Six birdies on the front nine help offset Jonathan Byrd’s rough finish in the first round

KAPALUA, MAUI >> A year later, and still no one can catch Jonathan Byrd at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

The defending champion birdied six straight holes on the front nine to grab the lead in Friday’s opening round. The depleted 27-man field could easily have been further back. Byrd bogeyed Kapalua Plantation’s easiest hole (No. 9) and three-putted the 18th for par in his round of 6-under 67.

That left Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson, Martin Laird and Michael Bradley a shot back. At No. 6 in the world, Stricker is the top-ranked player in this collection of 2011 winners. Simpson is 10th, with Laird 47th and Byrd 55th.

Bradley, a 45-year-old whose only top 10s the past 11 years were two wins at the Puerto Rico Open, is ranked 276th. He and Rookie of the Year Keegan Bradley — no relation — were the only players to avoid bogey. They are the oldest and youngest golfers in the tournament.

Keegan Bradley, the only major champ from 2011 on Maui, is alone in sixth after shooting 69 in his Plantation debut. The 25-year-old eagled No. 9 from 56 yards out.

Lucas Glover withdrew Friday, making this the tiniest TOC since 1994. The 2009 U.S. Open champ injured his knee paddleboarding last weekend. A dozen golfers who qualified, including the world’s top five, are not playing the $5.6 million tournament that opens the PGA Tour season.

Maybe they are intimidated by the 5foot-9 Byrd. He beat Robert Garrigus in a playoff here last year and took off again Friday, sinking short birdie putts at Nos. 3, 4 and 5, then draining three more from outside 25 feet.

He had a strange explanation for his hot 2012 start.

“I never play my best when I’m really confident,” Byrd shrugged. “I do my best when I’m a little uneasy and I’m kind of managing my misses around the golf course and not trying to just flag it. I think you’ve got to play this golf course that way because of all the conditions and slopes.

“But just to get out there, you’re kind of like, ‘Whoa, six birdies in a row.’ I can’t remember the last time I did that.”

A “bad decision” to hit driver on his second shot at the par-5 ninth resulted in a “just awful” bogey — his first in 48 holes at Plantation. That brought him back to everyone else in the vast Plantation’s rolling, windy, wild golf world. He stopped “looking and reacting” on the greens and started to “mis-hit” putts, “eking them up to the hole.”

Byrd called the 18th “embarrassing,” after his second shot reached the green, 57 feet from the pin. His eagle putt missed by 12 feet and the birdie try never had a chance.

“I misread the (first) putt TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS At Kapalua, Maui Plantation Course at Kapalua $5.6 million

7,411; Par 73 (36-37) The Golf Channel, 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. today and Sunday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday. on 18,” he admitted. “That’s kind of where you’re embarrassed. You’re leading the golf tournament and you walk off a hole embarrassed. I whiffed on there.”

Stricker’s break from brilliance came at the par-3 eighth, when he chose the wrong club and didn’t clear the hazard. Then he birdied four of the last five, which surprised no one. This is the 44-year-old’s fourth appearance on Maui in five years and his worst finish is 10th.

Laird, a 29-year-old from Scotland, also went on a back-nine tear with four birdies in five holes. In his only other appearance here, he finished fourth in 2010.

Simpson is here for the first time and, like Byrd, got hot on the front nine — considered the Plantation’s tougher side. He was 4 under at the turn, then parred seven straight before getting his only back-nine birdie.

In the final seven events of 2011, Simpson had six top 10s, including two wins and a runner-up finish.

David Toms’ 76 was the highest score Friday. He tees off first, alone, today at 10:35 a.m. Byrd and Michael Bradley go out last at 12:45 p.m.