KAPALUA, Maui >> Jordan Spieth is 64 under the three times he has played at the SBS Tournament of Champions and has won it only once.

The Dallas native, who will play in the Sony Open in Hawaii later this week, finished second to Zach Johnson in 2014, won it last year and tied for third this year after equaling the best round of the week on Sunday with a closing 8-under 65.

He might be right up there with winner and good friend Justin Thomas had he not carded two double bogeys and a triple earlier in the tournament, but he did and that’s why he finished six shots off the pace of this year’s champion.

Spieth managed one eagle, 26 birdies, 37 pars, five bogeys, two double bogeys and one triple en route to a 16-under 276 finish on the par-73 Plantation Course. He had more birdies than anyone in the field this week and pretty much cements the love affair he has for this course and its grainy greens.

If he could have any holes back, what would they be?

“Two and eight, those par 3s, I just got off in my lines,” Spieth explained. “Those have actually been — even last year, I didn’t play them as well as I played the other holes, even in wind.

“And then this year, playing the par 3s significantly over par, and 17 (where he tripled on Friday) I just had a bad swing. That’s going to happen. It would have been better if it would have happened on a hole where you could miss left but all in all, that one’s not in my head as much as those par 3s, just standing on the tee box, picking a more specific line. Par 3s are pretty tricky next week (at Sony), so it’s certainly going to be a focus of ours in our practice.”

Confidence level coming into the Sony?

“High, very high,” Spieth said. “I was just told, I think 26 birdies and an eagle this week, which certainly should be good enough on this course to win the tournament but unfortunately had a couple big numbers.”

Not a bad Day

World No. 1 Jason Day eagled the last hole to shoot a 3-under 70 to tie for 12th. It was the first time the Aussie hasn’t finished in the top 10 in four appearances dating back to 2011.

Unlike most of the 32 players in this elite winners-only field, Day hasn’t teed it up in three months because of a faulty back. His 13-under 279 finish was consistent as he shot 70, 69, 70, 70, but not nearly good enough to play with those at the top of the leaderboard.

What may have let him down the most was his putting. He burned the edges of the cup time and time again, but just couldn’t get enough of his golf balls to find the bottom of the hole to get into contention.

“You know, I didn’t putt the greatest this week, and I’ve got a good, solid couple weeks off now,” Day said. “So I can probably go back and try to work on a few things and hopefully get that process right. And if I can get it right, matching it with the hitting, I should be able to play some decent golf.”

Day will not play at the Sony Open for the second straight year. With him battling significant injuries of late, Day will monitor how many events he plays in during 2017. He will practice in the desert the next two weeks before rejoining the tour at Torrey Pines in San Diego, where Tiger Woods will make his first appearance of the new year.

“Yeah, next two weeks are going to be very important,” Day said. “Obviously it was important to see how my back reacted over this week. It worked great. I didn’t have any issues with that. Still staying on top of the body.

“Then obviously just really try to work at the short game. Just really crunch the short game. I know the irons got to come in just a little bit tighter, but for the most part just work on that short game. I think if I can get back to where I was last year, that I should be ready for Torrey.”

Inside the numbers

With the winds switching to the east, the scores were noticeably higher during the final round with a scoring average of 71.125. The easiest hole was the par-5 18th with a scoring average of 4.219. There was one eagle along with 23 birdies and eight pars. The hardest hole was the par-4 first with a scoring average of 4.156. There were two birdies, 23 pars and seven bogeys.