KAPALUA, Maui — After all the frustration and fluctuations and the unrelenting wind — punctured only by a single perfect shot — nothing really changed yesterday in the third round of the Mercedes Championships. Stuart Appleby remains the King of Kapalua's Plantation Course.

Appleby takes a two-shot advantage over U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell into today's final round as he attempts a rare triple. The last player to win this tournament three straight years was Gene Littler, nearly 50 years ago.

Don't ask Appleby why he is in position to chase history in Kapalua because he has no idea. He won two years ago in a little wind, last year in almost none and has led most of this year in breezes blowing 25 mph all the time and nearly twice that a hundred feet up.

And while the wind was strongest Friday, it gusted more yesterday, making it the most difficult round in a week of "grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding," according to Campbell. He should know. He won the 2005 U.S. Open with an even-par score.

Yesterday, for only the second time in the eight years this tournament has been on Maui — the first was Friday — no golfer shot in the 60s. Appleby and Lucas Glover, who won a car and a 12:40 p.m. tee time in the second-to-last group today with a hole-in-one, shared low-round honors at 3-under-par 70.

That got Appleby to 6-under 213. It's 13 shots off the lead Vijay Singh took into last year's final round and five more than the previous 54-hole high. Campbell (71) is second, 2001 champion Jim Furyk (72—216) third and Glover (217) fourth. Singh, who defends his title at the Sony Open in Hawai'i next week, and 2002 Mercedes champ Sergio Garcia, who had two bad swings yesterday, share fifth at 218 and are the only other players under par.

That's the golf glitterati Appleby feels he has to hold off today. Singh is ranked second in the world, while Garcia and Furyk are sixth and seventh. At this point, none of them doubt Appleby is the man to beat.

"Every department of his game is very, very sound, very sharp," said Campbell, who played with Appleby. "I think his putting was solid today, around the greens, his iron play, his distance control with his irons, driving. Every department of his game this week is very sharp for after a bit of a holiday from the game. His mind is pretty much there as well."

Campbell actually caught Appleby after he bogeyed the second hole for the third straight day. But Campbell suffered bogeys on Nos. 3 and 5 and Appleby never let him back in. He played the final 14 holes in 4-under and felt he let a few get away. But, he admitted, who didn't in the big-time gusts?

"I believe my best is enough to finish first and be a three-peater (tomorrow)," Appleby said. "I know there's enough opportunities out there for that not to happen, too, based on my performance or someone else's. I'll be really feeding on the vibe I've had for the last nearly three years."

That has to be a scary thought for his pursuers. So does the thought that the guys from Down Under — Appleby is an Australian and Campbell from New Zealand — seem to enjoy golfing in the great gusts that leave room for their imaginations.

Campbell salvaged his third round by draining four putts for par and one for bogey outside 7 feet, then said the blustery conditions were nothing new for two "mates" accustomed to playing courses exposed to the elements.

"You just got to go out there and grind your butt off to have a chance tomorrow," Campbell said bluntly. "I think we need to make a lot of birdies. He's (Appleby) going to be tough to beat. He'll be shooting 2-under, 3-under, I can see that right now. We need to shoot 4-under, 5-under to have a chance of winning. (And) when you try to push too hard, too quickly, sometimes you make mistakes."

Appleby never seems to push too hard here, yet never lets up. He won last year by playing the final three days in 22-under, going bogey-free the final 55 holes and three-putt-free all week. This week, he has just a pair of three-putts — on his nemesis second hole — and is among the top seven in every meaningful statistic.

He is doing it in outrageous — by golf standards — conditions. Unless Appleby shoots a 63 today, or someone else goes ridiculously low, this will be the highest-scoring Mercedes in Maui history. He is hoping to break par — "and not just 1-under or 2-under, I hope I can sneak 3 or 4."

If he does, it would take something great to catch him because Appleby's "fun factor of making birdies" has been blown to bits across the Plantation Course.

"The cool thing about all this wind and difficult conditions is we're all in it," Appleby said. "We're going to not hit shots where you want, we're not going to hit chips where we want, we're not going to make all the putts where we want. You've just got to be not too greedy and move on, get over mistakes or really milk the stretches where you might make some birdies."

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New Zealand's Michael Campbell, anticipating his chase of Australian Stuart Appleby in today's final round of the Mercedes Championships:

"I'm going to pace myself. Like a game of chess. Leave my prawns out first, my bishops and the queen can go out there later on and go in for the attack. Sorry, pawns. .on the barbie, mate."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.