On a blustery day at Colonial Country Club, American Toms struggled with his putting on the way to an ugly 4-over-par 74 in his bid to end a PGA Tour title drought of five years.
Having opened with bogey-free 62s in his first two rounds here to spreadeagle the field, Toms dropped three shots in his first six holes before finishing at 12-under 198.
Playing partner Wi, who has yet to win on the US circuit, fired an ice-cool 66 that included five birdies and a lone bogey to hold the outright lead at 13-under.
John Senden (70) was alone in third at nine under, a stroke in front of fellow Australian Stuart Appleby (67) and Americans Paul Goydos (67) and Mark Wilson (71).
Toms, seven ahead of the chasing pack over night, made a promising start to the third round when he birdied the par-five first.
However his day began to unravel as he bogeyed the second, third and sixth to reach the turn at 14-under with his advantage cut to three.
Toms recorded his second birdie of the round at the par-five 11th where he knocked in an eight-footer, but worse was to follow when he three-putted from eight feet to double-bogey 14.
"The double at 14 was inexcusable," Toms told reporters.
"I was in a great spot to get up and down and came away with a six. That's just kind of the way the day went."
Wi, who had also birdied the 11th, trailed Toms by just one stroke at that point when play was suspended for 80 minutes due to the threat of lightning.
Any hope by Toms that he could regain positive momentum during the break proved unfounded after the player returned to the course.
At the par-three 16th, Wi rammed in a 32-foot birdie putt while Toms missed his par attempt there from 15 feet for a two-shot swing as the American finally surrendered the lead.
They each parred the last two holes for Wi to hold a one-stroke advantage going into Sunday's final round.
- Reuters
Tags: sport, golf, united-states
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