Sometimes a little impatience isn’t a bad thing.

Just one round into his 2012 season, Brendon de Jonge decided to change putters after an opening 71 at the Sony Open in Hawaii on Thursday.

The result was a blistering 62, the best round of the tournament so far, to move up 76 places on the leaderboard into a tie for fourth at 7 under heading into the weekend at Waialae Country Club.

Searching for his first PGA Tour win, the Zimbabwe native, who totaled more than $1.2 million in earnings in 2011, made eight birdies without a bogey.

His 24 total putts in the round were eight fewer than he had on Thursday.

"I switched back to the putter I used all of last year," said de Jonge, who had two top-five finishes in 2011. "I tried (the new putter) in the pro-am and made a couple of really good putts and figured I’d give it a go.

"Obviously (Thursday) I made absolutely nothing."

De Jonge added eight more birdies to his tour-leading total of 834 since the beginning of the 2010 season.

He started his round on the 10th with a birdie to set the tone for a blistering opening nine holes. He birdied four of the final five to post a 30 at the turn and added birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 9 to close with the first 62 at Waialae since Retief Goosen managed it on Sunday in 2010.

"I’ve always been a guy that’s made a fair amount of birdies," de Jonge said. "I go at a lot of flags and at times make a lot of bogeys because of that.

"It’s the way I play."

Morning conditions were perfect at Waialae for golfers like de Jonge to go out and shoot low. Fourteen of the 19 golfers who shot 66 or better on Friday teed off by 9 a.m.

That’ll change today as de Jonge begins the third round in one of the final three groups to tee off in the afternoon.

"I’ll just try to do more of the same," said de Jonge, whose best career finish is third in three different 2010 events. "I’ve been in this position a lot — definitely the last two or three years — and I feel like I’ve learned a lot."

While some of the top players in the field — including last week’s champion on Maui, Steve Stricker— have played a steady diet of golf heading into the week, de Jonge has relished his time off.

He last played in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China at the end of November and says the break helped put him in this spot to contend for a Sony title this weekend.

"I’m a guy that likes to take a lot of time off," said de Jonge, who is listed at 6 feet and 230 pounds. "Believe it or not, I actually started working out a little bit in the offseason."

De Jonge is one of two players from Africa in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event this season. South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini also made the cut and is sitting at 2 under after rounds of 67 and 71.