KAPALUA, Maui — A calm before an expected storm led to par-busting scores in the third round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship yesterday.

Geoff Ogilvy, who leads by six strokes going into today's final round at the Plantation Course, shot an 8-under-par 65 along with Justin Leonard, who's tied for second with D.J. Trahan. There were a bunch of rounds in the 60s, including 66s by K.J. Choi and Camilo Villegas, so that even the low round of the day — a 64 — didn't even get 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson on the leaderboard. Only one of the 33 players in the winners-only field shot over par.

It was that kind of a scoring day in the PGA Tour's season opener.

"Good scoring today," said Choi, who defends his Sony Open in Hawai'i title next week at the Waialae Country Club. "Kona wind. Different course, first hole little difficult but three par-5s reachable today."

Despite two bogeys, Choi shot 7-under, dropping a 17-footer for birdie at the par-5 18th he and the others took advantage of in the calm conditions. "Last hole birdie, long putt. I make it. It's a good finish. Bad start, good finish," the 38-year-old South Korean said with a laugh.

Choi knows low scores.

He holds the Plantation Course record, posting an 11-under 62 in the third round of the 2003 Mercedes won by Ernie Els, who shot a PGA Tour record 31-under-par 262 that week.

"Still very hard to beat. Need 12-under par to break the scoring record, but still everybody wanting to break the course record," he said. "Me, too. I want to try."

It'll take a 62 by someone for any chance to overtake Ogilvy, the wire-to-wire leader. But it's not likely because of the anticipated inclement weather that caused PGA Tour officials to move up today's final round three hours ahead of schedule, using both tees.

Choi will be in the third-to-last group on the front nine with Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley.

"He's a very good talent. Powerful, strong guy," Choi said about the 23-year-old Korean-American Kim. "Little young but strong mind. Good attitude and good speaking English," he added with a laugh.

Choi let his clubs do the talking yesterday, birdieing three of the par-5s and using accurate iron play for six other birdies, four of them on putts inside of 8 feet. A three-putt bogey at 16 stopped a stretch of six birdies in seven holes that got him on the leaderboard.

"I have very good feel this year. The starting couple days very slow (71-71) but today is good going," said Choi, who's not only looking forward to defending his Sony Open title but the rest of the year.

"I already played Waialae two weeks ago. Still very comfortable there because many people support me — the Korean community and the Asian people."

Sony's also special, according to Choi, because it's the only tournament in which he's the defending champion this year. The 2008 Sony Open was his seventh PGA Tour victory but his only win last year.

Despite playing in the FedEx Cup at the end of the season, Choi had other things on his mind. Hurricane Ike had devastated Texas and near his home in Woodlands in September.

"Bad, 120 (mile) per hour windy. Not damaging my home but unbelievable in the Galveston area," said Choi who donated $100,000 to a hurricane relief fund.

But good things happen to good, benevolent people like K.J. His brief offseason was highlighted by his victory worth $415,000 in the LG Skins Game in November. He also earned $215,000 by finishing ninth in Tiger Woods' Chevron World Challenge three weeks later.

No wonder he has a good feel about the coming year.