Sony Open R3

January 14-17
Waialae Country Club, Honolulu, Hawaii
$6,600,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

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One year after losing to Cameron Smith in a playoff, Brendan Steele shot the lowest score of his PGA career and took a two-shot lead in the Sony Open with a 9-under 61.

”You hope that you come back and you play well and erase whatever negative memories there are,” said Steele. ”But all the memories are pretty positive. Playing great here last year was good, and I’m excited for the challenge tomorrow. I know it’s going to be really tough. Guys are coming after me. But I’ll just do my best and hopefully it will be enough.”

Round 1 leader and last week’s runner-up Joaquin Niemann was outside the top-10 until he birdied the par-3 17th and eagled the 18th for a 63 to finish two shots behind Steele.

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“The eagle was huge. I wasn’t really satisfied on my first 16 holes. I thought I was playing great. I thought I could put myself in a better position, and then finishing that way and making eagle on 18 made me really happy and gave me a bit of motivation for tomorrow,” said Niemann.

“I took a lot of experience from last week. I’m just going to try to put everything I took from last week into this week and hopefully try to win it. I’m playing great. Just need to keep doing the same stuff I’ve been doing these two weeks and hopefully get a good round tomorrow, and you never know.”

Kevin Na started his round five shots off the lead but matched his career-low round with a 61 to tie with Niemann at 16-under.

“I played great. I made my share of putts. But on 17, you’re thinking, OK, I make birdie here, eagle the last and I have a 59 and how often do you get a chance for that magic number,” said Na. “And it’s definitely in your head. If you’re a professional golfer, it’s in your head. It was fun and exciting. Unfortunately, we misread that putt totally.

”The golf course is so gettable that somebody can go shoot 8 or 9 under. Yeah, I am in a good position but it’s what you shoot Sunday. I’m still going to need a low one tomorrow.”

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Overnight leader Nick Taylor, who led by two shots after round 2, made four birdies and two bogeys to close with a 68 and lies tied in ninth place at 14-under.

Ten players scored 64 or better on Saturday and the average score of 66.7 set a new record for the Sony Open.

Heavy rain is forecast for Sunday and starting times have been moved up by two hours with hopes of finishing before it starts.

