Jim Furyk, who
seems to thrive on the desert courses used in the Las Vegas Invitational, shot
a 9-under 63 today to go 22-under and grab a share of the third-round lead.
A two-time winner and defending
champion of the event, Furyk moved into a tie with Harrison Frazar and Bob May
after three rounds of the five-day tournament.
Scores are traditionally low in the event, which has a pro-am format, and conditions
have been ideal the first three days this year.
Furyk has won just one PGA Tour event outside Las Vegas during his six years on
the tour, in Hawaii in 1996.
Frazar, the second-round leader, shot a 67, and May, who lives in Las Vegas but
has been playing in Europe, matched Furyk's 63.
Just one stroke behind on a crowded leaderboard were Vijay Singh, with a 67, and
Jonathan Kaye, with a 66.
Sixteen players were within five shots of the top.
Tommy Armour III, who had a second-round 60, followed with a 67 that left him
at 19-under, and Fred Couples shot a 70 and was another stroke back.
Furyk said the key to playing the three courses used for the tournament is to
stay patient.
"You
can get the mindset that you have to try to birdie every hole or you're going
to lose ground,'' he said. "That can put a lot of pressure on you.''
He expects scores to be higher on the weekend as the weather changes.
"I think it's supposed
to be about 10 degrees cooler and the wind is supposed to come up," Furyk said.
"So you have to come out and figure out how you need to play differently.''
While Singh complained
the courses were playing too easy and the tournament was turning into "a putting
contest," Frazar considers the layouts a nice change.
"I
think it's a welcome break,'' he said. "Some of the courses we play on, you're
chopping and flopping, then trying to grind in a 5-footer for a par."
Neither Frazar nor May
have won a PGA Tour event.
May played the PGA Tour full-time in 1994, but didn't play well enough to keep
his card, earning just $31,079.
He won once in Europe this year, edging Colin Montgomerie in the final round of
the European Masters, and plans to try to get his tour card again this fall.
DIVOTS: Craig Barlow,
who led the tournament in his hometown with an opening 61, shot a third-round
68 and was four shots back of the leaders. ... The winner will earn $450,000 of
the $2.5 million purse. ... There's virtually no rough at the courses used for
the tournament, and Couples thinks that's a good idea for pro-ams, saying, "I
wouldn't want to be at Pebble Beach with 6-inch rough and playing with three amateurs."
