NEC INVITATIONAL Cink takes five-shot lead into today's final round

Tiger Woods is in a group of three tied for second place.
AKRON (AP) -- Stewart Cink watched his 50-foot chip track to the hole, then thrust his arms in the air when it fell in for a birdie Saturday at the NEC Invitational.
The real surprise came when he looked up at the leaderboard behind the 18th green.
Just two holes earlier, Cink was clinging to a two-shot lead over David Toms in the group ahead, with Tiger Woods another shot back and standing next to him on the 17th tee. All it took was a double bogey by Toms and a near-shank by Woods for Cink to suddenly look like a shoo-in at Firestone South.
"I didn't expect anything like that to happen," Cink said after a 2-under 68. "I thought, 'That's pretty cool.' That chip-in just got me a five-shot lead."
Now all he has to do is protect it against a trio of Ryder Cup teammates.
Ryder Cup pick
Five days after becoming a wild-card pick for the U.S. team, Cink made captain Hal Sutton's decision look better than ever by seizing control at the NEC Invitational. He was at 11-under 199 and had the largest 54-hole lead at this World Golf Championship since Woods led by nine shots in 2000.
Woods hit one shot 40 yards over the gallery, grazed a boy's head off the eighth tee and nearly shanked an iron that bounced off the corporate tents on the 17th, but still managed a 70 to join Toms (69) and Chris DiMarco (67) in the group at 6-under 204.
"I hit it so great this morning it was scary," Woods said, who made three straight birdies to finish his second round in the rain-delayed tournament. "Then all of a sudden, I come out here and play like an idiot. I know it's in there. It's just a matter of bringing it out."
Costly double bogey
Toms ended his round with a double bogey for the second time this week, and this one was costly. He was two shots out of the lead when he pulled his tee shot on the 18th under a tree, advanced it into the rough, came up short of the green and then chipped 10 feet long and missed the putt.
"I wasn't hitting it very solid, and it came back to haunt me on the last hole," Toms said.
Cink is 0-6 when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead, and he has never broken 70 in those final rounds. Then again, he has never had this large of a lead going into the last day.
"I've been around the tour eight years now, and I know that anything can happen in 18 holes," Cink said. "I've got a lot of work to do."
He gave himself an extra cushion on the 18th. After going from the right rough just over the green, his chip was true all the way, and Cink thrust both arms in the air when it dropped.
"You don't always get a chance to do that in front of a lot of people," Cink said.
Leader from start
Cink can become only the eighth wire-to-wire winner in the 50 years the PGA Tour has been played at Firestone, and he looked solid from start-to-finish in his 26 holes of golf Saturday.
He birdied the first two holes in the morning as he completed a second-round 68, giving him a three-shot lead over Woods and Rory Sabbatini.
Woods kept it close by doing much better than his bogey-bogey-bogey finish in the first round. This time, he birdied his first three holes to close out a 66 in the second round and cut the margin to three shots.
But it left him in the third round, when he hit only four fairways.
Sabbatini opened with two birdies, then fell back with two bogeys to close out his front nine. He wound up with a 71 and joined Scott Verplank (67) and Rod Pampling (70) at 205.
Jerry Kelly had the best round of the day (64), but one of the most important rounds came from Luke Donald. The Englishman had a 65 that left him in a large group tied for eighth. He needs to be runner-up -- he's only two strokes away from that -- to earn a spot on the European Ryder Cup team.