SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Colt Knost admitted he was pretty lucky to shoot a 4-under-par 68 Saturday in the third round of the Price Cutter Charity Championship. Knost, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion from Dallas, has led after each of the first three rounds in the Nationwide Tour's $600,000 event, and finds himself 18 holes away from securing his PGA TOUR card for 2009.

The 23-year-old Texan's 16-under total of 200 is one stroke better than James Love (67), Webb Simpson (67) and 43-year-old Vance Veazey (67). David Branshaw posted the day's best round, an 8-under 64, and heads up a group at 14 under that includes Michael Putnam (65), 2005 winner Roger Tambellini (68), Spencer Levin (68) and Darron Stiles (69).

There are 28 players within five strokes of the lead, setting up a wild Sunday finish at Highland Springs Country Club.

"I know there's a lot on the line tomorrow," said Knost, who is No. 20 on the money list and could move as high as No. 3 if he can win for the second time in his rookie season. "I've just got to take it one shot at a time and go out and be aggressive. I woke up this morning and somebody was 7 under through 11 holes and in second place. Stuff like that can happen. I know I can't go out and play to the middle of the greens and stuff. I made plenty of birdies today, I just made too many bogeys."

Three bogeys were too many for the former SMU Mustang, who stepped into the winner's circle back in May at the Fort Smith Classic. The last of the trio Saturday came at the 542-yard, 18th, a reachable par 5.

Knost and playing partner Stiles were stalled on the final tee as groups in front of them waited for their shot at the peninsula green. His tee shot on the downhill hole wound up in the trees to the left and his pitch out stopped in the heavy rough.

He then had to lay up short of the water on his third and wound up missing an 8-footer for par on the easiest hole on the course. Instead of possibly increasing his lead, Knost saw it cut down to one over a crowded pack of challengers.

"It's a pretty frustrating day," said Knost, who also made bogey at the par-4 10th despite being in the fairway and just 75 yards from the hole. "I'll be fine tomorrow. There's nothing I can do about it now. I've signed my scorecard and it's over with. I know I'm swinging at it great and I'm putting it good. It's a shootout out here."

Knost will be trying to join Patrick Sheehan (2002) as the only wire-to-wire winners in the tournament's 19-year history. It won't be easy as the field bunched up behind him.

Simpson, a recent graduate of Wake Forest University, has showed no signs of faltering in his Nationwide Tour debut.

"Having to Monday qualify here, my first goal was just to get in," said the 22-year old Simpson, whose college coach was 1994 tournament winner Jerry Haas. "I knew coming in that the scores were low out here on this Tour. I didn't start the week saying I'm going to try and win but I thought I could play this course really well."

Also playing it well is Veazey, a three-time Tour winner who is looking forward to Sunday's race to the finish.

"Tomorrow's going to be a shootout. It's going to be great for the fans out here because these guys make a lot of birdies," said Veazey. "There are a lot of guys on the board who can win this golf tournament. Tomorrow is going to be the kind of day where you cannot try to hang on. You've got to have the pedal to the floor."

Third-Round Notes: Camilo Benedetti aced the 165-yard, 13th hole using a 7-iron. It's the third time in the tournament's 19-year history that a hole-in-one was made on that hole. The others came from Don Walsworth (2000) and Tom Scherrer (2007). ... The third-round scoring average was 69.373.

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