No longer a surprise, but Curtis' third-round play probably is

"Starting the day," Curtis said, "I thought if I shot even par I might be in the lead, the way the wind was blowing. But it looks like 3- or 4-over might be leading at the end of the day."

The man is not only able to hole shots from the fairway, he nearly proved clairvoyant. A 2-over 212 by Greg Norman did lead, with Padraig Harrington and K.J. Choi tied for second at 4-over 214. Fourth was Simon Wakefield of England at 215. Then came Curtis and three others, five behind Norman.

"I played with K.J. the first two days," Curtis said, "and the way he played was impressive.

"I'm going to let the weather and conditions take over and wait for the guys to play. It's going to be fun to go out (Sunday) and see what can happen."

Anything can happen. Choi can make two double bogeys, as he did Saturday, after going 22 holes with nothing worse than par. Norman can make a double and Harrington a double, as they did.

Of the top eight players, only Curtis and Kim didn't have a double bogey. Fun? It was agony.

"Par out there was somewhere in the mid-70s," Curtis said. "Thursday we had wind and rain. You can deal with the wind until it gets to a certain point, when it's too strong. Today it just went over the edge."

Curtis agreed he is superior to five years back. But he should be.

"I'm much better than the Ben Curtis of '03," he said. "Back then I didn't put any pressure (or have) any goals on myself, just wanted to have fun and enjoy the tournament. I had one of my best weeks ever, and I'd tried to tell myself to do that again.

"It's very hard, because of the pressure you put on yourself and the expectations you have."

You beat Phil Mickelson by six shots head to head, and some of those expectations have been met.