A little wind didn’t bother Cam Davis, who made four birdies in a row on the back nine Thursday afternoon to grab the lead after the first day of play at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Davis finished with a flourish. His ninth birdie of the day as the sun set at Waialae Country Club gave him an 8-under-par 62 and put him two shots ahead of Taylor Montgomery heading into today. Play was suspended at around 6 p.m. with several groups still on the course, including that of Monday qualifier Norman Xiong, who is 4 under after 15 holes.
“I’m always hoping a 62 is in the equation,” Davis said. “I think when I was standing on the first tee staring into a 30-mile-an-hour wind on a 500-yard par-4 I was thinking, well, pars are good today. You know, not every hole was into the wind. Took advantage of the ones where the wind was helping.”
Davis, who finished tied for ninth here in 2020, had just one bogey Thursday, on hole No. 5.
The Australian won his first PGA tournament at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in 2021. Last season’s highlight was T4 at the PGA Championship.
But his play most of last week at The Sentry on Maui, where he finished T52 at 11 under, gave few hints Davis would be atop the leaderboard here. Well, not until his fourth-round 8-under-par 65 at The Plantation Course at Kapalua.
“I felt like I was just a little rusty. Just didn’t have much … well, didn’t put many rounds of golf together before last week and it kind of showed early in the week,” Davis said. “As it progressed I started figuring out what wasn’t working, what was working and, yeah, Sunday last week I started to put some consistent shots together. I thought, well, as long as I can build off that round and continue that on to this week and next week, that is the sort of momentum I was looking for. It was very cool to back it up with a really good round.”
Montgomery shot 6-under-par 64 to lead after the morning rounds, and for hours, until Davis carded his fourth birdie in a row, on No. 16.
“We definitely got a good tee time being able to play the first like six holes with no wind, and so that definitely helped,” said Montgomery, who made his only bogey on the first hole before playing the next five in 3 under.
Montgomery was briefly atop the leaderboard here last year after shooting 10 under for the first two rounds. He fell back with par 70 in the third round, and finished tied for 12th at 12 under here in 2022.
Aaron Rai, Austin Eckroat and Stephan Jaeger all shot 5 under in morning rounds. Like Montgomery, they are all looking for their first Tour win.
“Hit a lot of fairways. Kind of a must out here,” Jaeger said. “This rough out here gets pretty nasty. Got to also keep it low. The wind is blowing pretty hard today.”
Webb Simpson joined them in the late afternoon, thanks to an eagle 3 on his last hole of the round. Simpson’s seven Tour wins include the 2012 U.S. Open and the 2018 Players Championship.
Simpson was third at Waialae in 2020, and tied for fourth in 2018 and 2021. He appears to be poised for 12-for-12 in cuts made at this event — and perhaps much more.
He said he’s “very happy,” and the course conditions were challenging but fair.
“Tough day. You come out of the hotel and it’s blowing 25 already, so knew it was going to be a challenge mentally all day,” Simpson said. “They did a good enough job with setup and the greens are soft enough where I knew scores would still be decent. I think the rough is up more than any year I played. With soft greens, it still gives us a chance.”
Chris Kirk, who won last week on Maui at The Sentry, shot a 66, with four birdies on his last 11 holes. He was T7 with eight others when play was suspended.
“Very solid,” said Kirk, who hasn’t had a bogey in 51 holes, and just one in his five rounds this season. “I hit the ball great today in tough conditions. It’s been a few years since we played in this much wind here. A lot of years since we played in this wind direction.”
Kirk has a chance to join Ernie Els and Justin Thomas as players to win both Hawaii events in the same season.
He said he hasn’t slept well since his one-stroke win at Kapalua on Sunday.
“You don’t mind lying awake after you win,” he added with a smile.
Defending champion Si Woo Kim battled the breeze with four birdies and three bogeys en route to 1-under 69. Brian Harman, last year’s winner at The Open Championship, was among those Kim was tied with.
Hideki Matsuyama, the 2022 winner here, shot 70 playing with Kim and Kirk.
Justin Rose opened with back-to-back birdies and shot 3-under 67. The winner of 11 Tour events was tied for 10th.
Gary Woodland, in his first start since brain surgery less than four months ago, shot 1-over 71.
“Probably the happiest I’ve ever been shooting over par,” the 2019 U.S. Open winner said. “At the end of the day the goal this week was to see how I was mentally, and I was really, really good.”
