Tim Clark watches his shot from the sixth tee during the third round of the Colonial golf tournament, Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.<BR><I>AP?photo</I>

FORT WORTH, Texas – With $12.7 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour, Tim Clark has the dubious distinction of winning the most money without winning an event.

Now he’s got a great chance to let someone else carry that burden.

Clark shot a 4-under 66 on Saturday in the third round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational to take a two-stroke lead into the final round.

The 33-year-old South African has been near the top of the leaderboard all week, then finally moved into first place all by himself with a birdie on 11. After a string of pars, he birdied 18 to dip to 17-under 193 and stretch his lead. That kind of finish also might be the momentum-extender to help him snap his 0-for-183 skid.

“It’s tough to win out here; everyone knows it,” said Clark, 63rd on the tour’s career money list. “Hopefully, I do get that win sometime and it makes things easier. That’s all I can hope for.”

Reason to believe he can do it starts with his streak of eight straight rounds in the 60s at the Colonial Country Club.

That giant 0-fer is reason enough to question whether Clark can do it. There’s also this nugget: Clark’s only other 54-hole lead was at the 2008 St. Jude Classic. He opened that final round with a triple bogey, shot 6 over and finished 18th.