Stewart Cink was eyeing his third RBC Heritage title after claiming a 54-hole record by carding 69 to go with his earlier pair of 63s to take a five-stroke lead heading into the final day in South Carolina.
The 47-year-old, who previously won at Hilton Head in 2000 and 2004, set a score of 18-under 195 which took two strokes off the previous record at the course set by Justin Leonard in 2002, when the former Open winner finished the third day at Hilton Head at 16-under 197.
After a 65 on Friday, Shane Lowry slipped back down the leaderboard on Saturday with a double bogey at the Par 3 fourth, after he found the water off the tee, derailing a good start.
Before that five Lowry had birdied the second and third and would go on to birdie the sixth. However, further bogeys at the 12th and 17th saw him finish with a 72 which leaves him in a tie for 27th at six under.
At the top of the leaderboard, Cink is not only looking to earn his third career victory at Harbour Town, following wins in 2000 and 2004, but also to become just the second player on tour to win multiple events this season. He won the season-opening Safeway Open last September.
“I’m halfway to home compared to where I was yesterday,” Cink told reporters. “It would be – I think tomorrow I could play another round like this, and our game plan still held and it was good and there was no surprises out there really for the most part.”
Cink opened the tournament with a pair of 63s, so by comparison Saturday’s round was more pedestrian. He bounced back from a bogey on the third hole to make birdie on the Par 3 fourth and the Par 5 fifth but then managed just one more birdie the rest of the day.
“It was not the hottest day with the putter, but under the circumstances it’s not easy to remain totally freed up, so that’s kind of what I was doing out there today,” Cink said. “I was a little bit tied up in the results and it’s something I can recognize and hopefully get better at (Sunday). But it’s natural; it happens to everybody.”
2020 US PGA champion Collin Morikawa will be in hot pursuit of Cink. After playing the front nine even par, Morikawa rolled in birdies at the 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th for a round of 67.
“I mean, it shows that there’s 62s, there’s 63s out on this golf course; I just have to go out there and find it,” Morikawa said. “Each day I’ve shown little specks of good golf, I’ve just got to put it all together for (Sunday’s) final round if I want a chance.”
Collated third round scores at the RBC Heritage (USA unless stated, Par 71)
195 Stewart Cink 63 63 69
200 Collin Morikawa 65 68 67
201 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 68 64 69
202 Sung Jae Im (Kor) 68 65 69, Matt Wallace (Eng) 65 72 65
203 Corey Conners (Can) 67 64 72, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 71 64 68, Webb Simpson 71 68 64, Harold Varner III 66 68 69
204 Daniel Berger 67 71 66, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 70 69 65, Brian Harman 67 70 67, Charley Hoffman 68 69 67, Billy Horschel 66 67 71, Maverick McNealy 71 67 66, Kevin Streelman 67 71 66
205 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 69 66 70, Chris Kirk 70 67 68, Matt Kuchar 70 68 67, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 68 68
206 Russell Henley 69 70 67, Tom Lewis (Eng) 72 67 67, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 70 69 67, Brian Stuard 70 68 68, Danny Willett (Eng) 68 71 67, Will Zalatoris 68 67 71
207 Tom Hoge 67 67 73, Shane Lowry (Irl) 70 65 72, Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 70 67 70, Denny McCarthy 73 67 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 71 68 68, Adam Schenk 68 69 70, Cameron Smith (Aus) 62 71 74, Michael Thompson 68 67 72, Brendon Todd 70 70 67
208 Cameron Davis (Aus) 69 69 70, Lucas Glover 67 69 72, Scott Harrington 69 71 68, Dustin Johnson 70 67 71, Chase Seiffert 71 68 69, Brandt Snedeker 69 71 68
209 Wesley Bryan 68 66 75, Sam Burns 72 68 69, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 71 67 71, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 67 71 71, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 71 67 71
210 Branden Grace (Rsa) 68 69 73, Charles Howell III 66 70 74, Andrew Landry 70 70 70, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 67 73 70, Matthew NeSmith 68 72 70, Ian Poulter (Eng) 69 68 73, Sepp Straka (Aut) 70 67 73, Kevin Tway 69 71 70
211 Wyndham Clark 70 70 71, Doug Ghim 70 69 72, Harry Higgs 71 68 72, Ryan Moore 70 69 72, Robert Streb 68 69 74
212 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 73 66 73, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 68 68 76, Luke List 74 66 72, Scott Piercy 70 70 72
214 Brice Garnett 69 70 75, Lee Westwood (Eng) 71 68 75
