Justin Thomas watched with a slight grimace as his approach shot on the 13th hole landed.

The ball stopped on the green, about 20 feet above the cup. But Thomas’ initial reaction was more like that of a guy who’d hit out of bounds. Yours would be too, if you’d been routinely leaving yourself putts half as long or shorter all week.

But by the time he’d walked to his ball it was like nothing happened. Thomas rolled it to within a few inches of the hole and settled for par — like the first eight holes of his round and the previous two, all pars.

And that was pretty much the end of the grinding for Thomas, who then got the birdie machine rolling again on three of his last five holes at Waialae Country Club on Saturday.

It added up to a ho-hum (for those who need it, insert sarcasm emoji here) 65 for the runaway leader of the Sony Open in Hawaii. All moving day meant was Thomas moving a round closer to a Hawaii sweep. Now he’s at 22 under, tying Steve Stricker’s record of 188 for the first three rounds of a PGA Tour event.

Sure, it’s possible for Zach Johnson to come from seven strokes back, or even Justin Rose from eight. But it’s not likely at all considering the way Thomas is playing.

“We need some help from him,” said Rose, when asked about chasing Thomas.

If the leader plays with as much poise Sunday as he did Saturday, it’s over before the final round starts.

There was about as much drama as there was wind during the third round — very little.

And the gallery was relatively sparse at the 17th tee for a guy who had shot 59 two days prior.

“We were surprised, considering he’d shot sub-60. Where is everybody? … It worked out for us, though,” said Mark Soeda of Honolulu, who enjoyed a front-row view … because only one row existed.

A combination of vog, football playoffs on TV and Tadd Fujikawa missing the cut kept most casual local golf fans home. And some just haven’t figured out who Justin Thomas is yet.

“The crowd was bigger for (Hideki) Matsuyama and (Jordan) Spieth,” Bobby Ishii of Makiki said. “Spieth, he has the name, and Matsuyama is always going to get a big crowd of Japanese here.”

Thomas is a three-time PGA Tour winner, but when two of those victories are in Malaysia it doesn’t do a whole lot for name recognition.

If you show up today, you probably won’t see a wild, out-of-control kid taking unnecessary risks and aiming for pins. But you won’t see him passing up chances to make more history, either; for example, he’s just two strokes off Russell Henley’s tournament-record 24 under par.

“It’s just situational,” said Thomas, who said he was stoked about playing bogey-free for the first time this week. “Depends on where I am off the tee. Depends on what the guys are doing that are chasing me. At the end of the day, it’s just golf. I need to go out and make a lot of birdies when I have an opportunity to, and I understand sometimes par is a good score.”

For a hole, but maybe not a round.

A par 70 — which is what he shot in three of his six rounds here before this year — may or may not be enough today to hold off Johnson and Rose (and Gary Woodland and Hudson Swafford, who are tied with Rose at 14 under). Thomas isn’t the only player here capable of 60 or even 59 — as Kevin Kisner nearly joined the 59 Club on Saturday.

Thomas is just 23, but a choke because of age seems unlikely.

“That golf ball doesn’t know how old you are,” he said. “I think that’s a mentality I’ve always had. I’ve never understood why a 55-year-old can’t win and the same reason an 18-year-old can’t win.”

Like Rose, Johnson isn’t counting himself out.

“Confidence in this game breeds momentum. … You want to see it. He’s a great kid.” he said, referring to Thomas. “I’d rather be in his position without question. But you know, I know what I did (in comeback wins) and I’m going to try to do that tomorrow.”