Woodland, playing the back nine first, made the turn at 3 over but then birdied No. 3 and closed his round with birdie 4 on the ninth.
TODAY’S SECOND-ROUND TEE TIMES
FIRST TEE
7:10 a.m. — David Lipsky, Ben Griffin, Justin Lower
7:20 a.m. — Hayden Buckley, Greyson Sigg, S.H. Kim
7:30 a.m. — Martin Laird, Nate Lashley, C.T. Pan
7:40 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Tom Hoge, Adam Hadwin
7:50 a.m. — Nick Hardy, Webb Simpson, Scott Stallings
8 a.m. — Seamus Power, Chez Reavie, Harris English
8:10 a.m. — Camilo Villegas, Lucas Glover, Corey Conners
8:20 a.m. — Taylor Pendrith, Sam Stevens, Dylan Wu
8:30 a.m. — Martin Trainer, Josh Teater, Carl Yuan
8:40 a.m. — Chan Kim, Ryo Hisatsune, Pierceson Coody
8:50 a.m. — Jake Knapp, Max Greyserman, Takumi Kanaya
9 a.m. — Jacob Bridgeman, Parker Coody, Rintaro Nakano (a)
11:50 a.m. — Aaron Baddeley, Charley Hoffman, Tyson Alexander
Noon — Kevin Streelman, Maverick McNealy, Davis Thompson
12:10 p.m. — Byeong Hun An, Zac Blair, Andrew Novak
12:20 p.m. — Kevin Kisner, Tyrrell Hatton, Gary Woodland
12:30 p.m. — Brian Harman, Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose
12:40 p.m. — Chris Kirk, Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama
12:50 p.m. — Nick Taylor, Nico Echavarria, Brendon Todd
1 p.m. — Ryan Palmer, Carson Young, Kevin Yu
1:10 p.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Ryan Moore, Matt NeSmith
1:20 p.m. — Stephan Jaeger, Alex Smalley, Doug Ghim
1:30 p.m. — Ben Silverman, Matthieu Pavon, Yuto Katsuragawa
1:40 p.m. — Paul Barjon, David Skinns, Kensei Hirata
10TH TEE
7:10 a.m. — Troy Merritt, Robby Shelton, Ben Taylor
7:20 a.m. — Ben Martin, Brandon Wu, Joseph Bramlett
7:30 a.m. — Garrick Higgo, Mark Hubbard, Will Gordon
7:40 a.m. — Emiliano Grillo, Stewart Cink, Brandt Snedeker
7:50 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Will Zalatoris, Eric Cole
8 a.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Sahith Theegala, Akshay Bhatia
8:10 a.m. — Erik van Rooyen, Davis Riley, Matt Kuchar
8:20 a.m. — Cam Davis, David Lingmerth, Justin Suh
8:30 a.m. — Keith Mitchell, Michael Kim, Harry Hall
8:40 a.m. — Vince Whaley, Chandler Phillips, Hunter Larson
8:50 a.m. — Ben Kohles, Alexander Björk, Aguri Iwasaki
9 a.m. — Norman Xiong, Jimmy Stanger, Blaze Akana (a)
11:50 a.m. — Denny McCarthy, Alex Noren, Taylor Montgomery
Noon — Aaron Rai, Callum Tarren, Austin Eckroat
12:10 p.m. — Tyler Duncan, Patrick Rodgers, Tyler McCumber
12:20 p.m. — Vincent Norrman, Cameron Champ, Zach Johnson
12:30 p.m. — Luke List, Kurt Kitayama, Patton Kizzire
12:40 p.m. — K.H. Lee, J.J. Spaun, Chad Ramey
12:50 p.m. — Matt Wallace, Adam Svensson, Andrew Putnam
1 p.m. — Russell Henley, Billy Horschel, Ryan Brehm
1:10 p.m. — Lanto Griffin, Grayson Murray, Matti Schmid
1:20 p.m. — Joel Dahmen, Robert Streb, Peter Malnati
1:30 p.m. — Robert MacIntyre, Rico Hoey, Adrien Dumont de Chassart
