Earlier in the day, at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Justin Thomas set a new tournament course record with a 12-under 61. About three hours later, Jon Rahm matched Thomas with his own record score at the famed Plantation track, giving the Spaniard a share of the 54-hole lead alongside Cameron Smith (64) at 26 under.
The 27-year-old Rahm finished his third day in Maui with one bogey against 11 birdies and an eagle, including a closing stretch of birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie.
“Yeah, it was fun. I told him it looks about this big to him right now,” said Rahm. “You know, you feed off each other, right? I had three shots to make up today and he wasn’t making it easy and not that I’m about a thinking about a score, I’m just trying to shoot the lowest score I can on a hole. Because you stand on the tee on 14 and you’re thinking, Well he’s probably going to birdie 14 and 15 and have good looks at 16, 17 and 18, so I got to do the same thing.”
Smith, who’s held the lead since day one, produced a blemish-free round of 64 on Saturday to keep pace with the red-hot Rahm.
“Yeah, it was really good fun out there today,” said Smith. “Obviously playing nice golf helps. But watching Jon was pretty intense there on that back nine, some of the best golf I think I’ve ever seen, definitely some of the best putting.”
“So, yeah, one more day. Hopefully we can do much of the same tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.”
Five shots off the pace was Daniel Berger, who shot a third consecutive round of 66 to hold down the four spot on 21-under par.
Berger was immaculate on the day, finishing with 11 pars and seven birdies, including five in a row on Nos. 14-18.
One further back was the trio of Sungjae Im (65), Patrick Cantlay (66) and Matt Jones (62), who were T5 on 20 under.
Marc Leishman (65) was alone in seventh-place on 18-under par, one clear of Hideki Matsuyama and the record-setting Thomas (61).
Kevin Na (68), Kevin Kisner (66), Stewart Cink (67), and Cam Davis (66) rounded out the top-10 leaders in Maui.
The 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions
Leaderboard: Top-10
Pos-Player-To Par-(Rd 3)
1. Jon Rahm -26 (-12)
1. Cameron Smith -26 (-9)
3. Daniel Berger -21 (-7)
4. Sungjae Im -20 (-8)
4. Patrick Cantlay -20 (-7)
4. Matt Jones -20 (-11)
7. Marc Leishman -18 (-8)
8. Justin Thomas -17 (-12)
8. Hideki Matsuyama -17 (-5)
10. Kevin Kisner -16 (-7)
10. Cam Davis -16 (-7)
10. Stewart Cink -16 (-6)
10. Kevin Na -16 (-5)
Notables
Pos-Player-To Par-(Rd 3)
14. Patrick Reed -15 (-7)
14. Bryson DeChambeau -15 (-6)
14. Sam Burns -15 (-5)
14. Xander Schauffele -15 (-5)
19. Collin Morikawa -14 (-6)
26. Jordan Spieth -11 (-5)
26. Tony Finau -11 (-4)
26. Brooks Koepka -11 (-1)
29. Billy Horschel -10 (-3)
30. Phil Mickelson -9 (-3)
32. Harris English -8 (-5)
32. Viktor Hovland -8 (E)
32. Abraham Ancer -7 (-2)
Material from PGA Tour Media & Communications was used to compile report.