WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Nick Price shot a 5-under 66 on Saturday and took a one-shot lead after the second round of the Principal Charity Classic on Saturday.
Price enters the final round at Glen Oaks Country Club with a 6-under 136 total. Six players, including Bobby Wadkins, Mark McNulty and Iowa native Lonnie Nielsen, are one shot back.
Joey Sindelar and Tom Purtzer both shot even-par 71s and are two shots back at 4-under. Defending champion Jay Haas, who last week won the Senior PGA Championship, shot a 3-under 68 and was also at 138.
Eleven players are within two strokes of Price entering Sunday. Haas, however, is the only one currently in the top 10 on the Champions Tour money list.
Price, a former British Open and PGA Championship winner who is still searching for his first Champions Tour victory, will enter the final round with the lead for the second time in three events. But his last round with the edge turned into a disaster. Price double-bogeyed the 15th and 16th holes and finished one shot behind winner Denis Watson at the FedEx Kinkos Classic in early May.
Price entered the day four shots off the lead, but he got off to a hot start with birdies his first three holes. After a bogey on No. 5, Price scored birdies on two straight par-5s and capped his round with a birdie on No. 17, which is considered the toughest hole at Glen Oaks.
Nielsen, who grew up in nearby Belle Plaine, Iowa, and was tied with R.W. Eaks for the lead entering play, squandered his chance to pull even with Price thanks to a terrible finish. He blew a chip behind the green on No. 16 and had to settle for bogey. His approach on No. 17 found a hazard, and he bogeyed to fall one stroke behind Price.
Nielsen finished with an even-par 71.
Things went even worse for Eaks, who picked up a double-bogey on his second hole and fell out of contention. Eaks, who is putting off knee replacement surgery for as long as hes able, finished at 4-over 75 and dropped to a tie for 29th.
Bob Gilder bounced back from an opening-round 73 with a 5-under 66 on Saturday. Loren Roberts, who finished second at Glen Oaks in 2006, shot a 1-over 72 and is at 2-under 140.
Scott Hoch, currently third on the money list, shot a 70 Saturday and is at 1-under for the tournament.
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