HONOLULU - A birdie on the final hole gave Chris Kirk a 5-under-par 65 and the outright lead in the Sony Open, and that’s about it.
Cloudy conditions and only a gentle, Pacific breeze meant just about everyone was in the mix at Waialae Country Club - even John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks). At one point, there was a six way tie for the lead Saturday in the third round. An hour later, 14 players were separated by a single shot.
Kirk got up and down from a bunker on the par-5 18th hole, making a 10-foot birdie putt that gave him the lead over Harris English (67) and PGA Tour rookie Will Wilcox (64), who is playing only the third PGA Tour event of his career. Kirk was at 12-under 198.
Daly had seven birdies and one bogey for a 6-under 64 and a three-round total of 203, placing him in a tie for 18th and five shots behind. Masters champion Adam Scott wasn’t making up any ground, dropped two shots late in his round and finished with a two-putt birdie for a 71 and was two shots behind.
A dozen players are separated by three shots going into today, a group that includes Kapalua winner Zach Johnson as he tries to become the first player since Ernie Els in 2003 to sweep the Hawaii swing.
Kirk and English are going for their second victory of this wraparound season that began in October. Kirk won the Mc-Gladrey Classic in November, his final tournament of the year before taking time off for the birth of his second child. English finished the year with a win in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico.
The plan for both of them is to not worry about anyone else because there would be too many players to worry about.
“When it’s so close like that, everybody is going to be making some birdies here and there,” Kirk said. “So I probably won’t look at leaderboards as much as I normally would. A lot of courses I think lend themselves to you need to know what your position is going into any given hole, but out here, I don’t think that’s really the case. They’re just so volatile with guys making birdies and bogeys.
“I’ll just probably try to keep my head down and make as many birdies as I can.”
Former Sony Open champion Jerry Kelly (66) and Jimmy Walker (67) were at 10-under 200, while the group at 201 included Robert Allenby (65), Pat Perez (66), Retief Goosen (66) and Johnson (66). Brian Stuard, who had a one shot lead going into the third round, had a 71 and was only three shots behind.
Perez was among those tied for the lead until he four-putted the 14th, the final three putts from 3 feet. PGA champion Jason Dufner three-putted from 3 feet on the 18th hole for a bogey and was four shots behind.
Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) had three birdies and four bogeys for a 1-over 71 and a three-round total of 210. Duke made the cut but will not play in the final round today.
PGA EUROPEAN TOUR Fleetwood leads
DURBAN, South Africa - England’s Tommy Fleetwood birdied the last hole in a third round 69 to seize a one-shot lead in the Volvo Champions on Saturday with a 10-under 206.
Dutchman Joost Luiten (70) and Victor Dubuisson (69) of France were tied in second on 9 under in the elite 36-player event at the Durban Country Club.
Defending champion Louis Oosthuizen had to take an “unplayable” penalty shot that led to triple bogey at the 16th hole in a round of 71. Oosthuizen dropped to fourth on 8 under.
The former British Open winner, whose last victory was at this event a year ago, had birdied the 15th to move to 10-under before stumbling at the 16th.
“I had a look where the ball was lying in the bushes, but there was no way I could get a club to it, so I decided to call it unplayable,” Oosthuizen said. “I know I came from five back last year to win, but you don’t want to give yourself unnecessary work to do. I had a good opportunity today to go to 12 under at least.”
The 118th-ranked Fleetwood is a former Walker Cup player and joined the European Tour full time in 2012. He qualified for Durban by winning the Johnnie Walker Championship in September at Gleneagles.
Dubuisson heads into the final day also seeking a second Tour victory and trying to reinforce his chances of qualifying automatically for this year’s European Ryder Cup team.
