Furyk thriving again in Las Vegas

Friday, Oct. 15, 1999 | 6:46 a.m.

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 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 event.

May played the PGA Tour fulltime 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."