ATLANTA -- As Jim Furyk walked toward the East Lake clubhouse on Saturday afternoon, a reporter wondered aloud about the item he held tight in his hand.

“You speak Japanese?” the reporter asked since Furyk was clenching a magazine that appeared to be written in a foreign language.

With a smile, Furyk replied that he did not, then he joked, “I think I was misquoted in here,” as he referred to a page where the magazine had written about him.

With his play this year, it’s no wonder that Furyk is grabbing the attention of both magazines and players all over the world. In fact, he has competed so well that he is a near lock for the prestigious Vardon Trophy.

The trophy is presented annually by the PGA of America to the PGA TOUR pro with the lowest adjusted scoring average. Tiger Woods is currently at the top of the list, but there’s a catch -- the winner must compete in 60 official rounds of golf co-sponsored or approved by the TOUR.

With Woods, who has won the Vardon Trophy six of the last seven years, falling short of the 60-round minimum, the award will likely go to Furyk baring an extremely low round by Adam Scott on Sunday.

The young Aussie enters the final round of THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola with the lead at 7 under. Furyk is tied for fourth, four strokes off Scott’s pace after a 67 on Saturday.

The Vardon Trophy admittedly would be a nice addition to his trophy case. Winning anything other than THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola crown, though, is the furthest thing from Furyk’s mind as he heads into the final round.

“I don’t know what the shot differential has to be. I don’t care. Just go play good. It would be nice to win it but try to focus on getting out there and winning a golf tournament tomorrow,” said the 36-year-old PGA TOUR professional.

He’s done that twice already this year. Victories at the Wachovia Championship and the Canadian Open gave Furyk wins Nos. 11 and 12 of his 14-year professional career and those, along with consistently stellar play, led him to this point.

“It’s been a very good year for me and one that I’ve had a lot of fun playing throughout the year,” he said, adding that, to win the award named after legendary British golfer Harry Vardon, “would be great, some more icing on top of the cake.”

Adjusted scoring average isn’t the only place where Furyk is at the top of the list, as he also leads another category on TOUR with fellow Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-resident Vijay Singh. Both have 12 top-10 finishes, the most on TOUR in 2006. With Furyk sitting in a tie for fourth and Singh tied for second at this week’s event, they could each make it a lucky 13 for the year.

A top-10 is one thing, but a win on Sunday is a much more elusive matter, especially competing against such an elite field at THE TOUR Championship. Eight of the players ranked in the top 10 on the 2006 TOUR money list are in the field, and five of those are among the top 10 performers so far at East Lake going into the last day.

Jim Furyk has two wins on TOUR this season. (Greenwood/WireImage)

“There’s a bunch of good players here,” Furyk said. “A bunch of them are right at the top of the leaderboard. It should be a shootout tomorrow. There’s a bunch of guys…within earshot.”

If he can duplicate his back-nine success from Saturday, Furyk has a shot at the lead. He had four birdies after making the turn, compared to just one in the first nine holes. Three of those came consecutively, as he birdied Nos. 15, 16 and 17.

“(That) really was a kick start,” he said. “It really puts me in a better frame of mind going into tomorrow, and gets me that much closer to being close to the lead.

“I’m still within firing distance and a bunch of us have kind of closed that gap a little bit.”

©The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.