McGowan in position to win first title

Former Tennessee Vol Ross McGowan of England shot a 7-under-par 65 in 104-degree heat for a share of the third-round lead with countryman John Bickerton in the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, Australia.

Bickerton had a 66 to match McGowan at 14-under 202 on The Vines Resort's composite course.

The 26-year-old McGowan is looking for his first European Tour win.

"It's where you want to be," McGowan said. "A good round tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes.

"I just hit the ball nicely and hit a lot of fairways. Around here if you can do that, the second shots, third shots, aren't too tough."

PGA: Phil Mickelson was in contention for the first time all year and wanted to make sure he stayed there.

Moments after signing his scorecard following the second round - nine shots worse than his opening round - he called Butch Harmon in Las Vegas and asked if he could meet him on the range Saturday morning at Riviera.

The work paid off in a big way at the Northern Trust Open.

Mickelson made four straight birdies in the final hour of the third round to pull away from a strong leaderboard with a 9-under 62, topping his personal best at Riviera he had set two days earlier and building a four-shot lead going into the final round.

"He's pretty good at what he does," Mickelson said. "Having him be able to be right there and identify it was nice."

Lefty had a chance to tie the course record until his 10-foot birdie on the 18th hole was struck too hard and missed above the hole, but that was no reason to complain. He was at 16-under 197, four shots clear of Andres Romero.

His three-day total is a big bell curve: 63-72-62. All that matters to Mickelson is that after a sluggish start to his West Coast Swing, he believes he's headed down the right path.

"I feel like - I don't want to say back on track - but I have a direction of where I want to go, and my iron play was much, much better because of it," he said.

Five players had at least a share of the lead at one point in the third round, but what had been shaping up as a shootout at Riviera soon turned into a showcase for Mickelson.

It began with a tee shot into 4 feet on the par-3 14th for the outright lead. Mickelson followed that with an 8-foot birdie on the 15th, a 35-foot birdie on the 16th, and an up-and-down from the bunker on the par-5 17th for his fourth straight birdie.

"To see a few putts go in, it's obviously a great feeling because it rewards the iron play," Mickelson said.

Just his luck, Harmon had returned Friday from a vacation in the Bahamas.

"We mostly worked on his lower body, keep it quiet," Harmon said. The idea was to keep Mickelson's legs more still to allow him more freedom to swing.

Champions: Gene Jones shot a 70 to take a one-stroke lead after the second round of the ACE Group Classic.

Jones, looking for his first Champions Tour victory, made a 15-footer for birdie to get to 4-under 140 at TPC Treviso Bay, giving him the highest score to lead in Naples since the tournament's second year in 1989.