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When Patton Kizzire won the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2018, he did it by shooting 17 under par for the tournament.
On Saturday, Brendan Steele was the leader at 18 under … with an entire round left at Waialae Country Club. And at least a dozen others also have a more than reasonable chance to beat Kizzire’s winning score of three years ago.
Kizzire, one of seven past winners of this event to make the cut, fired a 5-under par 65 in Saturday’s third round to put himself at 12 under for the event and tied for 17th.
“I think the wind was up a little bit more in 2018 when I won,” Kizzire said. “Some of the greens were a little different. They have changed a few greens. I think the guys are continuing to get better at golf. Each year you have to raise your standard and make a few more birdies.”
How low the scores can go may depend a lot on the weather. Today’s tee times were moved up two hours to between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. in the hopes of finishing play by 3 p.m. Forecasts call for heavy rain to start this afternoon and continue on Monday.
Russell Henley, the 2013 Sony Open champion, goes into today’s final round tied for fourth. His eagle on No. 18 put him at 5 under for the day and back in the hunt at 15 under for the event.
“I would say I’m way less cocky now than I was then, but I feel better about my game,” said Henley, whose win here came in his tour debut. “I feel like my game is a little more consistent. But yeah, I just want to go out there and give myself a ton of birdie looks, and hopefully roll a few in and get off to a good start.”
In a certain sense, you couldn’t blame Cameron Smith if after his third round on Saturday he thought he had a reasonable shot at successfully defending his championship of a year ago by catching Steele again. Smith was 9 under par after three rounds last year, and he’s 9 under again after 54 holes now.
He just needed to shoot 2 under to force a playoff with Steele and win in 2020. The difference this time is there are 10 strokes and 37 players between them.
“It’s going to be a really hot start and like a round of my career, I guess you could say, to have a chance,” Smith said.
But — maybe with no fans roaring to commemorate the massive number of birdies — Smith wasn’t quite up on how many strokes and how many players would be between him and first place starting play today when he said that.
After the tough way Steele lost by Smith catching him on the final hole last year, Smith said he’s glad to see his friend on top of the leaderboard.
“He’s a really good mate, as well,” Smith said. “It’s good to see him playing well. It’s always good to see your mates playing well.”
Four other former champions made the cut: Ryan Palmer (2010) is at 10 under and T28 after three rounds; K.J. Choi (2008) 9 under, T39; Zach Johnson (2009) 6 under, T60; and Jerry Kelly (2002) 5 under, T66.
Matt Kuchar (2019), Fabian Gomez (2016), Jimmy Walker (2015, 2014) and Vijay Singh (2005) missed the cut.
Justin Thomas, who crushed Waialae and the field in record-style as a rookie in 2017, is the most recent Sony Open champion who did not play here this year.
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