Jordan Spieth holds steady at Kapalua

KAPALUA, Maui >> The winds came up, but the scores stayed low during Saturday’s third round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

Leader Jordan Spieth came into the weekend not only eyeing his seventh PGA Tour win, but tracking down the tournament record of 31 under that Ernie Els set 13 years ago when the breezes stayed away for four consecutive days.

The 22-year-old from Dallas will worry about the victory first after firing an 8-under 65 for his best 54-hole start since joining the tour. His 24-under 195 translates to a five-shot lead over Brooks Koepka, who fashioned a blistering 10-under 63 for a three-day total of 200. He slipped past defending champion Patrick Reed (67—201) by one as today’s final round is basically a three-horse race.

Brandt Snedeker (65—204) and Argentina’s Fabian Gomez (70—204) are tied for fourth, but are a whopping nine shots off a lead by Spieth that missed equaling Els’ 54-hold record here by one. In 2003, Els was 25 under after 54 holes. The popular South African closed with a 67 to win the event by eight over K.J. Choi and Rocco Mediate.

Spieth has a number in mind today and he’s not even greedy about it.

“I think I finished 26 (under) at Isleworth,” Spieth said. “So it would be cool to beat that, but it would be really cool to get a 3 on the board as the first number. And the second. That’s fine, too. But I know what Ernie’s record is. For me if I could get it to 30, that would be pretty awesome.”

Koepka had a chance to post a 12-under 61 and best the tournament record of 62 shared by Choi, Chris Kirk, Graeme McDowell and Jason Day. But pars on Nos. 9 and 18 — two of the easier holes on the course — kept him from realizing that number and cozying up to Spieth entering the final round.

“I was told that after the round and it was like 9 and 18, I never thought about it, but I guess it could have been 61?” said Koepka, who carded six consecutive birdies on the front before parring the par-5 ninth. “I felt like we still even left a few out there, even with those, without those holes. But it was — we played really well. I was very pleased.

“I just got to do it again (today). I feel like, to keep up with Jordan because he’ll probably be finished around — did he birdie 17? No. OK. So he’ll probably be at 23. So we still got some work to do.”

The fact Spieth landed on 24 makes it more difficult still for his two closest pursuers. But Spieth isn’t cashing the $1.18 million check just yet. He knows Reed is going to go hard to the basket and Koepka is someone he faced several times when both were in college.

“Brooks has shot plenty of pretty fantastic rounds and kicked my butt plenty of times going back to college days, so he’s going to bring it,” Spieth said. “It’s going to be fun. Patrick in (the pairing in) front, you know Patrick doesn’t want to finish third. He wants to move up. So it will be a good battle. I hope it’s not, but I hope that everyone plays well. We just keep things going the way they have been.”

As well as Spieth has played here — dating back to his 2014 tournament, he had 73 consecutive holes without a bogey until the par-3 eighth Saturday — it was that stretch from Nos. 8 through 11 where he was 1 over that made him most happy. In his mind, it could have been a lot worse.

“What I was most proud of today wasn’t the birdies as much as it was when it didn’t go my way,” Spieth said. “We managed to make pars on quite a few holes where I could have made worse. (Nos.) 1, 2, even 9, 8. That was a really good four on 8.

“And then like 16 coming in. That kind of up-and-down on 15 and 16, both of those. It just keeps momentum going — if you hit a poor shot and get it up-and-down. I hit 52 degrees on 1 and 2 to get those ones up-and-down on two of the hardest holes today. Then I let the birdies kind of come to us. A lot of tap-ins and a couple longer putts.”

And don’t forget about Reed. He trailed Jimmy Walker by four with four to play last year before winning in a playoff. Down six with 18 to play considering how well everyone is playing in this winners-only event is not beyond Reed’s reach.

“For sure,” Reed said when asked about looking forward to today’s closing round. “Any time you get to play in this wonderful weather it’s always nice and any time you get to play in a tournament where it’s the champions only, it’s nice as well. So, like Rickie (Fowler) said, we have to make it rain because Jordan’s definitely not letting up and we’re going to have to go out and get it.”