SAN DIEGO — Another new name reached the top of the leaderboard yesterday at the Buick Invitational.

The next step is trying to hold off a familiar figure at Torrey Pines.

Australian rookie Andrew Buckle closed out his 4-under 68 with a 15-foot birdie putt that gave him a share of the lead with fellow rookie Brandt Snedeker. Two shots behind and casting an enormous presence on the leaderboard was Tiger Woods, who played bogey-free on the South Course for a 69 that left him in prime position to capture his seventh straight PGA Tour victory.

Buckle and Snedeker, who shot 74, have made a combined 20 starts on the PGA Tour. They will play in the final group with Kevin Sutherland, whose only PGA Tour victory came 20 miles up the road at La Costa five years ago.

When he finished his round, the 24-year-old Buckle was told he would be playing in the last group with Woods. That changed when Sutherland hit a hybrid onto the par-5 18th and two-putted for birdie and a 70 to finish one shot out of the lead.

"I'm not playing with Tiger?" Buckle said later. "Beautiful. I would have been pretty nervous."

Snedeker, who met Woods for the first time yesterday morning on the putting green, felt the same way. Told that Sutherland's birdie knocked Woods out of the final group, he smiled and said, "I need to send him a thank-you note."

"I would love to play in the last group with Tiger," he said. "But as a rookie, I'm glad the way it worked out."

Buckle and the 26-year-old Snedeker were at 11-under 205, and a dozen players were within three shots of the lead.

Woods, the two-time defending champion at the Buick Invitational, also wanted to be in the final group. He almost got there, again hitting 5-wood from a fairway bunker just over the back of the green. He chipped to 5 feet, but missed the birdie putt.

"I'm getting better each round," Woods said. "I'm right there in contention with a chance tomorrow."

Hawai'i rookie Parker McLachlin fell out of contention yesterday with a 4-over 76. The Punahou Schools' alum, just six shots back before the third round, is eight strokes off the lead at 213.

QATAR MASTERS

DOHA, Qatar — Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen had three late birdies yesterday en route to a 1-under 71 to join Australians Richard Green and Nick O'Hern in first place after the third round of the Qatar Masters.

Goosen bogeyed three holes after the eighth but then had birdies at Nos. 15-17 to shoot for a 12-under 204 total. Green also shot 71 and O'Hern shot 69.

"I was five shots behind those two and I told my caddy that we needed three birdies to even things out, and I am glad I was able to do that," said Goosen, the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Open champion.