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Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Brendan Steele	-18	65	66	61	192
T2	Kevin Na	-16	67	66	61	194
T2	Joaquin Niemann	-16	62	69	63	194
T4	Stewart Cink	-15	67	63	65	195
T4	Russell Henley	-15	66	64	65	195
T4	Charley Hoffman	-15	66	65	64	195
T4	Chris Kirk	-15	65	65	65	195
T4	Peter Malnati	-15	62	69	64	195
T9	Daniel Berger	-14	64	68	64	196
T9	Marc Leishman	-14	66	65	65	196
T9	Keith Mitchell	-14	71	62	63	196
T9	Nick Taylor	-14	66	62	68	196
T13	Aaron Baddeley	-13	64	68	65	197
T13	Billy Horschel	-13	65	66	66	197
T13	Hideki Matsuyama	-13	66	65	66	197
T13	Webb Simpson	-13	65	65	67	197
T17	Nick Hardy	-12	69	63	66	198
T17	Patton Kizzire	-12	64	69	65	198
T17	Anirban Lahiri	-12	69	65	64	198
T17	Collin Morikawa	-12	66	65	67	198
T17	Robby Shelton	-12	66	67	65	198
T17	Vaughn Taylor	-12	64	66	68	198
T23	James Hahn	-11	68	65	66	199
T23	Mackenzie Hughes	-11	65	69	65	199
T23	Matt Jones	-11	69	67	63	199
T23	Si Woo Kim	-11	64	70	65	199
T23	Jason Kokrak	-11	62	71	66	199
T28	Ryan Armour	-10	69	66	65	200
T28	Sergio Garcia	-10	70	66	64	200
T28	Lanto Griffin	-10	68	65	67	200
T28	Kramer Hickok	-10	67	68	65	200
T28	Mark Hubbard	-10	66	68	66	200
T28	Kevin Kisner	-10	69	67	64	200
T28	Carlos Ortiz	-10	66	67	67	200
T28	Ryan Palmer	-10	70	65	65	200
T28	Hudson Swafford	-10	65	68	67	200
T28	Michael Thompson	-10	66	68	66	200
T28	Brendon Todd	-10	70	64	66	200
T39	K.J. Choi	-9	67	65	69	201
T39	Cameron Davis	-9	68	66	67	201
T39	Harris English	-9	70	64	67	201
T39	Brice Garnett	-9	66	68	67	201
T39	Charles Howell III	-9	67	68	66	201
T39	Kyoung-Hoon Lee	-9	69	66	66	201
T39	Cameron Smith	-9	67	66	68	201
T39	Sepp Straka	-9	69	66	66	201
T47	Wesley Bryan	-8	68	67	67	202
T47	Austin Cook	-8	68	66	68	202
T47	Brian Harman	-8	66	69	67	202
T47	Jim Herman	-8	64	69	69	202
T47	Pat Perez	-8	68	65	69	202
T47	Brian Stuard	-8	66	67	69	202
T47	Mike Weir	-8	68	66	68	202
T54	Scott Brown	-7	70	66	67	203
T54	Jim Furyk	-7	69	66	68	203
T54	Emiliano Grillo	-7	66	70	67	203
T54	Harry Higgs	-7	65	71	67	203
T54	Troy Merritt	-7	66	67	70	203
T54	Adam Scott	-7	69	64	70	203
T60	Brian Gay	-6	67	69	68	204
T60	Sungjae Im	-6	68	68	68	204
T60	Zach Johnson	-6	71	65	68	204
T60	Satoshi Kodaira	-6	69	66	69	204
T60	Nelson Ledesma	-6	67	66	71	204
T60	Sebastián Muñoz	-6	66	70	68	204
T66	Chris Baker	-5	69	67	69	205
T66	Jerry Kelly	-5	68	68	69	205
T66	Michael Kim	-5	67	69	69	205
T66	Ryosuke Kinoshita	-5	68	68	69	205
T66	Chez Reavie	-5	68	68	69	205
71	Martin Trainer	-4	70	66	70	206
T72	Jamie Lovemark	-3	68	68	71	207
T72	Robert Streb	-3	69	66	72	207
CUT	Abraham Ancer	-3	69	68		137
CUT	Bronson Burgoon	-3	71	66		137
CUT	Talor Gooch	-3	70	67		137
CUT	David Hearn	-3	65	72		137
CUT	Bo Hoag	-3	71	66		137
CUT	Tom Hoge	-3	65	72		137
CUT	Takumi Kanaya	-3	70	67		137
CUT	Cheng Tsung Pan	-3	65	72		137
CUT	Sam Ryder	-3	68	69		137
CUT	Chase Seiffert	-3	65	72		137
CUT	Roger Sloan	-3	67	70		137
CUT	J.J. Spaun	-3	71	66		137
CUT	Tim Wilkinson	-3	69	68		137
CUT	Erik van Rooyen	-3	67	70		137
CUT	William Gordon	-2	68	70		138
CUT	Sung Kang	-2	66	72		138
CUT	Matt Kuchar	-2	70	68		138
CUT	Danny Lee	-2	69	69		138
CUT	William McGirt	-2	68	70		138
CUT	Henrik Norlander	-2	65	73		138
CUT	Seamus Power	-2	70	68		138
CUT	Ben Taylor	-2	68	70		138
CUT	D.J. Trahan	-2	71	67		138
CUT	Nick Watney	-2	71	67		138
CUT	Richy Werenski	-2	72	66		138
CUT	Y.E. Yang	-2	69	69		138
CUT	Xinjun Zhang	-2	69	69		138
CUT	Keegan Bradley	-1	70	69		139
CUT	Rafael Campos	-1	69	70		139
CUT	Andres Gonzales	-1	72	67		139
CUT	Hank Lebioda	-1	72	67		139
CUT	Luke List	-1	72	67		139
CUT	Matthew NeSmith	-1	69	70		139
CUT	Rob Oppenheim	-1	69	70		139
CUT	J.T. Poston	-1	65	74		139
CUT	Ted Potter, Jr.	-1	68	71		139
CUT	MJ Daffue	E	67	73		140
CUT	Russell Knox	E	70	70		140
CUT	Scott Piercy	E	71	69		140
CUT	Andrew Putnam	E	71	69		140
CUT	Rory Sabbatini	E	72	68		140
CUT	Kyle Stanley	E	67	73		140
CUT	Kevin Tway	E	70	70		140
CUT	Matt Every	1	67	74		141
CUT	Doug Ghim	1	72	69		141
CUT	Bill Haas	1	75	66		141
CUT	Bo Van Pelt	1	69	72		141
CUT	Mark Anderson	2	69	73		142
CUT	Michael Gligic	2	72	70		142
CUT	Hunter Mahan	2	73	69		142
CUT	Grayson Murray	2	67	75		142
CUT	Vijay Singh	2	69	73		142
CUT	Brandt Snedeker	2	73	69		142
CUT	Jimmy Walker	2	73	69		142
CUT	Eric Dugas	3	71	72		143
CUT	Rhein Gibson	3	69	74		143
CUT	Andrew Landry	3	70	73		143
CUT	Davis Love III	3	69	74		143
CUT	Adam Schenk	3	71	72		143
CUT	Branden Grace	4	69	75		144
CUT	Fabián Gómez	4	71	73		144
CUT	Brandon Hagy	4	73	71		144
CUT	In-Hoi Hur	4	71	73		144
CUT	Ryo Ishikawa	4	70	74		144
CUT	Jinichiro Kozuma	4	69	75		144
CUT	Shane Bertsch	5	71	74		145
CUT	Tyler McCumber	5	72	73		145
CUT	Parker McLachlin	5	70	75		145
CUT	Michael Gellerman	6	72	74		146
CUT	Evan Kawai (a)	7	74	73		147
CUT	Nate Lashley	9	74	75		149