Kirk takes lead, Spieth takes late tumble at Sony Open
HONOLULU — Chris Kirk finished strong at the Sony Open, making three birdies over his last four holes for a 7-under 63 and a one-shot lead.
Jordan Spieth wasn’t quite so fortunate. Spieth hit four trees with four shots on the par-4 eighth hole – his 17th of the round – an episode that began with his tee shot caroming off a trunk and into a ditch. He wound up with a quadruple-bogey 8, and even a pitch from the rough short of the ninth green that stopped inches away for birdie wasn’t enough to appease him.
He made eight birdies and shot 69. That was even more surprising than Thursday a year ago, when he had a 65 and was six shots behind Justin Thomas, who shot 59 in the same group.
Spieth declined media requests after he signed his card, instead taking 15 minutes to sign autographs.
Kirk played bogey-free on a gorgeous day along the shores just up the road from Waikiki Beach and had a one-shot lead over Vaughn Taylor, Kyle Stanley and Talor Gooch among the early starters at Waialae Country Club.
Thomas, the defending champion who broke the PGA Tour’s scoring record last year, played in the afternoon.
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 kill any momentum.
“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.”
He hit wedge to about three feet on the 15th and 16th, and that final birdie on the par-5 18th was a two-putt from 10 feet.
Spieth played well enough to be right there with Kirk except for a couple of long threeputt bogeys. And one tee shot that led to plenty of calamity.
His drive on No. 8 was not terribly offline, and the trees to the left are a common spot. This one hit the trunk of a tree and tumbled down a wide (and dry) ditch about eight feet below the fairway. He studied his options. He found none.
He could have dropped it with a penalty stroke, but there was nowhere to go. He ended up with a snowman (8) – in Hawaii, of all places.