An eagle finish at Waialae Country Club’s ninth hole got John Oda into the Sony Open in Hawaii’s weekend rounds.
A closing birdie on Saturday left the Moanalua graduate with a 1-under-par 69 for the day and 3 under through 54 holes entering today’s final round.
“It’s definitely nice to shoot in the red numbers considering how bad I hit it today,” Oda said. “It was a little off, so to end with a birdie, it’s nice.”
Oda jumped above the cut line at 2 under with his eagle on Friday and endured a roller-coaster first nine holes on Saturday. He started on No. 10 and carded three birdies and three bogeys to make the turn at even par. He strung together eight consecutive pars before closing with a birdie putt from just inside 4 feet on the par-5 ninth.
“It’s just tough to get up-and-downs when you’re out of position, but I somewhat managed to scrape it around on this side, saved pars when I needed to,” he said.
Oda left UNLV following an All-America junior season and will pick up his second PGA Tour paycheck after today’s round. He made $220,100 with an eighth-place finish at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in November, then missed the cut at the RSM Classic the following week.
“What I learned from Mayakoba is just have fun, play golf, don’t worry about the future outcomes,” said Oda, who shot a 70 in the final round in Mexico to finish 12 under for the tournament. “Really just try to have fun and enjoy the process.”
Oda tees off at 10:40 a.m. today at No. 10.
Caddie in hospital
HOLE OF THE DAY
The easiest hole of the day for the third consecutive round was the par-5 ninth with a scoring average of 4.368. There were only two eagles after 21 on Friday, 51 birdies, 20 pars, two bogeys and a quintuple-bogey 10 by Joel Dahmen. For the week, there have been 33 eagles, 230 birdies and 89 pars with only 11 scores over par at that hole out of 363 rounds.
Blayne Barber had a more hectic day that most in Hawaii and, considering what happened Saturday morning, that’s saying something.
His caddie, Cory Gilmer, went out with some friends Friday night and collapsed in a Waikiki restaurant, hitting his head hard on the floor.
“By the time I got there, he was unconscious and the paramedics were there,” Barber said. “Then I went to the hospital with him last night. And he’s pretty much been unresponsive since then.”
Barber said he slept about three hours Friday night before returning to the hospital Saturday morning. He said the third round was one of the most difficult he has played in his life. He shot a 69 for a three-day total of 3-under 207.
Early Saturday morning, he ran into the ER trauma doctor as she was leaving her shift. She told him that surgery was not needed and the reason Gilmer passed out hadn’t been determined.
“We don’t know why he collapsed,” Barber said. “I mean, he could have been dehydrated, any number of things. So yeah, I don’t think there are any clear answers at the moment.”
Inside the numbers
There were 50 golfers who landed in the 60s during Saturday’s third round of the Sony Open, to drop the scoring average to a blistering 68.408. A 63 by past U.S. Open winner Webb Simpson was the best round of the day. Leader Tom Hoge shared the second-best round with Patton Kizzire at 64.
The hardest hole was the par-3 11th with a scoring average of 3.303. There were seven birdies, 40 pars, 28 bogeys and one double by the 76 golfers who made the cut.
Sony Open Notebook by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
