The touring pro and the teaching pro are tied for the lead at the Chattahoochee Golf Club.

Brian Lamberti, a teaching professional from Westchester, N.Y., and Garrett Jones, a 24-year old Hooters Tour member from Madison, Wisc., finished tied at 13-under par (200) on Saturday heading into today’s final round of the Georgia Sports Orthopedic Specialists Classic in Gainesville.

“It should be a fun final round,” Jones said. “We’re both playing really well right now.”

Playing in his fourth Hooters Tour event of the season, Lamberti shot to the top of the leaderboard temporarily with a birdie on No. 18, one shot ahead of Jones, who still had two holes left to play in the third round. Lamberti, a veteran of various small golfing tours, left the course with the lowest score in the third round at 6-under par.

“I really like playing this course,” said Lamberti, the 2009 N.Y. State Open winner. “It’s very similar to my course at home because you want to stay below the pins with the fast greens.”

Meanwhile, Jones got back even with Lamberti with a birdie on No. 17. He finished the round with four birdies and has played bogey-free golf since Thursday’s opening round, where he finished with a pair of bogeys on the back nine.

“It’s good to see my game starting to come back around,” said Jones, who missed the first two cuts this season on the Hooters Tour. “My ball striking is really coming back around.

“I like my chances if I keep playing like this.”

Lamberti and Jones will play in the final pairing with Travis Bertoni (-12) and tee off at 9:48 a.m. today. Golfers are playing for their share of the $200,000 purse and $40,000 that the winner takes home.

Lamberti only got onto the Hooters Tour this season at the convincing of his friend, Jimmy Hazen. Before coming onto the Hooters circuit, he played previously with the Cleveland Golf Tour, Gateway Tour and the E-golf circuit.

So far, Lamberti has three Top-20 finishes this season. Putting has been a strength for Lamberti as he goes after the win at Chattahoochee, highlighted by Saturday’s round which only took 27 putts to complete, despite missing a 6-footer for birdie on No. 1.

He plans to continue playing competitively until he begins teaching in May at his home course of Doral Arrowwood in Rye Brook, N.Y.

“I was really hitting the ball well all day long,” Lamberti said.

Still, Jones kept his pace all afternoon. He finished the front nine with three birdies. However, his best save of the day was managing to get up-and-down from 83 yards out on No. 11 to save par. Before missing the cut twice this season, Jones, a former golfer at the University of Wisconsin, won one of the Hooter Tour winter events in Orlando, Fla.

“This will be the first time I’ve played with Brian, it should be a great round of golf,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, Murrayville’s Josh Bunch dropped back four shots after shooting a 75 on Saturday. He entered the third round of play at 6-under par.

The awards ceremony is slated to begin at approximately 3 p.m. today in front of the club house at Chattahoochee.