Kevin Kisner ends with a flourish to take a three-shot lead

The University of Georgia graduate and hands-down the best player on the PGA Tour yet to hoist a champions’ trophy birdied in from No. 16 on Saturday and with a 64 finished at 16-under-par 196 to take a three-shot lead over Kevin Chappell (68) in the third round of the RSM Classic.

Winless in five-plus years and 143 starts on the PGA Tour, Chappell, 29, gave himself another chance in a tournament where he seems to thrive.

Until Sunday at Sea Island Resort the defining moment of Kisner’s year may have come on the eve of the final round at The Players when he was asked if he would be intimidated heading out against the likes of Fowler on Sunday. My playing partner, Michael Kim, was looking at me amusing and I’m like, “what’s he looking at?’ and then he says to me ‘what are you doing?’ “And I’m like ‘oh my goodness, you absolute idiot”. “Just really fought hard and tried to give myself as many opportunities as I could”. The wind tends to blow out of one direction.

“You have got to believe you can win on Thursday and hopefully this helps me to do it every week”, he said. He became the first player in almost 70 years to lose three times in a playoff.

“I hadn’t been in that position with that big of a lead”.

“If I make bogey, who knows what happens to the round from there”, he said.

American Kyle Stanley was alone in fourth at nine under after shooting a four-birdie 67 on the Seaside Course. And Graeme McDowell was third at fifteen under overall and three under today.

What made this different was that Love’s son is still in college – and the tour tweaked the groupings so they could play together. The junior at Alabama wasn’t even thinking about the cut line, instead trying to pick up more birdies that would move him closer to the lead. He wound up going the wrong direction. Dru Love played those holes in 7-over, shot 42 on the front nine for a 76 and missed the cut by six shots. McDowell, meanwhile, suffered a setback in his quest for a second successive win when he picked up his ball in the fairway on the first hole. And in the end, the RSM Classic victor was Kevin Kisner.

Gove, who will play next season on the Web.com Tour, eagled the sixth hole and had three birdies and two bogeys at Pebble Beach to reach 9-under 207. Adam Scott, the Australian star who led after the first two rounds, had a 77 to drop five strokes back. If he had hit 4-iron there and hit the middle of the green and got out of there, I think he would have been fine. Jang closed with a bogey for a 69, a round where she twice had to deal with nosebleeds she thought were brought on by hot, humid conditions.