KAPALUA, Hawaii — Tom Hoge grew up in North Dakota and got the perfect Kapalua vibe Thursday, keeping expectations low and playing good golf en route to a 9-under 64 to take a one-shot lead at The Sender in the PGA Tour season opener.
Hideki Matsuyama tried a new putter – he saw someone else using it and thought it would work for him – and had a birdie-eagle-birdie stretch on the back nine that took him to a 65 and was one back. compiled by Will Zalatoris.
That was the theme of the first day of the PGA Tour’s most at-risk new season. Most of the 60-man field is coming off a short winter break over the holidays, looking to shake off the rust on the Plantation course with some of the widest, open fairways they’ll see all year.
Xander Schauffele, a two-time winner and top-ranked player, was among the few who showed up over the weekend in Kapalua. He had two fruitless searches for his golf ball that led to a bogey on the back nine that resulted in a 72.
Hoge was among 29 players who came to Kapalua undefeated — the field includes the top 50 from last year’s FedEx Cup — and he wasn’t sure what to expect.
The weather did not allow for much adaptation in Fort Worth, Texas, where he now lives. And the birth of her first child, a boy named Thomas Bennett, who was born a few weeks ago.
“I played all the way to Mexico the first week of November, and I was just at home,” he said. “We had our first baby at the beginning of December, so it’s kind of forced time. I feel like with the schedule changes, last year it was a lot of golf from now until the Tour Championship. I felt like I was pretty tired at that point.”
If the game was rusty, his putter wasn’t. He made a 15-foot birdie out of the gate, finished with a 6-foot putt on the next hole, holed an 18-foot birdie on the third and got out of the dice on the fourth hole.
“It just frees you up. And you’re in Maui, there are no expectations, just let it go and see what you can do,” he said.
Zalatori came looking very big. He took a two-month break after failing to reach the Tour Championship and used that time to build muscle, which he hopes will give him some time off the back issues that have forced him to miss a lot of time.
He missed the last four months of 2022, then some of 2023 with back surgery when he had to withdraw from the Masters.
“I don’t even feel like I’m having surgery anymore,” said Zalatoris. “The ceiling is something I wanted to keep lifting, because I knew if I was going to sit at 160 pounds and try to hit it 300 yards here, it’s not a recipe for longevity.”
He left the BMW tournament in August at 163 pounds. He weighed 182 pounds when he boarded the plane from Dallas to Maui.
“I hope that this year my best golf will be at the end of the season,” he said.
The first day of the new season was not bad. Zalatoris played bogey-free, or a three-putt on the par-5 fifth — the easiest hole on the Plantation course — felt like a bogey.
Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young and Corey Conners had 66s, while Tony Finau was in the group with a 67 in his first tournament in four months due to left knee surgery.
Matsuyama, who was playing in Japan during the fall, fell behind with a three-putt bogey from 15 feet on the 13th hole. He followed up with a pedestrian shot on the next hole, but hit the wedge to 10 feet for birdie and was on his way. He hit a 5-wood to 5 feet for eagle on the 15th, wedged to 4 feet with a birdie on the next and had a chance to tie Hoge until he missed all of his 3-woods on the 18th and fell short. up and down for birdie.
The new season begins without Scottie Scheffler, the number 1 player in the world, who pierced his hand through broken glass preparing for Christmas dinner.
It’s also the start of a new structure where only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup — down from 125 players — retain full cards for next year.
Source link
