Brandt Snedeker was all for as quick a post-round interview session as possible Saturday.

“We’ve got football,” said Snedeker, the co-leader after 54 holes with Zac Blair heading into today’s final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.

But watching the finish of the NFL playoff game was put on hold after Snedeker recounted the missed birdie putts that would’ve had him atop the leaderboard alone overnight.

“I gotta go putt,” he said.

Blair, and Kevin Kisner at one stroke back, had similar regrets about the ones that got away late. Blair missed a 21⁄2 -foot birdie on 18 that tarnished an otherwise sparkling round. Kisner did close out with a birdie on 18, but only after he’d absorbed a bogey on No. 17 after his tee shot hit the roof of a luxury box.

That was the only hole over par yesterday for any of the top three.

And it’s not like Blair with his 6-under 64 and Snedeker and Kisner both with 66 were whining about the day overall.

But, as Snedeker alluded to, the player who takes advantage of the most opportunities today will win.

The lost chances by those at the top allowed Si Woo Kim to slide into the fray at two off the pace with a birdie-eagle finish. And Fabian Gomez, like Kim, shot 5 under Saturday; he’s four back.

Yes, the seven bunched at five strokes off the pace, tied for sixth, are probably out of it. But Matt Kuchar, who shot 8-under 62 Saturday, is among that cluster. It’s unlikely he will do it again today, but he’s living proof of how low PGA Tour pros can score when the winds are as docile as they were again Saturday.

If any one of the leaders had finished his third round like Kuchar did with six birdies in a row, today would be close to an 18-hole victory lap.

“Any time you have a lead it’s a good thing because you have more room to make a mistake and get away with it,” Snedeker said.

Luke Donald was among the players whose mistakes took him out of contention, with four bogeys negating his three birdies. But, for a very brief while, it sounded like he’d aced the test at 17.

A guy yelled incredulously to a marshal.

“Luke Donald hit it in the cup?”

“No, in A cup. A guy’s cup in a skybox,” answered the official at the 16th green.

Turns out it wasn’t a hole-in-one, and it wasn’t the greatest beer pong shot of all-time either.

“It came right at us, bounced off my leg and rolled right over there,” said Michael Killilea of Kailua, displaying the ball Donald hooked into the Pasha Hawaii box. “First time (in eight years) one came in. Usually they hit the top. A couple years ago because of the way the wind was they used the roof to play off of it (to the green).”

Just as Killilea said that, a ball popped off the top of the next box — and it went over the top. It was Kisner’s tee shot, and it stopped about 10 feet behind the Michelob stand, at the bottom of a slope with a 12-foot wall between it and the green.

In other words, an impossible shot. Kisner two-putted for the bogey after his drop was only somewhat better than the Cardinals-Packers overtime coin toss.

It was his only serious mistake of the day, but it cost him a share of the lead heading into the final round.

At any rate, we’re set up for an exciting finish today at Waialae.

It probably won’t be as thrilling as another Hail Mary by Aaron Rodgers followed by Larry Fitzgerald shredding the Packers defense in OT.

But you can bet whoever finishes on top will have a strong finish to thank, unlike Saturday’s third round.