AP – Adam Scott will start the final round of the US PGA’s Sony Open in Hawaii six shots from the lead after carding a 71 on Saturday.

The Masters champion started the third round in equal fifth but his one-over-par at Waialae Country Club near Honolulu pushed the Australian well off the pace set by Chris Kirk.

Kirk sank a nine-foot birdie putt on the 18th to grab a one-stroke lead over fellow Americans Will Wilcox and Harris English.

Kirk’s clutch putt completed a round of five-under par 65 to stand on 12-under for the tournament after 54 holes at the $US5.6 million ($A6.32 million) event.

Americans Jerry Kelly and Jimmy Walker shared fourth on 200, one stroke ahead of a pack that included Australian Robert Allenby (65), South African Retief Goosen, Japan’s Hideto Tanihara and Americans Zach Johnson, Jeff Overton, Brian Stuard and Pat Perez.

Marc Leishman (71) is a shot further back while fellow Australian Greg Chalmers (69) is another stroke behind.

After birdies at the second and sixth holes, Kirk closed the front nine with a birdie before taking his lone bogey to begin the back side. He answered with birdies at 12 and 14 and took the lead with his birdie at the par-5 18th.

Wilcox birdied the second and par-3 seventh, then opened the back nine with birdies on three of the first four holes. After a bogey at 15, Wilcox closed with back-to-back birdies.

English closed the front nine with three birdies in a row, added back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 before taking his third bogey of the day at 16 and closing with a birdie.