Jersey City, New Jersey (AP) — Paul Goydos and Steve Marino both shot three-under 68 to share the third-round lead at The Barclays, first event in the US PGA Tour playoffs.

The two were tied atop the leaderboard on nine-under 204, two shots in front of Sweden's Fredrick Jacobson and overnight leader Webb Simpson.

Jacobson carded a 68 and Simpson, a rookie, shot a 72.

Steve Stricker was on six-under 207 after a 68, and it was a further shot back to Heath Slocum, who posted a 70.

A group on 209 included Tiger Woods, Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Britain's Ian Poulter.

Woods, the top-ranked player in the FedEx Cup playoffs, fired a 67 to move five adrift.

He broke 70 for the first time in three rounds at Liberty National, finally getting to grips with the undulating greens that had been his undoing on Friday.

"Kept myself in the ball game," he said after taking 28 putts.

Whether he wins here or not, Woods will retain his number one spot in the playoff standings heading into next week's Deutsche Bank Championship, the second of four events in the series. That made little difference to him.

"You play it as a tournament," he said. "Winning takes care of everything else."

Woods birdied three in a row from the fifth, but gave back a stroke at the 10th.

He made the first of two key par saves at the 13th, where he hit into the water and took a penalty but then knocked a 200-yard shot within eight feet and made the putt.

On the next hole, Woods rolled in a 14-foot birdie, and he picked up another stroke at 17.

He drained a 13-footer to save an important par at the last.

"I drop another shot there and the guys go ahead and run away with it," he said.

No one really ran away with it on Saturday. Simpson, who led by two going into the round, found the water off the tee en route to a triple-bogey at the par-three 11th.

Goydos avoided the major mistake, seizing the lead with three straight early birdies.

He missed a four-footer to save par at seven, but rebounded with a four-foot birdie at the next.

At 10 he three-putted from 43 feet, but again rebounded with a birdie at 13.

Marino made a late charge, nabbing three straight birdies from the 14th for a share of the lead.

At 14 he landed his tee shot within inches, at 15 he drained an 11-footer and at 16 he holed a seven-foot putt.

"I got off to a slow start, but at the same time I kept telling myself that pars are pretty good out here," said Marino, who is in search of his first tour win.

Tees were moved forward Saturday in anticipation of inclement weather, which mostly missed the course on New York Harbor.

Woods joked that they were "playing the ladies tees most of the day."

"I definitely didn't feel like I was playing off the ladies tees," Marino said. "They made it a little bit easier on us and I think they did that because I think they expected the worst with the weather, and we got real lucky that I guess it missed us."