A quiet perfectionist with no patience for anything less than perfect, he already had dropped two shots today in the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he saw a leaderboard on the sixth tee that showed him seven shots behind.

Instead of getting down on himself, he got sensible.

''I've learned from the past few weeks that there was no point in getting too upset today after a couple of bogeys,'' Taylor said. ''I stopped, said to myself, 'Everybody is going to make a couple of bogeys.' I just tried to keep moving on.''

The next time he saw a leaderboard was behind the 18th green, and it was full of surprises.

Taylor played mistake-free the rest of the third round, chipping in for birdie on the ninth hole and saving par on the final hole to shoot 3-under 67 and build a two-shot lead over former British Open champion Ben Curtis.

The other surprise?

The guys he thought were running away with the tournament — Rocco Mediate and Paul Casey — were five shots behind.

And so was Tiger Woods.

It was a wild day at Bay Hill, when players' fortunes shifted as quickly as the weather went from chilly and blustery to pleasant and only a mild breeze. When it was over, Taylor was at 8-under 202 and staring at a great opportunity to capture a PGA Tour event where all the stars have come out to play.

His only two victories were at the Reno-Tahoe Open, held the same week in August as a World Golf Championship at Firestone. The tough part for Taylor is that so many top players are still in the mix at Bay Hill.

Three shots behind were Vijay Singh (67) and Tom Lehman (69), the former Ryder Cup captain who benched Taylor the first day of matches and now has to try to chase him down.

Fifteen players were within five shots of the lead, a group that includes Woods.

As badly as he played yesterday, Woods figured he had no business being in contention. As well as he hit the ball today, he figured there was no way he shouldn't have been around the lead. He had to settle for 16 pars and a 70, leaving him five shots back and facing odds of having never won at Arnie's place when he wasn't in the lead.

''I gave myself a chance,'' Woods said.

It all starts with Taylor, who knows that a two-shot lead is virtually meaningless at a place like Bay Hill given the guys chasing him, and his own record on Sunday. He is 166th on the PGA Tour in final-round scoring average.

''I'm just trying to look at it as I've got my bad Sundays out of the way already,'' Taylor said. ''Just got good ones left.''

Early in the round, it looked as if it would be a two-man race between Mediate and Casey, who both reached 10 under. But as the weather shifted, they went the opposite direction.

Mediate, who had a three-shot lead at the start of the third round, birdied the first and final hole and made a mess of it in between on his way to a 76. Casey made seven bogeys on the back nine and shot 73.

Curtis, a two-time winner last year, also dropped shots early before hitting his stride on the back nine. He has six top 10s on the PGA Tour, three of those victories, and feels just as capable as anyone tomorrow.

''If you can hit the fairways and hit some greens and give yourself a lot of opportunities to make some birdies, it doesn't matter who you are,'' Curtis said after a 69. ''I'm just happy to be in this position. Any time you can shoot in the 60s three days in a row out here, you'll be happy.''

Singh, a three-time runner-up at Bay Hill, will be paired with the 48-year-old Lehman, who hasn't won on tour in seven years.

The group at 4-under 206 included Trevor Immelman (70), Sergio Garcia (71), former PGA champion Shaun Micheel (71) and Jerry Kelly (70), who needs a victory to have any chance of getting into the World Golf Championship next week at Doral.

Among those at 207 with Woods were two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and Players champion Stephen Ames.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson shot a 72 and was at 2-over 212.