Australian Craig Parry used an albatross two to propel himself into an early one shot lead over Tom Lehman in the third round of the $4.5 million Invensys Classic at Las Vegas.

Parry, playing early in cold and windy conditions, birdied the first hole and then made the rare albatross two on the par-five third.

He holed a six-iron from 187 yards to move to four-under for the day through three holes and 17-under-par for the tournament.

Parry stayed at 17-under-par until back-to-back birdies on the par-five 13th and par-three 14th.

Parry finished bogey-birdie for a six-under-par round and a 19-under total to take a one shot lead over Lehman.

Lehman could not match his play of the opening two rounds when he shot 19 birdies without dropping a shot.

Yesterday he managed only one birdie and two dropped shots on the back nine for a round of 72 and a total of 197.

Chris DiMarco, who set the course record of 61 at Southern Highlands on Thursday, struggled on the par-71 TPC at the Canyons and finished on 72 for 201, the same mark as John Daly.

Popular player Davis Love III made a move early to finish with a four-under-par 68. Love is 13-under-par for the tournament and in a tie with Lee Jansen and Chris Riley.

The wind, which has been relatively docile over the week, picked up and gusts of up to 30 miles per hour made scores higher than the first two days.

EARLY THIRD ROUND SCORES: 196 - CPary (Aust) 64 66 66; 197 - TLehman 63 62 72; 199 - SFlesch 65 67 67; 201 - CDeMarco 68 61 72, JDaly 67 62 72; 202 - DLove 69 65 68, LJansen 67 67 68, CRiley 69 65 68; 203 - RSabbatini 64 67 72, FAllem 68 69 66; 204 - PJordan 67 66 71, BMayfair 70 66 68, JOglivie 64 70 70; 205 - JEdwards 71 63 71, KTriplett 69 66 70, SVerplank 67 67 71.

Irish score: 224 - RCoughlan 77 71 76.