Henley surges to Hyundai lead

KAPALUA, Maui » With the wind down and the sun up, shooting a low score in the opening round of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions was a must if you wanted to see the top of the leaderboard.

Sang-Moon Bae went out early to post a 7-under 66 and then waited most of Friday afternoon to see if anyone in this elite winners-only field could catch him. Plenty tried, but only 2013 Sony Open in Hawaii champion Russell Henley passed him with an 8-under 65 to take the lead after the first round of this $5.7 million event played on the Plantation Course.

Of the 34 golfers teeing it up, only two landed in the black. By contrast, half the field shot in the 60s on this picture-perfect day that was the direct opposite of two years ago, when the start of the PGA Tour season was delayed by high wind and rain.

There wasn’t a hint of either before a small, but appreciative, West Maui crowd of fans walking up and down this hilly course built on the side of an extinct volcano. Landing in the expansive fairways isn’t the challenge here, neither is finding the big greens. But putting? Aye, there’s the rub Hamlet was talking about.

Henley had no problems with the flat stick, sinking 14 of 14 putts from inside 15 feet and four of 20 feet or more, reminiscent of what he did at Waialae Country Club two years ago when he set the aggregate record of 24-under 256 to win his first tour event.

"The main thing was obviously I putted great," said Henley, who shot all four rounds in the 70s in his previous appearance here. "I was seeing the lines today. You know, if I could putt like that every day, I would probably have won a few more times."

A logjam of golfers are tied for third just two shots back at 6-under 67, including 2014 Sony Open winner Jimmy Walker. He and Henley will be chasing after Ernie Els, Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh as the only golfers to finish first here and at Waialae. Els won back-to-back to start the 2003 season. Johnson is the defending champ here and captured the Sony in 2009. Furyk won here in 2001 and the United Airlines Hawaiian Open in 1996. Singh won the Sony in 2005 and the Tournament of Champions in 2007.

Joining Walker at 6 under are Scott Stallings, Robert Streb, Patrick Reed and Ben Martin, who chipped in from 43 yards out for eagle at the par-5 18th. Johnson is one of four tied for eighth at 5-under 68 along with Matt Kuchar, John Senden and Chris Kirk.

But on this day, no one was better than Henley, who had one of seven bogey-free rounds, thanks to a nice par save at the normally easy par-5 15th. Henley pulled his second shot into the weeds left of the green, leading to a drop from 112 yards out. He knocked that to within 12 feet and made the putt for par.

"What I really want to do is just keep a good attitude, keep an even keel when things don’t go my way," Henley said. "I hit a bad shot there and made a bad swing, but how I react to the bad shots is usually the indicator of how my round goes. Just try to keep a good attitude and go out there and hit a good next shot and give myself a good putt. Just one of those days where it fell in."

Bae had one of those days himself. His only blemish was a bogey at the par-4 11th that dropped him to 5 under after shooting a blistering 6-under 30 on the front. He managed two more birdies coming in to post his stellar 66 and put him in the mix come the weekend.

"I think I was in (a) zone," Bae said. "(It) was easier than last year because (I was) a little more comfortable on the course, on the green, also. Yeah, I think I played really, really good the front nine. Ball-striking was really, really good today."

Reed also had a good round from tee to green, particularly one stretch on the back nine. But it was on the green that he had some problems, missing several putts from close range to keep him from going even lower. He closed with a 13-footer for birdie at the last, but couldn’t shake the short misses he had on the closing side.

"I felt like I was doing a lot of things OK," Reed said. "I didn’t feel like I did anything extremely well. I kept on giving myself chances. It seemed like the closer I got to the hole, the more I missed it. If the wind is coming off the right, it’s going to snap; just minor adjustments for me going into (today) and hopefully I can turn in some good play."