Pettersson stretches lead to three at the Memorial

DUBLIN, Ohio, June 4 (Reuters) Carl Pettersson stretched his lead to three shots midway through the final round at the Memorial tournament today to put the Swede within sight of his second PGA Tour title.

Pettersson, who began the final round clinging to a two shot advantage, again played steadily at the Muirfield Village Golf Club mixing two birdies with a bogey on his outward nine to move three clear of Australia's Adam Scott and American Brett Wetterich.

Scott, looking to improve on his third place finishes in his last two starts, had a sizzling first nine that included four birdies to move him within two of the lead before stumbling into the turn with a bogey at the 10th to slip back.

U.S. Masters champion Phil Mickelson made a wild start with bogeys on the opening two holes then hitting back with birdies at three and four.

But the world number two's erratic progress continued with a bogey-birdie on five and six before reeling off three straight pars.

The world number two dropped another shot at the 10th after narrowly missing on a chip from the fringe to leave him one-over on the day and six off the lead.

This week's tournament, founded and hosted by Jack Nicklaus, has attracted eight of the world's top 10 players.

World number one Tiger Woods, whose father Earl died earlier last month, and eighth-ranked David Toms are the only absentees.

Most of the other top 10 players, however, failed to feature on the leaderboard.

Spain's world number seven Sergio Garcia closed on a positive note with three birdies on a bogey free back nine for three-under 69 but will finish well down the leaderboard at two-under 286.

Number four Vijay Singh closed out a disappointing week with a two-over 74 for a final total of two-over 291 but the players most happy to see the back of Muirfield Village will be South Africans world number three Retief Goosen and number six Ernie Els.

Goosen, a twice U.S. Open champion, leaves Dublin without breaking par carding a final round three-over 75 while Els signed for a nine-over 81 after a horrendous back nine that included a triple bogey and a pair of double bogeys.

Reuters PDS VP0205