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The first round of play at the Sony Open is complete, and the same player who led at the last iteration of this tournament leads again after 18 holes of play this year. Kevin Na followed his win at Waialae Country Club in 2021 with a 61 in Round 1 on Thursday and leads Russell Henley (no surprise) and Jim Furyk (big surprise!) by one stroke early in the event.
Let’s take a look at his first round and a great first day in Honolulu.
Contents
The leader
Na was unusually good from tee to green Thursday and did the bulk of his work there. He hit all 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens en route to his 61, which means he didn’t even have to putt that well at all. After making seven 3s on the front nine and going out in 29, if he’d made anything the rest of the way, he would have had a chance at the magic number.
“I played unbelievably well,” Na said. “I did everything well today and my iron play was amazing. My distance control has been great. And I tell you what, I had a chance for a 59. I gave it all I could. I’m a little disappointed my putts didn’t fall, some of the good putts that I hit didn’t fall. But it’s still a good round.”
It’s a great round, and now Na is set up to be the fifth player in history to go back to back at this event — Jimmy Walker, Ernie Els, Corey Pavin and Hubert Green are the other four. He’s also going to be running in putts if he’s still up there on Sunday afternoon.
Other contenders
T2: Jim Furyk, Russell Henley (-8)
T4: Kevin Chappell, Patton Kizzire, Michael Thompson, Seamus Power (-7)
T8: Tyler Duncan, J.T. Poston, Ryan Palmer, Matt Kuchar, Corey Conners, Jason Kokrak, Adam Svensson, Haotong Li (-6)
Furyk is the headliner here — and we’ll talk about him in a minute — but Conners is the most dangerous guy on this list behind Na. He hit it great (no surprise there) and didn’t get much out of his putter (also not a surprise, although he has often putted well over the…
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Source : cbssports
