Like clockwork, Kuchar in hunt

Is this finally the year?

That’s the hope for PGA Tour veteran Matt Kuchar, who occupies his usual spot on the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Kuchar, a seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, rolled in seven birdies to shoot a 63 and sit in a three-way tie for first at 12 under on Friday.

It was the 14th consecutive round of par or better at Waialae Country Club for the Georgia Tech alum, who has finished in the top six the past three times he’s teed it up here, but never won.

"I think my game is much better, much steadier, much more consistent," said Kuchar, who missed the cut in six of his first eight trips to Waialae. "I don’t know that I have any extra knowledge of this course. This may be one of the most straightforward courses we play all year."

Ranked 11th in the world, Kuchar is hoping for much more than just extending his streak of top-25 finishes to start the season to six.

He has been within shouting distance of the lead on Sunday three times in four years, only to see someone else catch fire and pull away.

It’s a little different this time around, as Kuchar has no one ahead of him to chase. It’s the first time he’s held at least a share of the 36-hole lead.

"My game feels definitely solid enough," Kuchar said of his title chances.

It showed Friday as Kuchar heated up midway through his round. He blew past the morning golfers already in the clubhouse with four birdies in five holes, starting at the easy par-5 ninth after narrowly missing an eagle putt.

He had a tap-in birdie on No. 10 and then sank a 32-footer on No. 12 to get to 10 under.

Kuchar had never birdied 13 in 32 attempts until Thursday and matched it on Friday with another long putt close to 30 feet.

"Thirteen is a really hard hole," Kuchar said. "It’s one where you can play a lot and you’d be real happy with not making too many bogeys there, much less birdies, so it was good fortune for two days to make a couple birdies and just get that monkey off my back."

Kuchar had an opportunity to claim the outright lead on the par-5 18th, which played as the second-easiest under perfect scoring conditions.

He missed the fairway left with a drive that landed in a bunker and went with a wood to try to attack the green. The ball barely got over the lip as it whistled into the heavy rough less than 70 yards away.

Still, Kuchar managed an iron out of the thick stuff, landing the ball softly on the green. His 25-footer for birdie just slid by as he settled for par.

"Probably not the smartest shot, but one I thought I could pull it off, hitting that 3-wood out of the fairway bunker," Kuchar said. "I actually thought I made great contact. I guess it came out too low, which is not surprising. I tend to make that mistake more often than I should."

Regarded as one of the best golfers in the world never to win a major, the 36-year-old says it’s a goal he can’t worry about until the Masters in April.

Until then, he has many other trophies to add to his trophy case, including the Sony, which he treats just like any of the four majors.

"When I show up here, I give this the same amount of effort to winning the Sony Open as I’m going to put in for Augusta National (or) as I’m going to put in for a U.S. Open," Kuchar said. "Certainly I’m missing a major championship, for sure, but I’m missing a Sony Open title from my resume (too)."