Summary Fabian Gomez fired 7-under par 65 for a share of lead with Scott Brown at the Puerto Rico Open.
RIO GRANDE (AFP) - Argentina s Fabian Gomez, seeking his first US PGA Tour title, fired a seven-under par 65 on Saturday to match American Scott Brown for a share of the lead at the Puerto Rico Open.
Gomez and Brown, both second-year PGA players whose best career finish on the US tour came at this event a year ago, finished the third round of the $3.5 million event on 18-under par 198 for 54 holes.
Brown -- whose hometown of Augusta, Georgia, is also the site of the Masters every April -- fired a 67 on Saturday to join Gomez in Sunday s final group. Brown, 29, finished fifth in last year s Puerto Rico Open.
Gomez, 34, finished in a share of seventh here last year. Gomez shared 10th at last year s qualifying tournament to keep his PGA playing rights for 2013.
Four strokes off the pace in a share of third were Americans Blayne Barber, Brian Stuard, Jordan Spieth and Steve LeBrun with Morgan Hoffmann on 203.
Japan s Ryo Ishikawa, last year s Puerto Rico Open runner-up, hit his first US PGA Tour hole-in-one on Saturday, using a 6-iron to ace the 236-yard eighth.
Ishikawa also eagled the par-5 15th and closed with back-to-back birdies on his way to a six-under par 66 that put him in a group of seven players on 204.
Argentina s Andres Romero, the 36-hole leader by a stroke over Brown, went six-over on his last seven holes on the way to a 75 that left him seven back.
With 65 of the tour s top players at the World Golf Championships event at Doral in Miami this week, the Puerto Rico event offers a title chance to some of the PGA s unheralded standouts.
Gomez, who began the day three strokes behind 36-hole leader Andres Romero, opened with three birdies and added another at the par-5 fifth hole. He closed the front nine with back-to-back birdies before stumbling with a bogey at 10.
Birdies at the par-5 15th and par-4 17th kept Gomez in front but Brown managed a closing charge to join him at the top of the leaderboard.
Brown began with back-to-back birdies, took his only bogey of the day at the par-3 eighth, but began the back nine with a birdie and added others at the 13th, 15th and 17th holes.
