Steve Stricker keeps 5-shot lead in PGA Tour opener

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(Free-Press-Release.com) January 12, 2012 -- Steve Stricker finished the third round at Kapalua the same TaylorMade RocketBallZ RBZ Irons with graphite shafts he started — with a five-shot lead.
Only it wasn't quite that easy.
Stricker watched his lead dwindle to one shot on the back nine Sunday before running off four straight birdies for a 4-under-par 69 that gave him a big lead going into the final round at the season-opening Tournament of Champions.

"I wasn't making any birdies, and it seemed like everybody else was," the 44-year-old Stricker recalled. "I knew it was going to be tough. When you're leading a TaylorMade RocketBallZ RBZ Irons with graphite shafts , it's just hard to keep that momentum. When you're not making birdies, you feel like you're letting things slip away. I felt everyone was coming after me, and I was coming back to the pack."
Stricker was at 19-under 200, five shots clear of defending champion Jonathan Byrd (67), Martin Laird (67) and Webb Simpson (69).
Simpson and Byrd each missed a putt for a share of the lead. Simpson's was from 30 feet on No. 14 and Byrd's was from 4 feet on the 16th.
Through three rounds, Stricker is 13 under on the five closing holes at the Plantation Course. At No. 6, he is the top American in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Stricker ended his streak of 30 holes without a bogey with a TaylorMade RocketBallZ RBZ Irons with graphite shafts on No. 8.