Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, with a hole-in-one on the eighth hole, and Akshay Bhatia co-lead the 3M Open after the third round Saturday in Blaine, Minn.
Bhatia shot 8-under-par 63 to surge into the lead before Olesen, who was the second-round leader, caught up and posted 67. They’re at 18-under 195 going into Sunday’s final round.
Kurt Kitayama tied the TPC Twin Cities course record with 60 to top the group one shot back at 17 under. He’s joined by Jake Knapp (67), Sam Stevens (66) and Japan’s Takumi Kanaya (65).
Chris Gotterup (65), aiming for his second victory in three weeks, Pierceson Coody (67) and Sweden’s Alex Noren (65) are at 16 under. William Mouw (66) and Sweden’s Jesper Svensson (63) are at 15 under.
Fifteen golfers are within four shots of the top spot. The leaderboard was so packed that five golfers were tied for the lead by late in the afternoon.
Kitayama rose from eight strokes back of the lead at the beginning of the day into the lead for much of the day until golfers who began the round near the top got deeper into their rounds.
Olesen, with three birdies across a four-hole stretch on the back nine, had a chance to take the solo lead, but missed a birdie attempt from 10 1/2 feet on the final hole.
Kitayama played the last eight holes in 4 under even with a bogey on the par-3 17th hole — his only bogey of the round.
Kitayama became the second golfer in the tournament to post 60 this week. Canada’s Adam Svensson did it in the first round, though followed that with rounds of 75 and 68 and goes into the final round at 10 under.
Amateur Michael La Sasso, this year’s NCAA individual champion for Mississippi, shot 63 on Saturday to move to 13 under for the tournament.
–Field Level Media
