GOLF ROUNDUP : Coody-Douglass, Playing Like Legends, Up by 8

The only team that appears able to derail Charles Coody and Dale Douglass on the way to victory in the Legends of Golf is themselves.

With an eight-stroke lead after three rounds, Coody and Douglass would seem to be uncatchable. But Coody knows they can’t get complacent.

“That’s the one thing we must not do, must not let ourselves do,” Coody said Saturday after he and Douglass tied still another tournament record at Austin, Tex. “If we shoot a halfway decent round tomorrow, we can’t lose. For anybody else to have a chance, we have to shoot 68 or worse.

“But if we start trying to make pars, that could happen. We have to set a realistic goal for ourselves, 63 or 64, and try to shoot that,” he said.

They put themselves in position to make the final round an 18-hole victory march by playing the final five holes of the third round in six under par, a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie string that finished off another 10-under-par 62.

Coody and Douglass completed three rounds over the Barton Creek Country Club course in 183, 33 under par. That total tied the record set in 1982 by Sam Snead and Don January at Onion Creek, a par-70 course. Barton Creek, being used for this better-ball tournament for the first time, is a par-72 layout.

Coody and Douglass have played it in 59, 62 and 62 with 29 birdies, three eagles and only two bogeys.

“Those guys are going to get a speeding ticket,” Chi Chi Rodriguez said. He and Dave Hill are tied for second with Harold Henning and Al Geiberger at 191.

Mike Reid led a one-man assault on par, posting a five-under-par 67 to take a three-stroke lead after the third round of the Greater Greensboro Open.

The combination of tall rough and swirling winds had kept scores uncharacteristically high for the first two rounds.

Only six golfers have broken 70 in the GGO, normally one of the lower-scoring events on the PGA Tour. Just 20 of the 71 players are at par or better going into today’s final round, led by Reid’s seven-under 209.

“I didn’t play flawless golf by any means,” said Reid, a $2-million winner in 14 years on the PGA Tour who last year suffered final-round collapses at the Masters and the PGA Championship. “I took advantage of my opportunities.”

Fred Couples, erratic on a front nine played under threatening skies, stabilized his game on the back nine and came in with a 71 for a 54-hole total of 212.

Jeff Sluman and Nick Price were at 213 in the $1.25-million tournament, which pays the winner $225,000.