PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic (AP) — Mark Wiebe shot a 4-under 68 on today to take a three-stroke lead over Scott Hoch in the Champions Tour's Cap Cana Championship.

Wiebe's bogey-free round, highlighted by an eagle-birdie run, pushed him to 9-under 135. He had a chance for a bigger lead, but missed 3-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fourth hole and the par-5 12th.

After starting his round by making seven straight pars, Wiebe holed out a wedge shot from 45 yards for an eagle on the par-4 eighth hole. The eagle came after he had temporarily fallen out of the lead 20 minutes earlier when Hoch holed his second shot from 85 yards for an eagle at the same hole.

Wiebe, the SAS Championship winner last year, then added a 5-foot birdie on the par-4 ninth. After making seven more pars, Wiebe converted a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-4 17th and finished with a two-putt par.

"The eagle at No. 8 made up for my silly bogey there yesterday. Today, I didn't hit the ball great, but I played nice golf for the second day in a row," Wiebe said. "Any time you hole out a shot for an eagle, there's some luck involved but overall, I didn't make any bogeys so my mind was in the right place."

With calmer conditions at the Jack Nicklaus designed-Punta Espada course at Cap Cana, the scoring improved significantly. A total of 45 players broke par Saturday compared to just 13 Friday. The overall field scoring average was 71.195, down from 74.688 in the first round.

Hoch, a two-time winner on the Champions Tour already this year, shot a 67. He birdied three of his first four holes and eagled the eighth. After turning in 31, Hoch offset bogeys on No. 11 and 15 with birdies at 13 and 17.

"The eagle at No. 8 was nice and I'm glad to birdie No. 13 both days. The golf gods here at Cap Cana don't usually allow you to do that," said Hoch. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'd like to see it where the player that shoots 2 or 3 under will win."

Jay Haas (69) and Eduardo Romero (68) were four strokes behind Wiebe.

Romero is winless since the 2006 JELD-WEN Tradition.

"I've been four back and won before so I'm looking forward to tomorrow," Romero said. "It would be great to represent all of the Latin American players with a victory here at Cap Cana."

Japan's Joe Ozaki shot a course-record 65 to jump 39 spots into a tie for 16th at 2 under.