Kevin Kisner could have sat this one out and no one would have really blamed him.

While many of the world’s best, who took part in last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, opted to skip the first full-field event of the calendar year, Kisner decided to give Waialae Country Club another try.

The current FedEx Cup points leader is glad he did. The Aiken, S.C., native continued his good play from last week with a 7-under 63 in Thursday’s opening round of the Sony Open in Hawaii to join four other golfers in first place with 18 holes in the books.

Kisner hasn’t come close to going that low here in the past. In his previous four appearances on Oahu dating back to 2011, Kisner managed only two rounds in the 60s. He missed the cut the first three years, shooting 15 over in 2011, 7 over in 2012 and even par in 2014.

Last year, he finally made it through to the weekend, only to post a Made Cut-Did Not Finish after shooting a 75 in the third round, placing 84th, but earning a $9,744 check in the process. He conceded after the opening round Thursday this course doesn’t exactly fit his eye.

“But I must have gotten better since the last few times I played here,” Kisner said, then smiled. “I’ve always struggled at this course, coming over, being a little rusty from the East Coast and cold weather and trying to adjust. But this year, I got to go to Maui and get kind of the rust off and the game feels good.”

Kisner finally qualified for the winners-only event at Kapalua by capturing the RSM Classic last fall. He is trying to become the first multiple winner of this wraparound season that began with the Frys.com Open last October.

Kisner had several brushes with greatness before finally securing his first victory. He finished second three times in the 2014-15 PGA Tour campaign and second again this season. In 110 tour starts, he has one win, four seconds and 13 top-10s en route to earning $7.2 million. Kisner is a good old boy through and through, and is close to that breakout year that would put his career on the map.

But winning here? Well, that will take some doing over the next 54 holes. Kisner knows what he needs to be successful on this tight, fast track. It’s just whether he can do it often enough to remain atop the leaderboard.

“I have to keep it in the fairway, which is difficult with some of the winds and how fast the fairways are going,” Kisner said, “but today I was able to do that, hopefully keep doing it through the weekend. I love these greens. They were a little less grainy than last week and more like what I grew up on, so I feel comfortable on them.”

Like most golf professionals these days, Kisner didn’t have much time off prior to his long journey to the 50th state. He said last week he was fine-tuning his game and trying to get better, instead of starting from scratch.

“We didn’t have a big offseason game plan of trying to change much like we had in the last couple of years,” Kisner said. “Trying to maintain and keep working on the things we have been working on.

“So, it wasn’t like a huge grind in the offseason to go work on things. It was just more of a stay with the feel of the swing and I worked a lot on my putting to keep trying to improve on that.”