The same old Scottie Scheffler in a new year. The top player in the world finished Friday at The Sentry with a 9-under 64 scoring eight birdies and an eagle. He leads the PGA TOUR’s season opening tournament by one stroke heading into the weekend.
It has become commonplace to receive low scores on the Kapalua Plantation Course. The Kona wind hasn’t been strong enough to stop the 59-player field from attacking at will, even with it blowing from the opposite direction.
At 16-under 130, Scheffler was only able to take a one-shot lead over Sungjae Im, Brendon Todd, and jet-lagged Tyrrell Hatton.
It’s one of those venues where you will be rewarded if you perform well on the pitch. You could run into problems if you start not hitting it in the proper places. Simply must maintain a high gear.
Hatton did that regardless of how worn out he is. He said that, in addition to his three-hour layover in Los Angeles, a mechanical delay made his trip from London to Maui take just over 25 hours. It wasn’t just the lengthy travel that was making him feel off.
Then he fired out his lowest round as a professional, a 62.
“Given how long I’ve been gone, it could come as a surprise to do it in the second round back to start the year. Although I wouldn’t say I took care of myself in December, it might have had a minor influence. Yes, therefore there has been poor movement of the body. You would be appalled if you had seen some of the flight tracers from some of my tee shots, I’m sure.” Hatton said.
The par-5 last hole featured an eagle putt from less than 100 feet off the green, capping what he called a “crazy day on the greens” that resulted in the 62.
On the back nine, Hatton had just one par and one bogey.
Todd finished with a 64 after shooting 30 on the front nine and finishing steadily. Im shot 66. FedExCup winner Viktor Hovland finished two strokes behind the leader Collin Morikawa (67), Chris Kirk (65), and Byeong Hun An (64), after making an eagle putt from slightly over 50 feet on the final hole.
An is one of seven PGA TOUR players who has never won at Kapalua. Previously limited to past year’s winners, the tournament is now open to all participants who placed among the top 50 in the FedExCup.
The scoring has been excellent, just like it was the previous two years when Jordan Spieth, who finished with a 67 to trail only by three strokes, shrugged and said, “Just average.”
Yes, on Friday the average score was 67.4. Every of the 59 players broke par.
Naturally, Scheffler was not a huge surprise. He was voted PGA TOUR Player of the Year for the second consecutive year thanks in large part to one of his best statistical seasons on the PGA TOUR last year.
He defeated a field of 20 elite competitors in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas to close out the previous year. And now look at him, on Maui, making enough 6-footers for par along the road to maintain momentum, and holing enough birdie putts.
Scheffler has an abundance of opportunities in addition to his ability to hit the ball.
I had a really strong performance. When I did run into trouble, I was able to quickly get out of it and make a few excellent putts in addition to hitting some excellent pitches.
When Scheffler reached the scoring portion of the back nine, Hatton, Todd, and Im had already established the objective, and the Texan capitalised. He made four consecutive birdies with a wedge that he clipped precisely to six feet. He nailed a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 12, played a wedge up the hill to eight feet on the 13th, drove into the bunker on the reachable 14th.
The 667-yard 18th hole is downhill with a fast fairway, but the Kona wind made it play all that way. On Thursday, Scheffler hit 5-iron to the green; on Friday, the wind forced him to hit 3-iron.
“A good three iron” he remarked.
“Playing it is a lot of fun. Everyone undoubtedly wants to begin their year there. While many fairways have a lot of width, some of them don’t actually play that wide. To play successfully out here, you need to shape the ball in diverse ways, hit quality shots, and perform a variety of other tasks.” Scheffler said.
