Chris Kirk had a one-shot lead in The Sentry and very little margin for error heading into the final round of the PGA Tour's season-opening after he two-putted for birdie on Saturday at Kapalua, just short of the 18th green.
Even with a stronger trade wind, low scores on the Plantation course at Kapalua have been the norm. This year is different in that more guys have a shot.
Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth, both previous winners at Kapalua, are among them, as is 21-year-old Akshay Bhatia, who is playing in his first full season on the PGA Tour.
Even yet, it still features the top player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, who had to settle for a 71 after struggling to make many putts. Scheffler was now just three points behind.
Kirk returned to Kapalua for the first time in eight years, and he was at 21-under 198. After taking a significant hiatus for the majority of 2019 to address his alcoholism and despair, he returned to the PGA Tour in 2023 and won the Honda Classic, earning him the title of comeback player of the year.
He embarks on what seems like a mountainside sprint at the beginning of the new year.
"You certainly can't protect anything out here, that's for sure," Kirk said. "When it's a shootout like this and the scores are really low, you just stay aggressive and just go do your thing."
Bhatia, who secured his PGA Tour card through the minor leagues and then won the Barracuda Championship, took only 27 putts for the second straight day. His only lapse was three-putting from 60 feet for par on the 667-yard closing hole for a 66.
The race is on:
Schauffele (65), who rallied for victory at Kapalua five years ago with a closing 62, and Spieth (67), who won by eight strokes there in 2016, were among the group two shots behind. Then Byeong Hun An (68) joined them.
Schauffele and Spieth are procedure veterans. Whatever the score, most leads are not safe, especially with a dramatic final stretch of par 5s and a reachable par 4.
"Keep your head down," Schauffele said. "There's no point looking at a leaderboard early on a property like this."
On the reachable 14th, one of the trickiest shots in golf, Spieth made a birdie from a bunker about 40 yards short of the flag. He then closed with a 6-iron into the green for a two-putt birdie.
He's been in Kapalua for ten years now, so he knows how the scoring works. Aim for a few of birdies before the action begins on the reachable par-4 14th hole to avoid making bogeys on the harder courses.
"Then all of a sudden it's a sprint and you see who makes four out of the last five," he said. "That seems to be the case and it probably will be the case tomorrow."
That was Kirk's one-way plan on Saturday. On the par-5 15th hole, he misjudged the wind and mishit his tee shot, going too much to the right and into the bushes. After receiving a penalty drop, he had to lay up just short of the elevated green. He then hit the wedge a touch too hard, landing on the fringe facing a putt that was downwind, somewhat sloping, and facing the wind.
Despite breaking his run of three consecutive birdies with a par putt, he felt confident despite the setback.
"To make that one after a nice run of birdies before that kept the momentum going," Kirk said.
Scheffler never really gained much traction. At the easiest hole at Kapalua, the par-5 fifth, he made his first birdie. However, he made a three-putt bogey on the seventh hole and another bogey on the par-3 eighth after hitting into a bunker below the green.
On the 18th hole, Scheffler concluded with a three-putt par from slightly less than forty feet. The good news was that Sahith Theegala (68), Jason Day (67), and Harris English (64), were all just three shots behind the lead.
When Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay were added, 12 players were within four shots of the lead. That was not the case the previous year when Morikawa led by six shots going into the final round before Jon Rahm closed the gap; in that previous year, Cameron Smith and Rahm shared the lead at 54 holes and were five shots ahead of the field.
Sunday is now anyone's game.