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Furyk on course for 4th Las Vegas title

Jim Furyk made nothing but pars and birdies for a third straight round and took the outright lead in the Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, continuing his domination of a tournament he has won three times.

Furyk, bidding for a fourth Las Vegas win in eight years, shot an 8-under 64 on Friday to get to 20-under and take a one-stroke lead over Jeff Sluman.

Furyk birdied four straight holes on his front nine, avoiding any bogeys for the third day in a row. He finds himself in a familiar position in a tournament that has accounted for three of his seven PGA Tour wins.

"I have a lot of good memories on this course," said Furyk, who won here in 1995, 1998 and 1999. "I'm very comfortable here."

Furyk helped avoid bogey with a key save on his ninth hole, where he had to hit a sand wedge within 6 feet to salvage par. He had to make a 6-footer on his 13th hole to save another par.

Other than that, it was routine pars and birdies, the kind of rounds he knows he still needs on the weekend.

"There's a lot of guys playing well," Furyk said. "There's going to be guys going out and shooting 63, 62, 64 and 65. The goal is to go out and just do the same thing."

Sluman stumbled with his only bogey of the week on the first hole before recovering to shoot a 64. Charles Howell III had a 66 and Stuart Appleby shot a 64 and were tied for third at 17-under 198.

Sluman, who opened with a pair of 66s, was at 19-under and fully aware that he will have to go a lot lower in the final two rounds if he is to win his second tournament of the year.

"You're really going to have to make a bucketful of birdies," Sluman said.

Sluman did just that for a third straight day, making birdies on nine of his last 16 holes after making the bogey on the first hole when he hit his second shot over the green.

He had no illusions about what the weekend will be like on manicured courses with wide fairways, little rough and no wind.

"You have to be very aggressive and make putts," Sluman said. "On top of that you have to stay patient if things don't happen early in the round."

Scores were so low that Howell, who shared the lead with Furyk after two rounds, was three shot back even after shooting the 5-under 66 at the TPC Canyons course.

Howell won for the first time last week at the Michelob Championship, is averaging 66.75 his last eight rounds, and has the confidence he can win again.

"I've seen my name among the leaders and I've won. That's a big thing, to have been there and come out on top," Howell said.

Lee Janzen, who shot a 63 in the first round but faded to a 74 in the second, came back with a 9-under 62 that included eagles on two of the first four holes at the Canyons course.

Janzen shot 29 on the front nine before cooling off for a 2-under 33 on the back and was at 16 under, four shots back.

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