Matthew Goggin will be gunning for his first PGA Tour victory when he heads into the final round of the Children&aposs Miracle Network Classic just one stroke behind the leaders. The 33-year-old Australian&aposs best finish on the US tour is a tie for second at the 2006 Cialis Western Open but a third-round 69 in Florida has catapulted him to 12-under-par, one shot behind joint leaders Stephen Ames and Scott Verplank. Goggin is in a share of second place with Tim Petrovic, Jeff Overton, Justin Leonard and Tag Ridings, while Heath Slocum is at 11-under. A total of 19 players are within three shots of the lead. This is just the second time in Goggin&aposs six-year PGA Tour career that he is inside the top five with one round to play. Fellow Aussie Michael Sim is also in contention after firing a 68 to move to eight-under, while Jarrod Lyle had a disastrous 73 to slip back to five-under-par. Ames, meanwhile, stumbled down the stretch but still managed to retain a share of the lead. A pair of late bogeys gave the Canadian a two-under-par 70. Ames had just one birdie on the front nine but started to warm up after making the turn. He started the back nine with a birdie at number 10 and added consecutive birdies at number 13 and 14 to take a one-shot lead. Verplank carded a one-under 71 and had the last of his four birdies at number 15. He grabbed a share of the lead with three pars to close his round while Ames bogeyed 16 and 18. While Ames, who fired a brilliant nine-under 63 on Friday that featured a stretch of 10 birdies in 12 holes, and Verplank are at the top of the leaderboard, their position there will likely be challenged many times on Sunday. This event is the last on the PGA Tour schedule and the last chance for players to move up on the all-important money list. The top 125 are guaranteed fully exempt status on next year&aposs tour, while the top 150 get conditionally exempt status, meaning they can play in tournaments that are not filled by fully exempt players. The top 30 on the year-end money list get invited to The Masters, while the top 50 are guaranteed invites to the invitation only tournaments like the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Children s Miracle Network Classic Round 3 -13: Scott Verplank 66 66 71, Stephen Ames 70 63 70 -12: Tim Petrovic 68 68 68, Matthew Goggin (Australia) 68 67 69, Jeff Overton 67 68 69, Justin Leonard 67 67 70, Tag Ridings 67 66 71 -11: Heath Slocum 68 68 69 -10: Robert Gamez 70 69 67, Ryuji Imada 66 71 69, Tim Clark 67 69 70, J B Holmes 70 66 70, Stewart Cink 69 67 70, Rich Beem 70 66 70, D J Brigman 70 65 71, J P Hayes 65 69 72, Cameron Beckman 66 68 72, Steve Marino 68 66 72, Brett Wetterich 69 65 72 -9: Tripp Isenhour 71 67 69, Jeff Gove 72 67 68, Kevin Stadler 69 69 69, Bruce Molder 68 69 70, Steve Lowery 71 66 71 Also: -8: Michael Sim (Australia) 71 69 68 -5: Jarrod Lyle (Australia) 69 69 73
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