The top of the first-round leaderboard at the Sony Open in Hawaii is the most clogged it’s been in 15 years. Six players start today’s second round of the PGA’s first full-field event of the season tied for the lead after shooting 6-under-par 64 at Waialae Country Club on Thursday.

Former Kaimuki High star Chan Kim is just two strokes behind them, but six other players who shot 65 are between him and the leaders. Kim is tied for 13th with 12 others, including former Sony Open champions Russell Henley and Zach Johnson.

And amateur Tyler Loree, 17, a Seabury Hall senior from Maui, is just three strokes off the lead after his precocious 67 that he finished in more moonlight than sunlight. Loree is tied for 26th with 17 PGA Tour pros, including last week’s Sentry at Kapalua winner Hideki Matsuyama, and Matt Kuchar, who like Matsuyama has won this event.

In other words, very little is even close to being settled. The only given is that there will be a different winner than last year come Sunday, because 2024 champion Grayson Murray died in May.

Five players who have combined for one PGA Tour victory in 548 starts shared the lead after the morning rounds.

Harry Hall, Adam Schenk, Eric Cole, Denny McCarthy and Paul Peterson all shot 6 under, and none of the many bigger names with stronger resumes playing in the afternoon passed them.

Hall’s round featured a career-best 10 birdies. After a double bogey on No. 8, he notched birdies on the next four holes and played the back nine in 4 under.

The third-year PGA Tour member from England built on momentum from his T8 finish at The Sentry. He got his first Tour win last year at the ISCO Championship when he was last man standing after a five-golfer playoff.

“I’ve got so much confidence in the driver,” Hall said. “If you have confidence in the driver, then it really makes a big difference. It’s quite a tight golf course, so if you can hit a driver straight, then you’re obviously gaining a few strokes on the field, and that’s exactly what I did. … If I can clean up a few things that happened, a couple bogeys and the double, if I can clean that up the next few days, it’ll hopefully be a really good week.”

Peterson briefly had the lead to himself when he went to 7 under with a birdie at 12, but gave the stroke back right away with a bogey at No. 13.

Tom Hoge, who started his round at 12:50 p.m., joined the throng at 6 under when he eagled the par 4 No. 14. Hoge, who has four Tour wins, was the first-round leader at The Sentry last week after shooting 9-under-par 64 on Thursday. But, like the rest of the field at Kapalua, Hoge did not keep up with the torrid Matsuyama, who won with a PGA-record 35 under par. Hoge’s 23 under was good for eighth on Maui.

“Just tried to keep it going from last week, I guess,” Hoge said of his first round at Waialae. “A little bit different challenge here this week trying to get the ball in some tighter areas off the tee, and then that’s kind of the key for me is getting the ball in the fairway and trying to go from there.”

Kim composed an efficient bogey-free 4 under par. He made a 12-foot birdie on No. 9, his final hole of the day. Kim barely missed the cut in his debut as a card-carrying PGA pro here last year.

“I don’t think (the course) played particularly easy. I think the leaders are still at 6, maybe 7 now,” said Kim, following his afternoon round. “But previous years you’ve seen some low scores out here, and they’re still out there, but the wind does make it tricky.”

Kim, 34, is a veteran of international competition, particularly in Japan, who earned his way onto the PGA Tour last year, and made 19 of 27 cuts with three top-10s and seven top-25s in 2024. He’s still looking for his first PGA Tour win.

“I think that I stayed pretty patient out there today, and I think that was a very big key,” Kim said. “I’ve been working really hard on my putting. The putting stats I’m sure everybody knows from last year haven’t been great. … The green reading is slowly starting to get there. I still need to touch up some stuff. But I feel more confident over the ball with the putter. We’ll see where that leads me.”