Of the players back in the clubhouse with signed, 3rd-round scorecards, Chopra's 15-under 200 puts him a shot clear of America's notoriously slow Ben Crane and veteran Kevin Sutherland, but on the leaderboard the Swede trails unheralded front runner Charlie Hoffman by three shots and Tour rookie Matteson by one.

Hoffman, unable to complete his round with 15 other groups after unseasonal storms at this Nevada Desert venue again delayed play for a lengthy spell, was at 17-under at the 14th when bad light forced officials to suspend play for the day.

That put him one shot clear on the leaderboard of Matteson, who was at 16-under after 12 and two clear of Chopra, Japan's Shigeki Maruyama (after 13 holes) and Bill Haas who was also at 15-under, in his case, at the 14th when play ended and left him learn that his father Jay led the Champions Tour's Administaff Small Business Classic by a commanding five shots after Saturday's second round.

Playing from the back nine first at the TPC Summerlin course, Hoffman got his round off to a shaky start with bogeys on his opening two holes, but in a spectacular turn-around, hit back with birdies on five of his next six holes to reach the turn at three-under.

The American, whose best PGA Tour finish to date was a tie for eighth, carried on the momentum with birdies at the first, third and fifth to get to 17-under before play was halted.

Matteson, meanwhile mixed six birdies with just one bogey to look even more threatening to Chopra and the rest of the field at 16-under with six to play.

"I've played bad, mediocre golf all year with the exception of the last two weeks," said Matteson.

"It's the first time I've shown signs of life all year and I'm starting to come around to the way I know I can play and its starting to show."

The 26-year old Matteson, a three-time All American when he was at Georgia Tech and the 2002 NCAA Champion, believes his late season turnaround, which might have come too late to save his tour card if he doesn't win here, to his driver.

"I haven't driven the ball well all year until now when it is starting to get better. I got a new shaft in my driver and its made a big difference."

His fight back started with a tie for eighth at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic and he followed that up with a career best tie for sixth at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro last week.

With more than $6 million in prize money this year, World number two Jim Furyk, a three-time winner in this event and the highest ranked player in the field, has no such worries.

But he is struggling here.

His 2-under 70 on Saturday has left him eight shots off the pace at nine-under 206 and virtually put.

Second-round leader DA Points was another who would not have enjoyed Saturday.

After his sizzling second round 64, he was only level with par on 14-under after 11 holes and had dropped back into a 6th place tie on the leaderboard with Crane, Sutherland and still to finish Duffy Waldorf and Tom Pernice.

THE UNFINISHED 3RD ROUND LEADERBOARD

-17 Charley Hoffman 66 66 (-6 after 14)

-16 Troy Matteson 67 65 (-5 after 12)

-15 Daniel Chopra 69 67 64

-15 Bill Haas 68 65 (-5 after 14)

-15 Shigeki Maruyama 68 64 (-4 after 13)

-14 Kevin Sutherland 67 69 65

-14 Ben Crane 66 71 64

-14 Duffy Waldorf 65 68 (-4 after 15)

-14 DA Points 65 64 (even after 11)

-14 Tom Pernice, Jr 66 65 (-2 after 11)

-13 Bart Bryant 67 69 66

-13 Bubba Dickerson 65 71 66

-13 Lee Janzen 70 66 66

-12 Dean Wilson 70 66 67

-12 Arjun Atwal 67 69 67

-12 Bernhard Langer 68 68 67

-12 Frank Lickliter II 67 69 67

-12 Joey Sindelar (SM) SC -3 17 * -12 68 66 (-3 after 17)

-12 Kris Cox (SM) SC -6 16 -12 67 70 (-6 after 16)

-12 Robert Damron (SM) SC -3 16 * -12 68 66 (-3 after 16

-12 Aaron Baddeley (SM) SC E 12 * -12 66 65 (even after 12)

-12 Brent Geiberger 68 64 (-1 after 12)