World No. 2 Jordan Spieth only needed a three-putt par at the closing hole to secure a spot for the weekend at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He did one better with a tap-in birdie to shoot a 2-under 68 for a two-day total of 3-under 137. The cut came at 2 under, with 76 golfers making it through.
Spieth said after the round that he struggled on the greens Friday. He needed 33 putts, a far cry from the eight birdies he managed in the opening round. He had a quadruple-bogey 8 at the par-4 eighth on Thursday to kill his positive buzz he built during the opening 18.
He hit it wide left again at No. 8 Friday landing in the trees once more. This time, however, when he hit the tree, the ball bounced back in the fairway, whpch led to a par. That hole owed him one.
Spieth said he had to play a little more conservative coming in to make sure he had a spot in the field today.
“We’ll be firing at the pins over the weekend,” Spieth said. “We’re going to be a lot more aggressive and go as low as we can. Maybe we can get to 16 under and see what happens.”
Woodland makes it to weekend
Midway through the front nine of Friday’s Sony Open in Hawaii, Gary Woodland was making plans for the weekend that didn’t include Waialae Country Club.
A double bogey at the par-4 fifth and two more bogeys at Nos. 6 and 8 left him 5 over for the tournament and in serious danger of missing the cut with only 10 to play.
That’s when he dialed it in.
HOLE OF THE DAY
The par-4 13th at Waialae Country Club was the most difficult hole during the second round of the tournament with a scoring average of 4.336. There were only seven birdies at the hole with 83 pars, 51 bogeys and two double bogeys. Back in the day, this 477-yard hole on the scorecard was an easy par-5.
The Kansas native birdied the par-5 ninth and proceeded to birdie seven of the next nine, including the final five, to shoot a horrendous 39 on the front and a magical 28 on the back for a 3-under 67 and a guaranteed spot for the weekend at 6-under 134.
Woodland, who has won twice on tour, is making his fourth consecutive start at the Sony. His first two years here — 2009 and 2011 — he missed the cut. His last three were much more productive, with a tie for third in 2015, a tie for 13th in 2016 and a tie for sixth last year. He has pocketed $577,304 at this event and $17.1 million in career earnings.
Inside the numbers
As expected, the cut line landed at minus 2, with almost half the field teeing it up for today’s third round. There were 77 rounds in the 60s the first day with that number coming in at 76 after Friday’s relatively calm round weather wise.
The scoring average was almost the same as the first round at 69.224. It was 69.208 on Thursday. The easiest hole for the second straight day was the par-5 ninth. That hole surrendered 21 eagles, 91 birdies, 26 pars and five bogeys for a scoring average of 4.105. The reason for the odd number is that Patrick Rodgers withdrew on Friday because of the flu.
There were 18 eagles in the opening round. That number rose to 24 as the par-5 18th came in as the second-easiest hole. There are only two par-5s on the par-70 layout.
Sony Open Notebook by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
