The wind is such a huge factor at Waialae Country Club it’s even a major consideration when it’s close to a dead calm, like it was for much of Thursday’s first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.

The wind doesn’t just tousle their hair. It can get in their heads.

The question becomes this: What will it be like the next day?

Let’s say by the luck of the draw, you play your first round in the afternoon, and by the grace of Mother Nature, there is no gust to make your game go bust. Your play is on point and you end up with a career-best 9-under 61. And you’re sitting pretty, because your second round is in the morning, when the wind here is normally much calmer than after lunch.

Especially since one of the two guys who finished the first round a stroke back has to play in the afternoon today, it is now advantage Kevin Na — the defending champion and author of that 61 that put him a stroke in front of Jim Furyk and Russell Henley.

Na said Furyk’s round gave him confidence that low scores were get-able, even in the afternoon.

“It was nice to see Jim shoot 61 (actually a 62), what an incredible round and how good he is, still is, at age 52, is it? 51? That’s incredible,” he said. “But yeah, it just shows you that it’s out there. I felt like, you know, a good round could be somewhere near that.”

If the wind patterns remain similar today — which is what forecasts early Thursday evening indicated — whatever advantage Na might have could be very slim, like it was for Furyk on Thursday. And let’s remember it’s Furyk who’s in hot pursuit, the winner here in 1996, not some rookie flash-in-the-pan. He has so many holes-in-one on Tour now that perhaps Mr. 58 needs another nickname: Ace.

And don’t sleep on Henley.

At age 23 in 2013, he made his PGA Tour debut here. The winds at Waialae took the week off that year, and the rookie crushed the course and the field.

“Any time you shoot 62 the first round, it’s great,” Henley said yesterday after his round. “I don’t know if I’ve ever done it the first round. Maybe I’m wrong. I played solid and felt calm and comfortable out there. Doing that for four straight days is the key.”

He’s right, no 62 for him here before this week … but pretty close: 63 three times in his first Sony Open.

Henley set a tournament record of 24-under par (later broken by Justin Thomas) by shooting 63-63-67-63 and winning the thing running away.

In addition to the huge payday and some job security, the recent Georgia grad won an invitation to the Masters. Johnny Miller suggested he might become golf’s next great player.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way, as Henley has won just twice since, at the 2014 Honda Classic and the ’17 Shell Houston Classic. His best showing at a major was T12 seven years ago at the PGA Championship. Since then, several other younger guys have made bigger names for themselves in the sport.

But Henley looked like there would be no stopping him, ever, during that first week on Tour for him here in 2013.

“I definitely think about it. It’s a sweet place, just beautiful and a fun course to play, and I have a lot of great memories from coming back every year,” he said. “Definitely I guess that year I proved that I can do it. It is possible, and it’s just so hard to beat these guys, so I’m going to give it my best shot.”

And, today, instead of the potentially swirling, mysterious challenge of playing in the afternoon, it’s his turn for an early tee time — which could be a little thing or a big thing.

“I thought the wind was not blowing too hard out there, but definitely I thought it changed directions a few times,” said Henley, who was steady-as-she-blows, whether the wind was churning things up or not, shooting a bogey-free round of five birdies on the front nine and three on the back Thursday afternoon.

“It was a little bit tricky. Yeah, any time you shoot it in the afternoon here with the possibility of wind is definitely a bonus.”

The flashy rookie is a veteran grinder now, and didn’t even notice that he and the other two men at the top of the leaderboard are all former Sony Open champions — with more not far behind them.

“Oh, really? I know Kevin was playing well, but I haven’t looked (at scoreboards) much today,” Henley said. “Just kind of keeping my head down. That’s cool.”