Punahou’s Suppa makes the cut at Sony Open in Hawaii

Punahou School junior Kyle Suppa shot a 1-under 69 Friday in the second round of the Sony Open in Hawaii and just made the cut with a 2-under 138.

Suppa is one of 85 golfers who will play through the weekend. Had two more players gone to 3 under in the late afternoon, he would have missed the cut. For the day the 16-year-old carded two birdies and his only bogey of the tournament at the par-4 seventh. He had one birdie and 17 pars in his opening round.

First-round leader Webb Simpson (66), Matt Kuchar (63) and rookie Justin Thomas (61) are tied for first after 36 holes at 12-under 128. Two-time runner-up Tim Clark shot back-to-back 65s and is tied for fourth with Troy Merritt (64) at 10-under 130. Russell Knox is another shot back in sixth at 9-under 131 after carding a second-round 64 along with Rory Sabbatini (67).

"It wasn’t quite as clean as Thursday," Simpson said. "I just tried to stay patient and I did a good job with that. The wind picked up a little bit, so it wasn’t easy out there.I know there were some good scores, but I didn’t think it was that easy."

Defending Sony Open champion Jimmy Walker shot his second consecutive 66 and is tied for eighth with 2010 Sony winner Ryan Palmer (63), Mark Leishman (62), J.J. Henry (67), Robert Streb (69) and Paul Casey (70).

"Yeah, it’s pretty good around here," Clark conceded when asked about his pair of 65s. "I’ve hit it really well the first two days, driven it in the a fairway. I’ve had a lot of chances and I’ve made some nice putts, an obviously you always feel  like you might have left a few out there, but overall, I’ve made my share."

Merritt echoed the sentiment that if you find the fairways at the tight Waialae Country Club layout, you can go low. He was 6 under for his round and put himself in a good position after two rounds.

"I hit the driver a lot better today," Merritt said. "I think if you count the last one on 18, 7-for-7 on up and downs and 12 of 13 for the first two days, which isn’t my forte the last few years. But I worked hard in the offseason on the short game and it’s paying off so far."

Jerry Kelly matched the best round of the tournament so far with an eight-under 62 to overcome a slow opening round of 73.