Haven, Wis. ? Erase the lines in his face and fix the hitch in his giddy-up and that could have been Tom Watson, circa 1982, scrambling for pars at Pebble Beach on Saturday.

Tom Watson reacts after making a birdie on the 10th hole of the third round for the U.S. Senior Open. Watson leads by three strokes after Saturday's round in Haven, Wis.

That was a long time ago and a half-continent away. But the similarities are eerie between his only U.S. Open victory at Pebble and his quest for his first U.S. Senior Open title at Whistling Straits.

Watson had recorded six top-10 finishes in the Open before he beat Jack Nicklaus in an epic final round to win in ’82. Now 57, he has recorded five top-10s in the Senior Open without a victory.

“I hadn’t thought of it but, yeah, maybe it is time,” Watson said. “Could be. I’m kind of playing like I did at Pebble.”

He didn’t have his best stuff in the third round Saturday, but what he had was good enough. He shot a 1-over-par 73 and maintained his three-shot lead over Loren Roberts, whose misfortune on the 17th hole prevented him from going into the final round trailing by one.

“The back nine was a struggle,” Watson said, “but I made a couple birdies and saved a couple pars from awkward places and I’m grateful to be in the lead.”

Watson was at 7-under 209 after 54 holes. Roberts also shot a 73 and was at 212. John Ross (70), Sam Torrance (71) and Vicente Fernandez (74) were tied for third at 213.

“A lot of guys are in it,” Roberts said. “Anybody 2-under, even 1-under, has a shot. If you go out and shoot a 67 and get it to 6-under, anything can happen.”

Watson, who has therapy daily on his deteriorating left hip, wasn’t as precise with his ball-striking as he was in the first two rounds. He hit only six fairways after hitting 13 on Friday, and he hit only nine greens in regulation after hitting 12 and 13 the first two days.

“I had some problems judging the downwind shots today,” he said. “I had four of them I knocked right over the green, actually hitting shots the way I meant to hit them. So something was wrong in the computer there.”

But after a four-bogey 39 on the front nine, Watson shot a 34 on the back and played the brutally difficult four-hole finishing stretch in 1-under. Of the top 22 players on the leader board, only Joe Ozaki played them better.

“Anything under par today would have been a good score,” Roberts said. “Tom didn’t shoot under par today, either. The reason he’s leading is that he played the last four holes 1-under.”

Roberts tied Watson atop the leader board with a birdie on No. 14, but Watson moved back in front with a 10-foot birdie on No. 16.

Roberts then got a horrible break on “Pinched Nerve,” the no-margin-for-error 17th hole, which was playing 219 yards. He hit a rescue club and his ball disappeared in the face of a bunker right of the green. The ball was plugged so deep, Roberts actually had to brush a tiny bit of sand off the top of it to make sure it was, indeed, his ball.

“That’s the worst lie I’ve ever had in a bunker,” he said.

He realized he wouldn’t be able to generate enough power from an awkward stance to advance the ball, so he declared it unplayable, took his drop (with a one-stroke penalty) in the bunker and failed to get up and down.

The double-bogey dropped him three strokes behind Watson, who saved par on No. 18 with a marvelous pitch from deep rough over a greenside bunker.

While Watson and Roberts were dueling, several players made runs up the leader board, only to drop back. Whistling Straits finally started to show its teeth as the greens dried out and the wind picked up out of the southeast.

“It was much different today,” Roberts said. “The greens, obviously, with the wind had dried out some. The downwind holes were tough to get the ball close to the hole, and they moved some tees back and we had the wind. So we essentially played quite a bit different golf course than we had the first two days.”

Tom Purtzer was tied for the lead after birdies on Nos. 11 and 12 but bogeyed three of the last four holes to drop into a six-way tie for sixth at 2-under 214.

Torrance got to 5-under with birdies on Nos. 12, 13 and 15 but gave shots back on Nos. 16 and 17. Jim Woodward finished with a double-bogey to slip from a tie for third to a tie for 12th at 1-under. Ben Crenshaw bogeyed three of the last four holes and also was tied for 12th.

Watson, meanwhile, made scrambling pars on Nos. 7 and 12 to keep his round going.

“Typical ‘Watson pars,’ ” he said, referring to the all-world scrambling ability that helped him win eight major championships. “Those are the things you have to do when you win tournaments. Making a tough bogey or a tough par is better than a birdie sometimes.”

The group at 214 included Purtzer; Denis Watson, whose 67 was the best round of the day and one of only eight sub-par scores; Brad Bryant; first-round leader Eduardo Romero; Ozaki; and D.A. Weibring, who made the only birdie of the day on No. 18.

“My goal every week is to be close enough to the lead that if I shoot my very best round, I win,” Bryant said. “So I’m right there. If I shoot my very best round tomorrow, I win.

“On this golf course, shooting my very best round is going to be impossible, though.”

The winner of the U.S. Senior Open is going to have to make some knee-knocker putts today. He’s going to have to manage his emotions, accept a bad break or two and keep his mistakes to a minimum.

Advantage, Watson?

“It’s who can deal with the problems the golf course gives you with the pressure that you’re under,” he said. “Pressure is different for different folks. Sometimes I can deal with it better than others.”

Watson won five British Open titles. He has a three-stroke lead.

You do the math.