Awakening to
an early morning earthquake, then playing golf in 40-mph winds didn't rattle Jim
Furyk.
Defending
champion and two-time winner of the Las Vegas Invitational, Furyk shot a steady
1-under-par 71 today to open a three-shot lead.
Furyk, who also won the tournament in 1995 and has won just one other event in
six years on the PGA Tour, pulled out of a three-way tie at the top and went to
23-under through four rounds of the five-day event.
Jonathan
Kaye began the day one shot off the lead and moved into second alone with a 73
at the 7,243-yard TPC Summerlin course.
"My
short game was real sound; it bailed me out," said Furyk, who made four short
birdie putts to overcome one bogey and a double bogey.
"The
wind was blowing so hard you couldn't try to let the wind take the ball. You had
to work the ball into the wind."
Kaye
said that, on one hole, he started his approach shot some 40 yards to the left
of the pin and the ball wound up 35 yards to the right of it.
"It
was pretty tough out there," he said.
Although
an earthquake, which was centered some 150 miles to the west in California, jolted
many in Las Vegas from their beds in the early morning hours, neither Furyk nor
Kaye lost much sleep.
"It
was pretty crazy; I'm from the East and I'm not used to that," Furyk said. "But
I was groggy and just went back to sleep."
The
shaking didn't bother Kaye a bit.
"I
slept through it," he said.
It
was two more shots back to Harrison Frazar, who struggled to a 76 as the gusts
turned club selection into a guessing game.
Bob
May, who shared the third-round lead with Furyk and Frazar, had a 78 to fall seven
shots behind.
Vijay
Singh, who complained after the third day that the low-scoring tournament was
turning into a putting contest and said he wished there was some wind, got his
wish. One shot behind the leaders heading into the fourth round, he ballooned
to an 80 that left him 10 shots behind Furyk.
Some
other well-known players also had problems. Fred Couples, in contention early
in the tournament, had a 79 and was 11-under. Justin Leonard had a 78 and was
8-under, along with Phil Mickelson, who had a 79.
The
tournament scores were almost embarrassingly low the first three days, when conditions
were ideal.
A pair
of unheralded players, Craig Barlow and Frazar, set the early pace. Barlow had
a first-round 61, and Frazar had cards of 65-62-67 to go to 22-under heading into
the fourth day.
The
second day also featured a brush with the tour's magic number, 59. Tommy Armour
III shot a 12-under 60, one off the tour record round for 18 holes shared by Al
Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval.
Players
had been predicting a winning score of around 35- or 36-under -- unless the wind
began blowing.
DIVOTS:
The cut Friday to the low 70 scorers and ties was 11-under, lowest ever for a
tour event; players at 10-under and worse were sent packing. The previous record
also came in on desert courses with a pro-am format, the 1993 Bob Hope Classic
in Palm Springs, Calif., when players at 10-under made it, and those 9-under and
beyond went home. ... The leaderboard was crowded the first three days in Las
Vegas, but the wind put some air into it, with only six players within seven shots
of the lead or closer after the fourth round.