1:40 p.m. — Alejandro Tosti, Sami Valimaki, Taiga Semikawa
FIRST-ROUND SCORES
At Waialae Country Club • Purse: $8.3 million ($1.494 million to winner)
Yardage: 7,044; Par 70 (35-35) • a-denotes
Score Thru
Cam Davis -8 F
Taylor Montgomery -6 F
Aaron Rai -5 F
Austin Eckroat -5 F
Stephan Jaeger -5 F
Webb Simpson -5 F
Alex Noren -4 F
Chris Kirk -4 F
Brendon Todd -4 F
Matthieu Pavon -4 F
Alejandro Tosti -4 F
Eric Cole -4 F
Scott Stallings -4 F
Harris English -4 F
Norman Xiong -4 15
Byeong Hun An -3 F
Luke List -3 F
Justin Rose -3 F
Matt Wallace -3 F
Ben Silverman -3 F
Greyson Sigg -3 F
Stewart Cin -3 F
Adam Hadwin -3 F
Keegan Bradley -3 F
Sam Stevens -3 F
Dylan Wu -3 F
Carl Yuan -3 17
Ben Kohles -3 16
Denny McCarthy -2 F
Maverick McNealy -2 F
Tyler Duncan -2 F
Cameron Champ -2 F
Zach Johnson -2 F
Patton Kizzire -2 F
Andrew Putnam -2 F
Nico Echavarria -2 F
Score Thru
Billy Horschel -2 F
Kevin Yu -2 F
Yuto Katsuragawa -2 F
Taiga Semikawa -2 F
Troy Merritt -2 F
Brandon Wu -2 F
Matt Kuchar -2 F
Keith Mitchell -2 F
Harry Hall -2 F
Michael Kim -2 17
Callum Tarren -1 F
Brian Harman -1 F
Matt Fitzpatrick -1 F
K.H. Lee -1 F
Si Woo Kim -1 F
Nick Taylor -1 F
Russell Henley -1 F
Carson Young -1 F
Grayson Murray -1 F
Jhonattan Vegas -1 F
Matt NeSmith -1 F
Robby Shelton -1 F
Joseph Bramlett -1 F
Will Gordon -1 F
Nick Hardy -1 F
Akshay Bhatia -1 F
Erik van Rooyen -1 F
Taylor Pendrith -1 F
Ryo Hisatsune -1 16
Jake Knapp -1 15
Charley Hoffman E F
Tyson Alexander E F
Kevin Streelman E F
Patrick Rodgers E F
Tyler McCumber E F
Zac Blair E F
Tyrrell Hatton E F
Score Thru
Kurt Kitayama E F
Chad Ramey E F
Hideki Matsuyama E F
Lanto Griffin E F
Robert Streb E F
Alex Smalley E F
Kensei Hirata E F
Ben Griffin E F
Justin Lower E F
Ben Martin E F
Mark Hubbard E F
J.T. Poston E F
Ludvig Åberg E F
Corey Conners E F
David Lingmerth E F
Chandler Phillips E F
Parker Coody E 14
Gary Woodland +1 F
J.J. Spaun +1 F
Adam Svensson +1 F
Ryan Moore +1 F
Joel Dahmen +1 F
Peter Malnati +1 F
Robert MacIntyre +1 F
Rico Hoey +1 F
David Skinns +1 F
David Lipsky +1 F
S.H. Kim +1 F
Nate Lashley +1 F
Emiliano Grillo +1 F
Brandt Snedeker +1 F
Lucas Glover +1 F
Jimmy Stanger +1 15
Andrew Novak +2 F
Matti Schmid +2 F
Doug Ghim +2 F
Ben Taylor +2 F
Score Thru
Hayden Buckley +2 F
Garrick Higgo +2 F
C.T. Pan +2 F
Tom Hoge +2 F
Sahith Theegala +2 F
Seamus Power +2 F
Camilo Villegas +2 F
Martin Trainer +2 17
Josh Teater +2 17
Alexander Björk +2 16
Max Greyserman +2 15
Davis Thompson +3 F
Ryan Palmer +3 F
Paul Barjon +3 F
Justin Suh +3 F
Aguri Iwasaki +3 16
Sami Valimaki +4 F
Chez Reavie +4 F
Pierceson Coody +4 16
Jacob Bridgeman +4 14
Rintaro Nakano (a) +4 14
Joe Highsmith +5 F
Vincent Norrman +5 F
Kevin Kisner +5 F
Martin Laird +5 F
Chan Kim +5 16
Takumi Kanaya +5 15
Will Zalatoris +6 F
Davis Riley +6 F
Vince Whaley +6 F
Adrien Dumont de Chassart
+7 F
Blaze Akana (a) +7 15
Ryan Brehm +8 F
Hunter Larson +18 F
