak

With 79 players making the cut, a 54-hole cut will be made following the third round to reduce the field to the low 70 and ties.