Davis battles his way towards chance at first win

By Simon Evans

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Florida (Reuters) - It was not an elegant display but Britain's Brian Davis grafted and battled his way around the PGA National on Saturday and remains in with a chance of his first tour win in Sunday's final round.

Londoner Davis went into Saturday's round with a one-shot lead at eight under par and although he slipped to five-under after his 73 it could have been far worse.

"It was so bad. It was a real struggle today and to hang in there," said Davis after a round where he failed to find the fairway on 40 percent of his tee shots but managed to get out of trouble on several occasions.

"That was probably the best out of the three to be honest. I kept myself in it and could have played myself out of it.

"I felt like I shot 80 today. It's just one of those days where I was swinging it not great.

"I started off okay, but hit a couple of bad shots, I wasn't making anything on the greens, and all of a sudden starting hitting it left and right, and left and then left again.

"And I just had to hang on for dear life coming in."

Davis, who is married to the daughter of former England and Liverpool soccer goalkeeper Ray Clemence, was solid through the opening nine but then saw his lead slip away with consecutive bogeys on the 11th and 12th.