Kisner and Brown try to finish what they started a year ago at Zurich Classic

In the game of golf, there are truly horses for courses.

While the world’s greatest players can often translate their versatile games to be successful on many different set-ups, there are clearly those who thrive in certain locations.

That is certainly the case with Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown.

A year ago, the duo lost in a playoff to Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith at the Zurich Classic. This year, their comfort level with the TPC of Louisiana course at Avondale is evident.

Brown and Kisner fired a third round 8-under-par 64 in the better ball format to reach 20-under-par 196 for the tournament with a one stroke lead after three rounds of the 2018 event.

“We’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Kisner said. “We know each other pretty well. I think that’s why we gel so well together. He knows I’m not going to be upset if he’s playing bad, or if I hit a bad shot he’s not going to be upset at me.”

It was a birdie by Brown that got the duo to 20 under and earned them the one-stroke lead.

“It’s nice to get that one there,” Brown said. “I didn’t have my best today and Kevin played great again.”

A year ago, it took 27-under-par to reach the playoff with Blixt and Cameron. On Sunday, the scoring should not be as good with the alternate shot format, which the field averaged better than one-over-par with on Friday.

The teams of Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays, along with the duo of Michael Kim and Andrew Putnam are tied for second at 19-under-par 197. Finau and Summerhays went low with a round of 9-under-par 63 while Kim and Putnam shot 64.

Brice Garnett and Chesson Hadley are at 18-under-par after firing an 11-under-par 61, tying for the best round of the day. Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy also shot 61, along with Jason Dufner and Pat Perez and both of those teams are at 17-under-par. Tony Merritt and Brendon de Jonge are also at 17-under-par after a third-round 62.

Among the other big name teams, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen are at 16-under-par, Tyrone Van Aswegen and Retief Goosen are at 16-under-par. The teams of Jonathan Byrd and Zach Johnson, along with Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are in contention at 15-under. Masters champion Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay are at 14-under par, six shots back of the leaders.

Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar are at 13-under-par.

The conditions were perfect, with sunny skies, pleasant temperatures and minimal wind, producing very low scores as was the case with the better ball format on Thursday.

The Par-5 holes played pretty easy with the easiest being the 7th and 11th holes, both of which played to an average of 4.250 strokes. There were a pair of eagles and two birdies on those holes. The second hole, another Par-5, also played pretty easy.

The toughest hole was the Par-4 15th hole, which played to par while the Par-3 17th remains a challenge.