KAPALUA, Maui >> Jimmy Walker should have been in a better mood after posting a 9-under 64.
But the man who lost in a playoff at last year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions wasn’t all that happy about his performance Saturday, particularly the final four holes, where he only managed pars.
“I wish I could have gotten a couple coming in,” said Walker, who is tied for sixth entering today’s final round of this winners-only PGA Tour event. “Not birdieing the two par-5s on the back is kind of a bummer. All in all, I hit it great and made some putts. It was fun.”
After today’s final round, Walker said, he and his family will remain on Maui through Monday before coming over to Waialae Country Club and preparing for the Sony Open in Hawaii. The two-time defending champion wants to put the finishing touches on the TOC before thinking about next week, but it’s unlikely he will make up the 10-shot deficit he faces on his final tour of the Plantation Course.
“Compared to here, they have the same kind of greens, not quite as grainy as they are here,” Walker said. “Definitely a lot flatter and it’s a little more precision. It’s a lot tighter course, a lot tighter fairways. So you have to be a little more in tune with that.
“Here, it’s a lot wider and your margin of error is quite a bit larger. You definitely still want to be trying to hit your targets out here.”
Twenty-two of the 32 golfers playing here this week will go over to Oahu this week on a course Walker finds to his liking.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing it,” Walker said. “It’s a really cool golf course. It’s one of the more underrated golf courses out here. If you hit it well and you’re making putts, you can take advantage of it. If you’re not, it can really hurt you.”
Reed bogey free
Patrick Reed did something he had never done before — go bogey free through 54 holes. He is the only golfer in the field without a square on his card this week. Third-round leader Jordan Spieth had his one and only at the par-3 eighth.
“I don’t think so,” Reed said when asked if he had gone bogey free through 54 holes. “I think that’s the first. That’s always a positive and making a good bit of birdies. But obviously, need to make a little bit more to try to catch Jordan. It’s just one of those days I need to keep it going.”
The last player to card no bogeys in 72 holes and win was Lee Trevino at the 1974 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. The last player to record no bogeys in 72 holes and not win was Charles Howell III, who will open 2016 at the Sony Open next week. He turned the trick at the 2010 Greenbrier Classic, where he tied for ninth.
Inside the numbers
Even though there was a steadier Kona breeze sweeping across the Plantation Course during Saturday’s third round, the scores weren’t affected by it.
One theory is the 32 professional golfers taking part in this elite field shook off the rust the first two days and are beginning to find their range despite a tougher wind.
“Yeah, it was a harder round today,” Spieth said. “I thought that 4 or 5 under was going to be a really good score starting the day out with that breeze picking up and it being the Kona winds. But then I looked at the board and apparently it wasn’t. There was some great golf played today.”
The scoring average was 69.531, the best so far. There were 173 birdies, 16 more than Friday, and only 20 bogeys, two doubles and one triple by Matt Every, who also carded two doubles and two bogeys en route to a woeful 78. He was 15 shots worse than Brooks Koepka.
The hardest hole for the day was the par-4 first with a scoring average of 4.500 with one birdie by Emliano Grillo, 15 pars, 15 bogeys and one double by Every. The easiest hole was the par-5 ninth with a scoring average of 4.250. There was one eagle by Spieth on a chip-in from just off the green, 22 birdies and nine pars.
