KEY POINTS:
Tim Wilkinson does not plan to lose any sleep after charging into contention at the Sony Open in Hawaii with a sparkling eight-under 62.
The PGA Tour rookie yesterday birdied seven of the first 11 holes before finishing the third round in second place at 11-under 199, four behind pacesetter K. J. Choi of South Korea.
Going into today's final round, Wilkinson is one stroke ahead of Americans Steve Marino and Kevin Na and two ahead of a clutch of players including Americans Troy Matteson, Chad Campbell, Jay Williamson and South African Rory Sabbatini.
"I always sleep pretty well," left-hander Wilkinson said. "My caddie thinks I'm almost dead the way I sleep.
"I'll just read a book before I go to bed and that puts me to sleep. I would imagine I'll sleep pretty well."
The 29-year-old New Zealander reeled off eight birdies in a blemish-free display to rocket up the leaderboard from joint 32nd in the PGA Tour's second event of the season.
It was his first start since he earned his tour card by finishing 14th in the tour's qualifying series last year.
He holed out from a bunker to birdie the par-three seventh on his way to a sizzling outward nine of five-under 30 before picking up three more shots after the turn.
"It was just fun to play out there today in my first event of the year," he said after finishing one shy of the course-record 61 set by American David Toms in 2006.
"It was nice to get a low round under my belt."
New Zealand amateur champion in 2000, Wilkinson believes he has become more conservative with his game since turning professional in 2003.
"When I was playing amateur golf, I used to shoot really low scores a lot of the time," he said.
"I think I've started to play a lot more conservatively since I've turned pro. I don't fire at as many pins."
Wilkinson burst out of the blocks with back-to-back birdies and had the Waialae Country Club course at his mercy as he added six more birdies on the sixth, seventh, ninth, 10th, 11th and 18th holes.
With his short stick running hot, Wilkinson, who worked hard on his stroke during the Christmas break with Palmerston North coach Andre White, needed just 24 putts.
Wilkinson said he didn't do anything different from the earlier rounds.
"I don't know, I just got in the hole faster today," he said. "All the [off-season] work on the putting is paying off, I guess. It was nice to get a low round under my belt."
But it was Wilkinson's approach to the greens yesterday that was the biggest improvement over his earlier rounds - hitting them 78 per cent of the time compared with 56 and 50 over the first and second rounds respectively.
" I played to the safe side [of the green] most of the time. I just made some good putts."
- NZPA, REUTERS
