Birdies were all that blew fast and furious at Waialae Country Club yesterday, until Chad Campbell and David Toms blew by everybody.

With the wind reduced to a relative whisper after a blustery first two days, and Michelle Wie and her massive gallery only a memory, the Sony Open in Hawai'i was up for grabs in the third round. Campbell and Toms seized it with a pair of spectacular scores.

Playing in the last, and lead, group, Toms shredded the tournament record by firing a 9-under-par 61, his career low. Campbell grabbed a share of the lead with a 62. They go into today's final round at 14-under 196 — seven shots ahead of everyone else.

Their simultaneous excellence was so outrageous that Shane Bertsch shot a 63, eagling the final hole and needing a ridiculously low 21 putts, and lost ground. Parker McLachlin, the 1996 state high school champion out of Punahou, had a 65 and barely got into the top 30.

How low did these guys go?

The only lower score ever shot at Waialae was a 12-under 60, by Davis Love III on a wind-free Friday in 1994. Waialae was re-configured into a par-70 in 1999, when it became the Sony Open.

"I felt like the key to me having a good round today was feeding off of Chad Campbell," Toms said. "He played unbelievable. I was just trying to keep up. I made a couple nice putts there on the back nine that you're not supposed to make, but that's what you do when you have a hot round."

Toms went into the third round a shot back of Campbell and 1996 champion Jim Furyk, who bogeyed three of the first four holes to fall out of the final group's shootout.

The birdies started on the third hole and never stopped. Toms, No. 16 in the World Golf Rankings, caught Campbell, No. 38, only twice. The first came at 7-under, when Toms birdied his nemesis hole (No. 6) from 7 feet.

Campbell's reaction was to birdie the next four holes. With the exception of a 25-footer on No. 8, all the putts came from 7 feet or less.

It was that kind of day.

"He was in control — what he was doing," Toms said. "I was surprised when he missed a fairway. I was surprised when he didn't get a ball close to the hole. He was swinging that well.

"I knew I had to keep up. I knew I had to continue to make birdies and I wasn't paying attention to what the rest of the field was doing."

Toms would birdie Nos. 8, 9 and 11 to stay within one. Campbell birdied the 12th, Toms the 13th.

Campbell stuck his approach shot inside 5 feet on the next hole, then had to drain that just to keep his advantage when Tom blasted a birdie putt in from 27 feet.

Campbell stuck his approach inside 2 feet on the 16th, then watched Toms make an improbable birdie from 75 feet.

"You never really think about, 'Wow, I can pick one up here,' " Campbell said. "You can't ever. You're kind of always expecting him to make whatever putt he has."

Both one-putted the next hole for par. Toms, and Waialae's wicked rough, finally caught Campbell again on the par-5 18th when his drive was buried in the high grass, preventing him from getting to the green in two shots. Toms did, and two-putted from 35 feet for the record.

"I'm just playing solid and I'm going to have to go out and do it again tomorrow, that's for sure," Toms said. "Because the way he played golf today ... he drove the ball fantastic, hit it close to the hole, so it just didn't look like he was going to struggle at all in any part of the game."

Campbell would only admit to immense patience, even in the wind tunnel of the first two rounds, and a strange serenity. "I just feel real relaxed after the two months off," he said. "I wish I could always be this way."

Lots of great rounds got lost in their dust.

Bubba Watson birdied four straight holes — all from within 11 feet — to shoot 64 and pull into third with Bertsch. Watson launched eight drives that went 300 or more yards, including one of 363 on the final hole that wasn't nearly as wind-aided as the drives he hit the previous two days.

He used a lob wedge for his second shot into the par-5 Thursday and a sand wedge Friday. Yesterday, it was a mere wedge.

"That's pretty much the wind," said Watson, who led the Nationwide Tour in driving last year with a 334-yard average and was the last alternate to get into the tournament. "The first day it was really blowing and the wind ... my driver would just go so much farther once it gets up in the jetstream and takes off."

Defending champion Vijay Singh eagled the ninth hole to play the front nine in 5-under, but missed a 6-footer for birdie on the 12th hole and could only manage even-par on the back. Singh closed with 65 last year to make up a four-shot deficit. He starts today nine back.

McLachlin, whose best paycheck to date is $24,000 for winning a Hooters Tour event two years ago, shot his 65 — one off his course record — in the second group out yesterday. He knew then scores would go low, but even a kid who has played Waialae for a decade might not have known quite how low.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.