Verona, NY -- (Sports Network) - Charles Howell III fired a three-under 69 on Saturday to join Tag Ridings, who managed a 71 of his own, atop the leaderboard after three rounds of the Turning Stone Resort Championship.

The pair is knotted at eight-under 208 with no fewer than 17 players within four shots of the lead at Atunyote Golf Club at Turning Stone Resort.

Jason Day eagled the par-five 18th for a round of one-under 71. He is tied for third place with second-round leader Jeff Overton (73), Kyle Thompson (69) and Brian Davis (69) at seven-under 209.

Robert Allenby (71) and Dustin Johnson (70) shared seventh at minus-six.

The second round was completed Saturday morning. Two hail stoppages on Friday halted play for almost 90 minutes and the round was called for darkness. The second round ended on Saturday and the golfers went out in threesomes off both the first and 10th tees in round three and two men emerged as leaders.

Howell flew out of the gate in round three with back-to-back birdies at one and two. He two-putted from 35 feet for a birdie at the par-five fifth, but trouble loomed before the turn.

At the seventh, Howell three-putted for a bogey from 41 feet. He dropped a shot at the ninth to sink down the leaderboard to six-under par.

Howell got one stroke back with a birdie at the par-five 12th. He parred his next five holes, then drained a 13-footer for birdie at the last to get in at minus-eight.

"If you drive the ball well, you can make a lot of birdies," said Howell. "Guys will make a lot of birdies. You'll need to press forward and get quite a few going."

Ridings was even through eight holes thanks to a pair of birdies and a pair of bogeys. At the 10th, he missed a seven-foot birdie chance, but atoned for that miscue with a 23-footer for birdie at 11 that tied him for the lead.

With few players making big runs at him, Ridings found himself alone atop the leaderboard on the 15th tee. He hammered a drive down the fairway, then knocked his approach to 17 feet. Ridings drained that birdie effort and was two clear of the field.

Known as a long hitter, Ridings figured he could take advantage, but had to lay up. His third stopped 40 feet left of the flagstick and he ran his birdie try six feet past the hole.

Ridings pulled the par putt to fall into a tie with Howell for first.

"I played good today," said Ridings. "Scores aren't real low today. The course is accessible. If we can get some good yardages, where we don't have to fight the spin issues, I think it's going to be accessible for tomorrow."

It's an interesting case of two different leaders.

Ridings has never won on the PGA Tour and his best finish was a tie for second in Las Vegas in 2004.

"I've been in position a lot out here, but haven't gotten it done," said Ridings. "I have gotten it done on other tours, so it's not like an alien experience."

Howell has two PGA Tour wins, including a playoff victory last year over Phil Mickelson at the Nissan Open. He has played in Presidents Cups, but don't tell him he's the favorite come Sunday.

"It's still golf. Once that first tee goes in there, it doesn't matter," said Howell. "It's all about scoring. It's all about getting the job done. There's a lot more guys in contention than just the two of us."

One of those men is 44-year-old Davis Love III. He fired the low round on Saturday, a six-under 66 and is tied for ninth with Charles Warren (67) and Mark Hensby (72).

"I'm excited to tee off a little bit later on tomorrow," admitted Love, who finished at five-under 211. " I came up here to play and have fun and get into my golf game and get into my routine and not worry about results, so I'm going to try to do that for one more day."