HONOLULU — Stephan Jaeger had nine birdies for the lowest round this week at Waialae Country Club, but two of the most important holes for him Saturday were pars.
The 35-year-old Chattanooga resident knows dropping a shot is losing ground, and the way the PGA Tour’s Sony Open is playing out, no one can afford to do that at a tournament that is wide open going into the final round.
J.J. Spaun twice responded to bogeys with birdies in the closing stretch at Waialae, the last one a pitch-and-putt effort on the par-5 18th that gave him a 5-under-par 65 in the third round and a one-shot lead over Jaeger, Eric Cole (67) and Patrick Fishburn (68) through 54 holes.
Jaeger had a 62 that included a birdie putt from just less than 60 feet on No. 8, his 17th hole of the round. Afterward, though, the former Baylor School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout from Germany thought back to the bunker shot on the par-3 fourth to two feet to save par, along with another bunker shot on the par-3 seventh and a six-foot par save.
“I had just made two birdies the previous holes, and I hit it in the bunker, and I hit the bunker shot close so I didn’t really have to grind very hard,” Jaeger said. “But to make par there kind of kept the momentum going, and I birdied a couple holes after that.”