Professional golf scores
PGA EUROPEAN Volvo Champions At Durban Country Club Durban, South Africa Purse: $4 million Par 72, 6,686 yards Third of four rounds 206 (-10) Tommy Fleetwood ................ 70-67-69 207 (-9) Victor Dubuisson ................. 69-69-69 208 (-8) Joost Luiten ......................... 70-67-71 Louis Oosthuizen ................. 68-69-71 209 (-7) Branden Grace ..................... 74-67-68 210 (-6) Jamie Donaldson ................. 71-71-68 Raphael Jacquelin ................ 67-73-70 211 (-5) Brett Rumford ...................... 73-70-68 Charl Schwartzel .................. 74-69-68 212 (-4) Paul Casey ............................ 72-75-65 Padraig Harrington............... 71-71-70 Chris Wood .......................... 70-71-71 Darren Clarke ....................... 69-71-72 213 (-3) Matteo Manassero ............... 72-67-73 Julien Quesne ....................... 74-73-66 Miguel Angel Jimenez .......... 76-70-67 Colin Montgomerie .............. 70-74-69 Marcel Siem ......................... 70-71-72 214 (-2) Thomas Bjorn ...................... 79-68-67M.Orum Madsen .................. 71-74-69 Thomas Aitken ..................... 72-72-70 218 (+2) Peter Uihlein ......................... 70-78-70 G. Fernandez-Castano .......... 74-73-71 227 (+11) Jose Maria Olazabal ............. 73-77-77 PGA Sony Open At Waialae Country Club Honolulu Purse: $5.6 million Par 70, 7,044 yards Second of four rounds 198 (-12) Chris Kirk.............................. 64-69-65 199 (-11) Will Wilcox ........................... 69-66-64 Harris English ....................... 66-66-67 200 (-10) Jerry Kelly ............................ 67-67-66 Jimmy Walker ...................... 66-67-67 201 (-9) Jeff Overton .......................... 68-68-65 Robert Allenby ..................... 68-68-65 Retief Goosen....................... 66-69-66 Pat Perez .............................. 68-67-66 Zach Johnson ...................... 68-67-66 Brian Stuard ......................... 65-65-71 Hideto Tanihara .................... 66-65-70 202 (-8) John Peterson ...................... 68-69-65 Brendon Todd....................... 70-66-66 Jason Dufner ........................ 67-68-67 Ryan Palmer......................... 65-70-67 Marc Leishman .................... 67-64-71203 (-7) John Daly ..................... 66-73-64 Heath Slocum ...................... 69-69-65 Justin Leonard ..................... 68-66-69 Hudson Swafford ................. 70-64-69 Greg Chalmers ..................... 68-66-69 Matt Every ............................ 69-65-69 Chris Stroud ......................... 68-65-70 Sang-Moon Bae ................... 63-70-70 Jason Kokrak ....................... 66-67-70 204 (-6) Kevin Na ............................... 70-67-67 Spencer Levin ...................... 69-69-66 Stewart Cink ......................... 69-69-66 Tyrone Van Aswegen ........... 69-69-66 Matt Kuchar.......................... 68-68-68 Hyung-Sung Kim ................. 70-68-66 Ben Martin ............................ 67-69-68 Ryuji Imada .......................... 67-69-68 Tim Herron ........................... 68-70-66 Charles Howell III ................. 71-67-66 Brian Harman ....................... 69-66-69 Boo Weekley ........................ 67-67-70 Adam Scott .......................... 67-66-71 205 (-5) David Hearn.......................... 68-70-67 Ricky Barnes ........................ 68-69-68 Billy Hurley III ....................... 67-69-69 Seung-Yul Noh ..................... 70-66-69 Brice Garnett ........................ 67-71-67 Tim Wilkinson ...................... 71-67-67 K.J. Choi ............................... 67-69-69 Y.E. Yang .............................. 73-66-66 206 (-4) Michael Putnam ................... 70-68-68 Derek Tolan .......................... 70-66-70 James Hahn ......................... 67-68-71 Chad Collins ......................... 71-67-68 Brian Gay .............................. 71-68-67Robert Streb ......................... 70-69-67 D.A. Points ........................... 70-69-67 207 (-3) John Rollins ......................... 69-68-70 Russell Henley ..................... 73-65-69 Daniel Summerhays............. 66-71-70 Steven Bowditch .................. 72-66-69 Mark Wilson ......................... 68-68-71 Charlie Beljan ....................... 68-70-69 John Senden ........................ 72-67-68 William McGirt ..................... 67-72-68 Charlie Wi ............................. 69-70-68 208 (-2) Morgan Hoffmann ............... 68-69-71 Peter Malnati ........................ 69-69-70 Paul Goydos ......................... 74-64-70 Justin Hicks .......................... 69-69-70 Scott Brown ......................... 71-67-70 Brendon de Jonge ................ 68-71-69 209 (-1) Stuart Appleby ..................... 70-68-71 Tommy Gainey ..................... 72-67-70 Missed Final Cut 210 (E) Ken Duke ...................... 68-71-71 Scott Verplank ...................... 71-67-72 John Huh .............................. 71-67-72 Miguel Angel Carballo .......... 68-70-72 Toshinori Muto ..................... 70-69-71 Kevin Foley ........................... 67-72-71 211 (+1) Eric Dugas ............................ 70-68-73 212 (+2) Joe Durant ............................ 68-71-73
Sports, Pages 30 on 01/12/2014