Arjun Atwal, playing with an aggravated knee injury that he sustained a couple of weeks back, managed to come through with a one-under 69 at the par-70 Colonial Country Club and tied for 16th place at the end of the third day of the USD 5.6 million Bank of America Colonial Golf Championship in Texas.
Atwal, six-under 204 after 54 holes, would be hoping for a better last round to make an attempt to log his third top-10 finish this year. Atwal was tied 12th after two days.
Daniel Chopra shot a one-over 71 to be over 211 for three days and was tied 61st after being 52nd overnight.
The 2003 winner and overnight leader Kenny Perry shot 6-under 64 in the third round setting another Bank of America Colonial scoring record and took a seven-stroke lead over Billy Mayfair and Steve Stricker going into the final round.
Perry broke his own 54-hole scoring record at 18-under 192, and has just one bogey -- on No. 8, his 17th hole on the first day.
He made 51-of-54 putts from 15 feet or less, including a 5-footer after blasting from the sand to avoid a closing bogey in third round. Perry started with a 36-hole scoring record of 12 under.
The way he played, it did not appear Perry had any vision problems for which he was planning to consult a doctor next week.
Atwal starting from the first, opened well with birdies on the first and second and moved into top-10 at that stage.
A bogey followed on the fourth but he quickly recovered from that with his birdie on the sixth. Then his knee started acting up and he was playing carefully.
His driving distances dropped and he ended with a day's average of just 273 yards, almost 30 yards shorter than his usual driving.
He managed just six of the 14 fairways and only 11 of the 18 greens in regulation and took 29 putts.
Chopra had birdies on the sixth and 11th and dropped shots on the ninth, 10th and 15th to be one-over 71 for the day and had a total of one-over 211 for tied 61st.
Peter Lonard, who shot 65 to get to 10-under 200, was in fourth place.
Mayfair, who has not won since 1998, and Stricker, trying to regain full-time playing privileges on Tour, both had 66s.
Ted Purdy came in with a chance to join Ben Hogan (1946) as the only players to win the E D S Byron Nelson Championship and the Bank of America Colonial the same year.
He ended round two in a tie for second place with D J Trahan just three strokes back.
But in the third round, Purdy and Trahan both shot 71, falling into a group of five tied for seventh, and 10 strokes behind Perry.
