“I screwed up,” Watson said. “My caddie told me to take a drop on 15. But I was going to be a hero and chip the ball back to the fairway. Afterward, he laughed and said, ’Next time, let’s just take the drop.”’

Pampling’s good fortune began on No. 2 when he pushed his tee shot to the right, toward the creek. It caught a finger of land, and he hit a beautiful approach to the front of the green for a two-putt par.

He also avoided a big number. Pampling hit 3-wood that came up short of the par-5 fifth green and into the water, and after taking a drop, his slid off the front of the green and was headed back into the water until the rough held it up. He escaped with bogey, the last mistake he made the rest of a gloomy afternoon.

“Once I made that bogey, things totally changed,” Pampling said. “I said to my caddie, ’Why am I being so conservative out here? Let’s me more aggressive.”’

Scott had his chances. He had a number of birdie putts inside 15 feet that grazed the lip, and he wasted a chance to build a two-shot cushion after a beautiful approach over the bunkers to 35 feet on the seventh. But he three-putted for par, missing from 3 feet, and a daring approach from the right rough on No. 9 clipped a branch, taking enough off the ball to send it into the water.

“I didn’t really ever get it going today,” Scott said. “I struggled with the pace on the greens. I just didn’t get any momentum going.”

After a birdie on No. 10 to join Watson at 12 under, Scott had four straight birdie putts inside 15 feet and didn’t make any, the most discouraging an 8-footer after an aggressive shot left of the pin on the 13th.

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For all his birdies, what might have saved Pampling was a slick, 6-foot putt to save par from a bunker on the 10th. Then came another save from the bunker for birdie on No. 11, just as Nicklaus and his grandson pulled up in a cart to watch.

He took the lead for the first time with the 40-foot birdie on the 14th, and even that required a small piece of luck. He pulled his hybrid off the tee, and was begging for it to stop rolling, which it did with about two paces to spare before going into the creek.

The final break, of course, came at the 18th, especially considering where Scott wound up.

“I had a nice, flat lie in the bunker, and Adam had a pretty gnarly lie there,” Pampling said. “That’s just the breaks. Thankfully, it went my way and I hit a great shot.”