Kirk fires 66 for one-shot Maui lead
MAUI—Chris Kirk gunned down eight birdies in a seven-under par 66 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead over Akshay Bhatia going into the final round of the US PGA Tour Sentry tournament in Hawaii.
With windy conditions driving up scores on the par-73 Plantation course, Kirk shook off an early bogey with four straight birdies on the front nine, capping the burst with a 16-foot birdie at the eighth.
He strung together three more from the 12th to seize a share of the lead and gave himself a birdie of less than a foot at the par-five 18th to take the solo lead with a 21-under par total of 198.
“A little bit of a slow start, for sure,” Kirk said. “Those firsthand full of holes with the wind direction and how strong it was are actually playing really difficult. We’ve had relatively calm winds, then pretty breezy today.
“Then you get into five, six, seven, some of those holes where you can take advantage of, and [I] played really great the rest of the way,” added Kirk, who won his fifth tour title at the Honda Classic last year to end a near eight-year drought.
Bhatia had one of the day’s handful of bogey-free rounds with seven birdies in his 66 to be a shot behind, with former champion Jordan Spieth also flawless in shooting a 67 to headline a trio at 200 that also included Xander Schauffele and South Korean An Byeong-hun. —AFP
