Kirk Triplett figured he had nothing to lose after a disastrous back nine in his opening round in the Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.
That sense of freedom helped him make huge gains over the next two days.
Triplett shot a 42 on the back nine at Kapolei Golf Club on Friday and closed the first round 6 over par and tied for 76th in the 81-player field.
He hit the reset button Saturday morning and proceeded to shoot 14 under par over the next two days to vault into the top 10 before finishing 14th.
"It went from a throw-away week to a successful week," Triplett said on Sunday after signing for his second straight 65.
The tournament began modestly enough for Triplett, who shot even par on his first nine holes. He then tumbled out of contention with a triple bogey on No. 13 and a double bogey on the par-3 16th.
"Once you get that far out of it, you’ve really got nothing to lose," Triplett said. "You kind of get relaxed. I was really frustrated and kind of had a mental blowout and everything just recovered and you can start over."
He didn’t have a bogey for the rest of the tournament and jumped into 38th place after Saturday’s 65. Triplett started on No. 10 again on Sunday and birdied five of his first nine holes. He had just two birdies on the front side, but credited a couple of par saves for maintaining his momentum.
"We’ve all gone through those exchanges in our careers. Sometimes they come between tournaments and sometimes it happens in the middle of a tournament," Triplett said.
"I drove the ball better and when I missed it I always had it in the right spot, a place where I could get it up and down for birdie or par. The first day I just got in some spots where it was hard to even make a bogey."
By the time he walked up the ninth fairway, he was tied for seventh and with admittedly some thoughts of what might have been if he’d steadied himself a little earlier on Friday.
"Nobody’s thinking that more than me," Triplett said. "But maybe I wouldn’t have gotten to that level of freedom I got to when I was 6 over. You’re always looking for a little bit of momentum and hopefully I have some in my corner now."
Local flavor
Hilo native Kevin Hayashi finished second among players with local ties after shooting a 4-over 76 in the final round to finish tied for 59th at 2-over 218. He missed a short putt for par at the last, but managed to smile about it as he headed to the scorer’s tent.
Former Kailua resident Scott Simpson eased past Hayashi with a final-round 70 that left him tied for 49th with a three-day total of even-par 216. Dave Eichelberger finished 76th at 8-over 224 and David Ishii was 77th at 12-over 228.
Inside the numbers
The scoring average for Sunday’s final round was 71.087. The average for the tournament was 71.157. There were 23 rounds in the 60s and 53 below par out of the 80 golfers who teed it up.
The hardest hole Sunday was the par-3 eighth with a scoring average of 3.188. There were only three birdies and 18 bogeys. The easiest hole was the par-5 17th with a scoring average of 4.412. There were no eagles, 50 birdies and one double bogey.
For the week, the 17th was the easiest with a scoring average of 4.413. There were seven eagles on that hole and 11 eagles for the week. There were no eagles in Sunday’s final round. The hardest hole for the week was the par-4 13th at 4.186. There were 23 birdies on that hole, offset by 63 bogeys.
