England Harry Hall produced a spectacular late birdie burst to move back within two strokes of the lead heading into the final round of the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii.
Hall was four strokes off the halfway lead at Waialae Country Club and in danger of slipping out of contention after playing the first 13 holes of his third round in one under, only to birdie four of his last five and card a five-under 65.
The world No 86 fired his approach at the par-four 14th to tap-in range and holed a 45-footer at the next, with Hall picking up a shot at the 16th and adding a two-putt birdie at the par-five last to move to 11 under.
Hall sits in the group tied-fifth alongside Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and former Open champion Brian Harman, with JJ Spaun topping a congested leaderboard that sees 15 players separated by just three strokes going into the final day.
“I think the last few times I’ve been in contention, I’ve put a little bit of pressure on myself and had like a goal in mind to get to,” Hall said. “I think tomorrow I’ll just be a lot more patient, probably take the pressure off my shoulders, and go out there and try and just do one shot at a time.”
Spaun mixed seven birdies with two birdies to card a third-round 65 and hold a one-shot cushion over Germany’s Stephan Jaeger – who jumped up the leaderboard with a round-of-the-week 62 – Eric Cole and Patrick Fishburn.
The 34-year-old Spaun’s only previous win on the PGA Tour in 218 previous attempts came at the Texas Open in 2022. He had four top-10 finishes last year.
Denny McCarthy had started the day as co-leader with Fishburn but a one-over 71 left him four shots off the pace.
Gary Woodland (10 under), Zach Johnson (8 under) are among 27 players within five shots on the lead, with last week’s Sentry victor Hideki Matsuyama (7 under) one further shot adrift and not yet absolutely out of contention either.
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