HONOLULU — Leading Chris Kirk may have been the only normalcy at the Sony Open.
Jordan Spieth started with a share of the lead on Friday. He walked the 18th green at Waialae in a state of mild shock after missing the cut.
“I felt like I had a really bad card deck today,” said Spieth, the first player to leave early from his share of the 18-hole lead since Matt Every at Bay Hill in 2020. It was a weird day.”
He scored 5 over 75 after opening with 64.
Rory Sabatini birdied on the 18th hole in the morning and was within shot range of the lead as he headed for the front nine. He hit his tee shot out of bounds. double bogey. He pulled the drive into the water at No. 2. double bogey. He pulled his shot into the same water in the second of his 3rd and got the same score. He scored 74 on his final nine where he marked 41 and missed the cut by one point.
JJ Spaun had a great time all the way through. On his par-5 9th hole, one of his on a bad swing smashed his tee shot into the canal, leading to a bogey on Waialae’s easiest hole. He still shot 64 and was one shot behind.
But imagine showing up for the first tee at a PGA Tour event in the middle of the Pacific and watching your high school principal. Retired from San Dimas High School, Rita Kier just happened to be on vacation with her husband.
“I saw her at the first tee. Sure enough,” Spaun said. “small world.”
Friday’s strange world just outside of wild and quirky Waikiki.
Kirk dropped just one shot in the round, going 5-under 65, and went 11-under 129, giving him a one-shot lead over Spaun and PGA Tour rookie Taylor Montgomery. Finish in top 15.
He’s polite to his mistakes, so it wasn’t hard to imagine hearing Montgomery talk about his teenage years in Las Vegas and when he was a caddy at Shadow Creek, trash-talking Michael Jordan. (It wasn’t a good ending for Montgomery). Again, it was comparable to Friday’s course at Waialae.
Kirk was one of those feel-good talks at the Sony Open two years ago. He had been away from golf to seek help for alcoholism and depression.He received a medical extension and the Sony Open was his last chance to keep his full card.He was his second He did it by closing in on his 65 to a draw.
Kirk was one of the tied-leaders as he started the second round. He birdied his first three holes and wasn’t too stressed apart from a bogey on the 6th hole. However, he understands the difficulty of trying to stay in good shape from one day to the next.
“It’s very difficult mentally to be good at this game professionally,” he said. “I don’t know if I did a good job today, but thankfully I did well on the back nine. I always remember that pressure is a privilege when you start feeling a little nervous.”
Spieth didn’t know what he was feeling. He was in the mix all day as he transitioned from rough to funky lie in the bunker. Next is the par-5 9th hole, the easiest birdie on the course until the ball heads straight for the canal.
With his left foot on the cart path, he dropped near the red hazard line. If I hit more relief, the tree would come out, but I was worried about his left foot slipping, and the ball didn’t fade out as I expected. It was a mess and he had to make a 10-foot putt for a bogey.
I felt like that all day long.
“I never led a tournament and never qualified,” Spieth said. “I got the ball in the wrong place in the wrong place.”
The cut doesn’t officially take place until Saturday morning, as darkness prevented everyone from finishing. But that would be 2 under 138. At his 2-under, Davis Thompson faced an eagle his putt from just inside 60 feet. As long as he doesn’t four-putt, he’ll do well over the weekend. Given how Friday went, waiting was probably a good idea.
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