HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Si Woo Kim didn’t make a bogey until the final hole Saturday at Harbour Town. By then he had played well enough that he still posted a 5-under 66 and wound up with a one-shot lead at the RBC Heritage.
Kim birdied the opening two holes to immediately catch 36-hole leader Justin Thomas and, right when he began to pull away, the 29-year-old South Korean came up short on the par-4 closing hole and made bogey.
“I played great — only missed the last hole, so that’s not a big deal,” Kim said. “So I play pretty much 35 holes really decent. So I’m not going to worry about the last hole for tomorrow. I’m in good position. I’ve been playing good.”
He was at 15-under 198, one shot ahead of Andrew Novak (66) and Thomas, who had a most interesting day that ended with a 15-foot birdie for a 69.
Thomas was assessed a one-shot penalty from a waste area on the par-5 second hole when while he was removing some loose gravel around it.
Then on the 11th hole, in a hazard and muddied his shirt and face. The ball moved 15 yards.
“That didn’t seem worth it,” Thomas said, loud enough for the gallery to hear and to laugh.
It ended happily enough. Thomas, seeking his first PGA Tour victory in nearly three years, was trailing by three shots on the 18th tee and left the green only one shot behind.
Novak, an athletic player who has had three close calls at his first PGA Tour win, played without a bogey and missed plenty of good birdie chances. He did well enough to get into the final group with Kim.
Maverick McNealy shot 64 and was alone in fourth, two shots behind. He was followed by former British Open champion Brian Harman (66) and Tommy Fleetwood, who had three birdies over his last six holes for a 68.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler had a rough stretch early on the back nine that derailed his momentum, though he still managed a 68 and was very much in the game at only four shots out of the lead.
Scheffler hit a brilliant escape from the trees, the ball never gaining more than 10 feet of altitude from 160 yards away, but it was too strong and rolled against the lip of a bunker, leaving him no shot. He had to make an 8-foot putt to salvage bogey.
He went long of the green on No. 12 and left himself a fast pitch (bogey) and then hit a demanding lob wedge over the bunker to 3 feet on No. 13 and missed the putt.
The weather has been getting warmer and windier by the day, enough to make the course fast and crispy and enough movement in the trees to cause some second-guessing. There are low scores available. It doesn’t take much for players to lose momentum.
This is a signature event with no cut and the scoring average has been roughly the same all three days. It’s a matter of gets on a roll, who holes putts and who limits mistakes.
For so much of Saturday, that was Kim.
He opened with a pair of 6-foot birdie putts. He handled the par 5s. His longest birdie putt was on the par-5 15th when he got out of position and had to make an 18-footer.
Thomas has said he is capable of ending his three-year drought and simply needs the tournament to unfold instead of forcing the issue. This was only a 69 but important to him because he managed a round under par when it felt like nothing was going right.
And that birdie on the last hole?
“It was huge,” he said. “I played really well today, really solid. Just didn’t have much to show. The course is getting very difficult, very firm and fast. … Yeah, it was nice to see an iron shot get up there pin-high and roll that putt in there. It’s nice to finish off like that and ride that momentum into tomorrow.”
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