World number one golfer Vijay Singh shot a four-under-par 67 on Saturday and took the lead of the Chrysler Championship after three rounds.

Fiji's Singh, who finished on 12-under 201 at the Westin Copperhead Course, leads Tommy Armour III by one stroke.

Sweden's Jesper Parnevik and Kirk Triplett share third place on 203, while Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal and Tom Carter are joint fifth on 205.

Second-round co-leader Jeff Sluman slipped to a 74 and joins Tim Herron, former PGA Championship winner David Toms, Sweden's Carl Pettersson and Australia's Robert Allenby in a tie for seventh on 206.

Singh began the round two shots behind the leaders, Jonathan Byrd and Sluman, and stumbled early, making bogeys at the second and third holes before he bounced back with three birdies on the font nine, then three more coming home.

"You can make early bogeys and you can always recover," Singh said. "I made a lot of birdies out there.

"You just need to keep your head and play to your game plan and just be patient. My first goal was to get back to par, and I did it immediately.

"Whenever I go over par, that's my first goal is to get it back to par. That's what I've been doing all year."

Singh is looking for his ninth victory of the season on Sunday. Should he win, he will have a chance for a 10th next week in the Tour Championship.

"I'm not really worried about the 10 wins," Singh said. "I just want to play well until the end of the season. If I win this week, fine, then I have to do it again next week.

"I haven't even won this week, I'm just leading. I just have to focus on what I'm doing."

Parnevik is perhaps the biggest surprise on the leader board. After playing well at the start of the season, Parnevik has done little since taking a two-month break.

"I didn't know what to expect coming into this week," Parnevik said. "So I just pretty much had no expectations. I've been very relaxed.

"Even if I didn't play great the first two rounds, up to my standards anyway, I got around the golf course really well."

"I just need a little bit more consistency right now, especially with the putter," he said. "It comes and goes a little bit too much.

"But this week, it felt great again. I have no idea why."