Craig Parry has 17 international victories, but none on the PGA Tour.

Amid all the complaining, Parry went out and shot the best round of the tournament, a 4-under 67 that moved him from a tie for 29th after the second round into contention heading into Sunday's final 18 holes.

He will be in the final pairing with leader Jean Van de Velde, five shots off the pace.

"I feel in a great position to have a run at the Championship," Parry said after his six-birdie, two-bogey effort. "It is what everyone dreams of. Obviously I played a lot better. I played with Tiger (Woods) and Woosie (Ian Woosnam) the first two rounds and I was just trying to hang in there. I couldn't really get anything going.

"Lo and behold, today I got off to a good start."

Parry made birdies at the third, fourth and sixth holes to stand tall, and when he made another at the 10th, he was 4-under for his round. He played the final eight holes in even par, with two birdies and two bogeys, giving him his best shot at a major championship since he led The Masters in 1992 heading into the final round.

"The Masters was a long time ago," said Parry, 32, who shot a final-round 78 and finished tied for 13th. "Hopefully I can finish off the job.

"When I led The Masters maybe I was a little bit young, not really knowing what was going to happen out there. That's really all I've been trying to do the first three days, just play the golf course."

His attitude shows that.

"If you make a bogey, so be it. If you hit it in the rough, you've just got to try and attack the next shot the best you really can to make the minimum number on the hole," he said. "Playing at Pinehurst (for the U.S. Open) probably emphasized that a bit more a few weeks ago because scoring was irrelevant. You just had to try to get your way around the golf course. That was what this golf course was always going to be like."

Parry, who has four European Tour titles but none on the PGA Tour, appears to have the perfect attitude for playing a course that has been so baffling to so many.

Name players such as Phil Mickelson, Nick Faldo, Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal, defending champion Mark O'Meara, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia all missed the cut.

And playing with Woods the first two days could have been enough to fray his nerves, giving all the commotion that follows Tiger.

"You know, a lot of guys are complaining about it, but someone is going to walk away with their name on the trophy," he said. "You have to just go out and play the golf course that's in front of you. There's no use complaining about it."