Sweden's Daniel Chopra opened up a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Buick Open following a four-under-par 68.

Chopra sunk a 15-foot birdie on the 18th hole to move onto 16-under 200 overall, two clear of Dudley Hart, Woody Austin and Bubba Watson.

The 34-year-old played his opening nine holes in two under and had a one-stroke lead over Hart.

Chopra then started his back nine with a birdie and closed it with another while Hart bogeyed the last to drop into a tie for second.

Chopra said: 'Today I was fairly surprised that the scores did not kind of run away; being two behind and being behind Bo Van Pelt, I was pretty sure that pretty close to 20-under was going to be leading by the end of the day.

"I got up to 16 and that kept me with a two-shot lead; I don't know how. I can't explain it.

"Maybe the rain overnight softened up the fairways and the course wasn't playing as short and the greens were softer."

Two-time PGA Tour winner Chopra started the season with a win at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, but has struggled since and has only managed a 32nd place at the Sony Open.

He added: "Everybody says it's tough to play with a lead, but we try to get a lead, and two shots is better than one, and three is better than two. So the bigger the lead you've got, the better.

"It just gives that you little bit of a cushion to allow yourself that one extra hole where maybe you should have made a birdie on that you expected to make birdie and if you don't, it gives you that extra one hole of patience.

"That's what I'm going to do out there tomorrow - practice patience all day long."