CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The crowd was so big and boisterous Saturday that it made Jonathan Byrd a little uncomfortable. Seeing his name atop the leaderboard? Byrd is getting used to that.

The guy who only last October was worried about keeping his PGA Tour card ran off a blistering stretch of birdies in the Wells Fargo Championship for a 5-under 67, giving him a one-shot lead as he goes for his third win in seven months.

“Twelve months ago, I would never have thought that could happen,” he said. “But now, the way my game is, why couldn’t it happen? I’m playing well. I feel like I have all the tools to play well. I’m just going to play, and then when it’s all over, I’ll enjoy whatever I’ve done.”

Byrd was at 15-under 201, a score he didn’t imagine until his hot streak.

He was in the mix with a half-dozen other players who were trying to keep in range of Pat Perez when Byrd ran off five birdies in six holes to start the back nine. The one hole he didn’t birdie might have been his best putt — a 7-footer that broke sharply to the right.

“You won’t believe how much this putt breaks,” Phil Mickelson said, standing to the back of the green after his own remarkable par. Byrd poured it into the heart, birdied the next two holes and was on his way.

Perez had a hard-fought 70, missing fairways early in the round and rarely converting birdie chances throughout the back nine until a slight mistake turned into his best-looking shot. Taking a little off a 7-iron, he pulled it slightly on the 17th and saw it sail right at the flag and stop some 5 feet behind the pin for a birdie.

“It was kind of scrappy all the way around,” Perez said. “I played pretty good to shoot 70, I guess.”

Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover (69) and former British Open champion Stewart Cink (68), who have not won since capturing their majors in the summer of 2009, were three shots back.

The top eight players were separated by five shots, which isn’t much on a Quail Hollow course where last year Rory McIlroy closed with a 62 for his only PGA Tour victory.

It starts with Byrd and Perez, players whose contrast starts with their pace of play. Byrd is on the deliberate side, while Perez wastes no time. On the sixth hole, with Byrd in the group ahead, the caddies were no more than 10 feet off the green when Perez hit his tee shot into the par 3.

Perez isn’t the least bit worried.

“I wait every single shot, every single day on the PGA Tour, so I’ve gotten really used to doing that,” Perez said.

Missing from the mix is Mickelson.

The three-time Masters champion was in range and was poised to make a move with a brilliant par save on the 12th, a mini-flop from a downhill lie to a green that ran away and broke sharply to the left. It stopped inches away.

But he flubbed a bunker shot on the 14th to lose an easy chance at birdie, then hit tee shots into the water on the par-5 15th (bogey) and the par-3 17th (double bogey) on his way to a 74. Mickelson has hit five balls in the water this week.

J.B. Holmes had an amazing stretch on the back nine — five shots to play two holes when he holed a 5-iron on the 15th for an albatross, the rarest score in golf, and followed that with a birdie on the 16th. That led to a 65, although he was six shots behind, along with Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, who had a 68.

The excitement was almost too much for Byrd.

He was playing with Mickelson, the biggest draw at Quail Hollow, and while it wasn’t the first time, he could feel the energy. The gallery caved in around him going from green-to-tee on just about every hole, with young fans holding out hands to be tapped.

Mickelson gets that all the time — Byrd, not so much.

“I’ve never high-fived so much in my life,” Byrd said.

In other Saturday events:

Bogies hurt Calcavecchia’s Tradition lead

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Mark Calcavecchia gave away nearly all of his big lead in the Regions Tradition, setting up a tight final round at Shoal Creek. Calcavecchia shot a 1-under 71 after a sparkling start, faltering with a double bogey and two bogeys on the final eight holes. He finished at 12-under 204 for a one-stroke lead over Jay Haas (68).

Tom Pernice Jr. three-putted the final hole from about three feet for double bogey to drop two shots back, along with Tom Lehman in the Champions Tour’s first major of the season. Both shot 68s.

South African on top after third day

TERRASSA, Spain — Thomas Aiken maintained his lead after a somber third day of the Spanish Open, overshadowed by the death of Spanish great Seve Ballesteros.

The South African shot an even-par 72 to reach 8 under, two strokes ahead of Denmark’s Andres Hansen (69), France’s Romain Wattel (72), Scotland’s Scott Jamieson (72) and Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal (73).