Kirk, Johnson off to hot starts at Sony
Spieth runs into tree trouble, gets derailed with quadruple bogey
Zach Johnson and Chris Kirk each made seven birdies and shared the lead in the Sony Open.
Jordan Spieth made eight birdies and for the second straight year walked away from Waialae Country Club in Honolulu amazed that he could be six shots behind.
Ayear ago, it was because Justin Thomas shot 59 playing in the same group.
On Thursday, it was one hole.
Spieth hit four trees with four shots on the par- 4 eighth hole— his 17th of the opening round — starting with a tough break when his tee shot caromed off the trunk of a tree and down an 8-foot deep ditch that left him no good options. He wound up with a quadruple-bogey 8 and had to set- tle for a 69.
Johnson and Kirk kept clean cards on their way to 7-under 63s. They were a shot ahead of Brian Harman, Vaughn Taylor, Kyle Stanley and PGA Tour rookie Talor Gooch.
Thomas, who set the PGA Tour scoring record for 72 holes in his wire-to-wire victory, opened with a 67 and was all smiles at the end. Thomas, an Alabama alum, won a bet on the college football championship that required Georgia graduate Kevin Kisner towear a Crimson Tide jersey on the par-3 17th.
“It’s definitely the best Kis has ever looked in a jersey,” Thomas said.
Kirk had only one top 10 last year his final event of the year in the RSM Classic at Sea Island and nearly two months off didn’t appear to half any momentum. He might have been rusty, but not when it comes to island life.
Because of the chilly weather in the South, Kirk brought his family out to Oahu a week ago Monday.
He practiced a little in the morning at Ko Olina and hung out with his wife and children in the after- noon. He realized how little golf he had played during the short offseason when he reached into his bag and found golf balls that he had marked for the final round at Sea Island.
“I’ve probably been off long enough now that you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I really had no expectations whether I was going to play good or bad after having some time off. But this is a golf course that I’ve traditionally done pretty well on, and a place that I really love. So you always feel like it’s possible.”
He hit wedge to about 3 feet on the 15th and 16th, and that final birdie on the par- 5 18th was a two-putt from 10 feet.
Dryweather, a fast course and the trades allowed a rarity for Johnson, who hit wedge into the green on the 480-yard opening hole.
That was first of three straight birdies, and he had ample more opportunities, including a shot that hit the pin on No. 10 and settled 3 feet away.
He missed that, though the two-time major champion wasn’t too discouraged. He picked up an unlikely birdie on the 13th fromthe fairway bunker by making a 25-foot putt, and hemade a 20-foot birdie on the next hole.
“Just kept the course in front of me and played solid golf,” Johnson said, winless since the 2015 British Open at St. Andrews. “Made a few putts, missed a few putts. But I’m very encouraged with the direction.”
Spieth played well enough to be right there with them except for a pair of long three-putt bogeys— and that one tee shot.
GRACE, KOEPKA SHARE LEAD » Branden Grace and Chase Koepka shot 7-under 65s to share the first-round lead at the SA Open in Gauteng, South Africa.
Koepka, the younger brother of U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka, set the clubhouse target by hitting an eagle and seven birdies in his third tournament of his debut season on the European Tour.
Grace had three eagles at Nos. 2, 8 and 15 as he bids for a ninth European Tour title.