Sony Open in Hawaii: Third-Round Notebook

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HONOLULU -- Six-time PGA TOUR winner K.J. Choi fired a third-round 66 on Saturday at the Sony Open in Hawaii and will take a four-shot lead over rookie Tim Wilkinson into Sunday's final round.

J.B. Holmes leads the field in driving with a 335.7-yard average. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Stat Leaders thru 54 Holes

Stat Player Average Driving Distance J.B. Holmes 335.7 yards Driving Accuracy Fred Funk 33 of 42 (78.57 %) Greens in Regulation Chad Campbell 46 of 54 (85.19 %) Putting Average Paul Azinger 1.571 putts per GIR

K.J. Choi's final-round scoring average when leading after 54 holes of a PGA TOUR event is 67.00.

This marks the fifth 54-hole lead/co-lead of Choi's PGA TOUR career. He has won each of his previous four events when in the same position, at the 2006 Chrysler Championship, the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, the 2002 Tampa Bay Classic and the 2002 COMPAQ Classic of New Orleans.

Choi's dominance thus far has him in position to become the sixth wire-to-wire winner in Sony Open history and the first on the PGA TOUR since Steve Flesch did the same at last year's Reno-Tahoe Open.

Choi's four-shot lead is the largest 54-hole lead at the Sony Open since Paul Azinger led by five shots heading into the final round in 2000.

PGA TOUR rookie Tim Wilkinson carded the round of the week thus far with a 62 on Saturday. Wilkinson is playing in only the third TOUR event of his career this week and his first since the 2004 Buick Championship, where a final-round 64 gave him a tie for 27th.

Wilkinson earned his 2008 PGA TOUR card via the Qualifying Tournament last year after rounds of 73-70-68-70-67-68--416. After his first-round 73 that week, Wilkinson was tied for 117th before climbing his way back into the top 25.

Chad Campbell's third-round 66 was a nice change of pace for the four-time PGA TOUR winner. Coming into this week, Campbell had made five of six cuts at the Sony Open, yet had only broken par on the weekend twice.

In the third round, Campbell became the first player this week to hit 14 of 14 fairways in a single round at Waialae Country Club.

Parker McLachlan, the only native Hawaiian to make the cut this year, fired a third-round 65 to move from a tie for 59th to a tie for 21st. McLachlan began his tournament 5 over through his first 15 holes before playing the next 39 holes in 11 under.

Three of the four Monday qualifiers made the cut this week at the Sony Open. The most Monday qualifiers to have made the weekend on the PGA TOUR in 2007 was two. The three still alive this week are Doug LaBelle II (67-69-66--202, tied for ninth); Spencer Levin (67-68-73--208, tied for 46th); and Mitsuhiro Tateyama (66-70-75--211, tied for 65th).

Bogey-free rounds: Tim Wilkinson, Troy Matteson, Doug LaBelle II, Matt Jones, and Bubba Watson.

Kenneth Ferrie withdrew prior to the start of the round due to illness.