A year ago, Russell Henley and Scott Langley were 17 under par and three shots clear of everybody going into the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Today, Chris Kirk is the leader at 12-under-par 198. It seems half of Waialae Country Club will tee off in the final round with a shot at winning.
Kirk, who took fifth here last year, fired a third-round 65 on Saturday. He thought he played better on Friday, when he shot 69.
"I definitely didn’t hit the ball well enough to shoot 65 today, I’ll be honest with you, but I made some really good saves when I needed to," Kirk said. "I haven’t made a putt outside 15 feet this week, and have probably only made one outside 10 feet. So I haven’t been making a whole lot of putts.
"My chipping and my bunker game has been really good when I’ve missed greens, and yesterday I had a rough day putting. But today was just kind of one of those days… just sort of found a way to get it done."
He called it "the way golf goes" and looks at what promises to be a wild final round with the same "What, me worry?" attitude.
A dozen guys are within three shots, including 2002 Sony winner Jerry Kelly and major champion Zach Johnson, the world’s seventh-ranked golfer, who also won last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions and the 2009 Sony.
Another 27 golfers are within six, a group that includes second-ranked Adam Scott, reigning PGA Champion Jason Dufner and Charles Howell III, who has done everything at Waialae except win, finishing second, third and fourth. Dufner would have been closer, but he three-putted from 3 feet on the final hole.
Harris English, Kirk’s University of Georgia buddy, shares second with 27-year-old rookie Will Wilcox. They are a shot back.
English won twice last year and was ninth here. Wilcox, playing his third tour event, calls it all "pretty epic." He shot 64 for low-round honors Saturday with John Daly, whose only other 64 at Waialae Country Club came 13 years ago.
Second-round leader Brian Stuard bogeyed the first two holes but birdied two of the last four to get within three of the lead. First-round leader Sang-Moon Bae was 11 under after 10 holes but finished his round with four bogeys and is five back.
Kirk expects today’s conditions to be "volatile."
"I’m not going to get too worried about what happens on any given hole," he said. "When it’s so close like that, everybody is going to be making some birdies here and there, but making some bogeys. That’s just kind of the way it goes on this golf course."
With almost no weather conditions to affect scores, Waialae has still managed to man up this week. Golfers have found the fairway just half the time. A premium has been put on chipping, with putting even more critical.
It is precisely the kind of course Kirk, Kelly and Johnson like. Kelly describes Waialae’s firm-and-fast fairways as "scoot-it" golf." Kirk said the greens were much softer last year, when he shot a 62 and Henley shattered the scoring record.
He hopes to emulate the efficiency of guys like Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker and pick the place apart today for this third win — then get back to 3-week-old son Foster.
"I miss my family a lot, and I wish I was there right now," he admitted. "But obviously this is my job, and my wife and my family, they understand that I need to go some.
"It’s definitely hard. It’s funny, talking to my wife last night, I asked her if they had watched any, because we have an almost 2-year-old son also, and she said, ‘No, not really, Sawyer cries every time he sees you on TV because you’re not at home.’ It just reminds him that I’m gone."
If Dad comes home $1,008,000 richer after today, it might be worth it.
