Once Matt Kuchar rolled in an 11-footer for birdie on 18, Adam Scott was a lock to sink his.

That’s the way the day went for two of the world’s best golfers.

Paired with Jason Dufner in the marquee group of the first two rounds of the Sony Open in Hawaii, Scott and Kuchar matched scores for the first 16 holes, with Scott’s birdie on 8 the difference in pristine conditions at Waialae Country Club on Thursday.

Scott, No. 2 in the world golf rankings, finished at 3 under in a tie for 12th while Kuchar, ranked ninth in the world, was a shot back among a group of 23 heading into today’s second round.

"Yeah, Adam and I played some nice golf," said Kuchar, who has placed fifth in his past two trips to Waialae. "There were a lot of pars, not a lot of excitement going on."

For a full-field PGA Tour event, there wasn’t a whole lot going on as the two matched each other hole-for-hole with 15 pars and a birdie after starting their rounds on No. 10.

Had it been a match-play event, the two would have played a thriller down to the wire. Scott finally got the upper hand on No. 8 with a 12-footer for birdie while Kuchar had to scramble from the rough left of the green to save par.

Kuchar put the pressure back on Scott on the ninth, sinking his birdie putt, but Scott calmly got up and down from the short left greenside bunker for a birdie and a 67.

"Yeah, I played really a lot of good golf today, especially the first 14 holes or so," Scott said. "Then I had to make a couple saves coming in, but that can happen around here. It’s hard to hit these small greens, especially if you’re in the rough. To finish birdie, birdie made me feel a little better."

Playing here for just the second time since his second-place finish in 2009, the defending Masters champion had a new caddie on the bag.

Stevie Williams, who has caddied for Scott in every event he’s entered since the 2011 Colonial, recently turned 50 and announced he was scaling back his duties.

Pro surfer Benji Weatherly took over the bag this week.

"He did great, for his first time in a PGA Tour event," Scott said. "We had a lot of fun. Hopefully, he did. I did, that’s for sure. It was good to have him out there."

A nice-sized gallery followed the group around the Waialae fairways, with Dufner providing most of the excitement.

Following up on his fifth-place finish at Kapalua on Monday, Dufner hit just four of 14 fairways on Thursday, forcing him to scramble on nearly every hole to wind up with a respectable 67.

His last nine holes were especially adventurous, with birdies on the two par-3s and at 9, while making bogey on Nos. 2, 5 and 8.

"Pretty lucky to shoot the score I did," Dufner said. "There’s definitely a higher skill set needed to hit the fairway here because you’ve got a lot of shots that bend one way and end up going another way, so you’re hitting different shots, which changes the way you’re swinging."

After finishing his round Monday on Maui, Dufner, an Auburn grad, watched the Tigers come up just short against Florida State in the BCS national championship game.

Dufner said Thursday that he has spoken to football coach Gus Malzahn on more than one occasion since the 34-31 loss.

"Just trying to be encouraging because they were pretty down about how the game ended, disappointed," Dufner said. "Just keep stressing what a great job he’s doing, and this is just the beginning of what he has in plan for Auburn football.

"This is just all part of it. Got a lot of experience with failure out here. I told him to take it from a guy who loses way more than he wins. You’ll get over and learn from it and you’ll be better because of it."