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GREENSBORO -- Playing board member's bounces with the confidence of a local, Carl Pettersson put himself in position Saturday to do something he dreamed of as a kid at Grimsley.

He has one more round, one more chance to work out the nagging problem at the 15th, one more day to bring a Wyndham Championship to the men who made this tournament.

We can't picture him in a suit or at a dark oak table under the photo of founding fathers, but that's where Pettersson has done his best work here so far. Today, he'll walk onto the grounds of Sedgefield Country Club one more time with the hopes of bringing the Sam Snead Cup to the keepers of the Sam Snead Cup.

He's a member of the board for the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, the group that runs the Wyndham, and he's probably responsible for some of the amenities we've seen this week.

Pettersson swears he has nothing to do with pin placements or strategically placed hills, insists he has no local knowledge besides maybe which is the best locker or where's the best place to grab a cheeseburger.

And besides, if Carl Pettersson knows so much about Sedgefield, then why can't he play its easiest hole? Once again, on a day when the field threatened to bring the Donald Ross-designed layout to its knees, Pettersson carved up the 15th. He said it's become a trend.

He finally sank a bogey putt on the third attempt Saturday and stalked off with a shot shaved from his lead. Friday's bogey at No. 15 might have cost him a chance to shoot 59.

"A couple of hiccups," Pettersson said then.

Without the hiccups, the tournament would be all but over. Instead, he has to come back today with a two-stroke lead over Scott McCarron and the entire field waiting for him to stumble. The only player in the field included in the list of board members doesn't have his own parking space or his own office in the Tudor clubhouse overlooking the course. The kid from Grimsley is now 30, and he doesn't even know what a Whirlie is.

"I don't think anybody knows," he said after a third-round 66 that actually allowed a few more players to dream of their own final-round miracle on Pettersson's golf course. Lee Janzen, the two-time U.S. Open winner who shot a 67 and is nine strokes off the lead, said he could shoot a 61 today and have a chance. He'd have a slightly better chance if he shot a 51.

Pettersson and his trusty putter, which is about the size of one of Sedgefield's flagsticks, have been remarkable on the Ross greens all week. Despite the undulating hills and quirky rises and drop-offs, the pros have taken aim at the flagsticks from the day they arrived. Pettersson, standing awkwardly over his ball, slightly splayed and wielding the extra-long putter, has been steady throughout. Every player to make a run at him so far has faded.

McCarron, who will join him this afternoon in the 2:05 pairing, chipped in from the greenside bunker at No. 18 Saturday to cut the lead to two strokes, four ahead of three golfers who need Pettersson to flinch and about 10 others who need him to collapse.

"If he'd just shoot par ... " Janzen said.

Pettersson had the lowest 36-hole score in PGA history and backed it with a 66 on Saturday that paled in comparison. A day earlier, he'd stood on the 15th tee and let his mind wander. Saturday, he stood on the 15th green and saw nothing but two lip-outs and another opportunity missed.

Below him, a placid pond lapped against the shore of a man-made beach, local girls in bikinis flitting about on the sands of Sedgefield.

The calm vista out across the place some people are calling "the sweet spot" and some aren't was broken Saturday about the time Pettersson's second putt lipped out and McCarron's approach at No. 16 stopped one foot from the pin.

Pettersson's walk around his neighborhood has been interrupted twice, not by the scenery or the noise, but by strange decisions and balky putts on the easiest hole on the grounds. Today he'll walk it one more time, with McCarron by his side, and try to put the only thing between he and Sam Snead's trophy behind him.

In the old days, Snead won the trophy so many times he'd just leave it here with his fishing rod, knowing it would be here when he returned to fish and play a little golf a year later. In his last days, Snead was given a green jacket and made a member emeritus of the tournament he defined. Pettersson is on the board here, a local guy with local ties and local knowledge of a tournament, if not a golf course, that is his for the taking.

If he can negotiate the beach one more time, Pettersson will deliver the Snead Cup to the board members and write his name in the sands of time.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com