Stuart Appleby is one stroke off the pace heading into the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron. Appleby shot a solid three-under par to bring his total to seven-under for the tournament. The Australian finds himself behind a group of three players at eight-under “I played well. Just hit the ball nice, drove it in the fairway, which was critical today with the conditions of the wind to keep minimizing your mistakes on second shots,” Appleby said. “I had a few long putts out there, but just I played well, really proper, solid golf, and stuff like I&aposd like to be playing for more years yet.” Lee Westwood joined Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson at the top of the leaderboard after the latter two both succumbed to bogeys in their closing holes. Mickelson had a chance to take a one-shot advantage into the last day but missed a 12-foot birdie putt at the 18th while Singh fell back to eight under with a bogey at the 17th. Westwood began his round at five under, two behind Singh, but rattled in three birdies in his first three holes to take the outright lead. A bogey at the par-four ninth saw him turn for home in a four-way tie for the lead with Singh, Mickelson and Spain&aposs Miguel Angel Jimenez, who joined the front-runners after chipping in from 90 feet at the ninth. Jimenez shot three over on the back nine to fall away and card a level-par 70, four under for the tournament, but Westwood stayed firm with birdies at the 12th and 17th, and only a bogey at the 16th in the negative column. Tied for third heading into the third round, Peter Lonard shot a disappointing two-over 72, but is still an outside chance of winning, as he is only five shots off the pace. Another consistent round from Nick O&aposHern has him at one-under overall, while Brendan Jones and Robert Allenby are both one-over par. Aaron Baddeley shot one of the day&aposs best rounds, a 66, but still finds himself four-over par after a disastrous opening round 79. Geoff Ogilvy had a day to forget, shooting eight bogeys and one double bogey which saw him plummet down the leaderboard. First-round leader Retief Goosen rallied from a 71 on Friday to post a 68 and reach five-under. Among those on four under was Northern Ireland&aposs Darren Clarke, who posted a five-under-par 65, the joint best round of the day. Sweden&aposs Daniel Chopra fired a four-under-par round of 67 and England&aposs Ian Poulter a 69 to move to four under for the tournament. Fiji&aposs Singh had taken a one-shot lead over Mickelson into the third day following a second-round 66. The two men, famously involved in a locker-room confrontation at the 2005 Masters when Singh alleged Mickelson had damaged a green with his spikes, were the final pairing. Singh has a good record of converting 36-hole leads into victories, achieving the feat in seven of the last 10 events in which he has got into the position. Yet most recently, though, in this year&aposs Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March, he had to settle for a tie for third behind winner Tiger Woods following a costly third-round 73. When he followed birdies at the second and third with bogeys at the fourth and seventh, it appeared there might be another wobble in the making as he lost the outright lead. American world number two Mickelson, meanwhile, dropped a shot at the opening hole, driving right and into a fairway bunker from which he was forced to lay up 40 yards from the hole. After winning at Firestone in 1996 in a run of eight consecutive top-10 finishes, Mickelson&aposs superb record at the Ohio course has deserted him since 2002. Yet he recovered from his shaky start to post birdies at the second and eighth holes and again, after a bogey on 13, with a hat-trick of birdies to move to nine under. Singh knocked in two birdies in a row at 15 and 16 but both he and Mickelson dropped those crucial shots to let Westwood in for a share of the lead. Third Round of The Bridgestone Invitational (Par 70): -8: Lee Westwood 70 65 67, Vijay Singh 67 66 69, Phil Mickelson 68 66 68 -7: Stuart Appleby (Australia) 70 66 67 -5: Retief Goosen 66 71 68 -4: Darren Clarke 70 71 65, Chris DiMarco 68 70 68, D J Trahan 69 67 70, Miguel Jimenez 70 66 70, Rory Sabbatini 69 67 70 -3: Daniel Chopra 67 74 66, Chad Campbell 68 71 68, Trevor Immelman 75 64 68, Ian Poulter 70 68 69, Hunter Mahan 71 66 70, Zach Johnson 67 68 72, Peter Lonard (Australia) 69 66 72 Also: -1: Nick O&aposHern (Australia) 70 68 71 +1: Brendan Jones (Australia) 69 73 69, Robert Allenby (Australia) 71 70 70 +4: Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 79 69 66 +5: Rod Pampling (Australia) 69 71 75, Scott Strange (Australia) 68 74 73, Richard Green (Australia) 72 73 70 +7: Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 71 67 79, Adam Scott (Australia) 69 76 72 +10: Craig Parry (Australia) 70 75 75 +11: Brett Rumford (Australia) 75 70 76 +21: Mark Brown (New Zealand) 80 75 76