Jimmy Walker finds himself in the strange position of having an opportunity for redemption via successful defense of a championship.
He won here at Waialae last year. But he lost in a playoff on Maui last week.
We hear a lot these days in almost all sports about playing not to lose. And — regardless what happened at Kapalua six days ago — don’t worry about that from Walker as he takes a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
The way the defending champion sees it, he might just need something close to the 8-under 62 he fired Saturday if he is to become the first back-to-back winner here since Ernie Els more than a decade ago.
“Somebody is shooting a low round every day, and you never know where it’s going to come from, so you’ve got to go out with the expectation you’ve got to shoot a good score (Sunday),” said Walker, following his 17th straight round of golf in Hawaii in the 60s. “You have to go hit good shots and shoot good scores and that type of thing. Nobody is going to lay down.”
Patrick Reed isn’t around this week to go 5 under over the final five holes, including the playoff, to catch and pass him and take home the hardware, like he did at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
But plenty of others are in striking range, and the weather is again expected to be conducive to low scores.
There will be no backing into this one, for anyone.
Matt Kuchar is just two strokes back, so the lead could change after the first hole. When asked, he guessed that anyone within six shots of the top of the leaderboard could fire a great round Sunday and possibly steal the trophy. That might be a stretch, since the 11 tied for eighth place would have to count on a lot of mediocre golf from the players above.
But it’s good to keep in mind that in addition to Walker on Saturday, five other golfers have shot 62 this week. And Justin Thomas fired 61 on Friday. There’s no reason to not expect another round like that Sunday, from someone.
Still, Kuchar doesn’t see any advantage in playing from even just two shots behind — especially with Walker playing as well as he is.
“He should have won last week … certainly got a good track record here, knows how to play this course, and I don’t expect anything but a really good round out of him. I think it’s going to have to take a great round out of me to have a chance,” Kuchar said.
That’s especially so if Walker continues another streak; he finished Saturday’s round with 11 consecutive one-putts. He made birdie on eight of those 11 holes.
Monday’s collapse was a stark contrast, with no birdies after the 10th hole. But he said there are no demons to excise.
“It’s not like I’m not sleeping anymore or I can’t eat,” Walker said.
“I’m hanging in there all right.”
He knows he will need more birdies to say the same Sunday afternoon. And he will go about his business the same way.
“I definitely wanted to win last week, but you try to take as much positives as you can out of the situation, and try to figure out what you did, what you could have done different. But we talked about what we did, and we liked what we did. It just didn’t work out.
“It’s nice to get back right where we want to be, having a chance to win, especially after last week.”
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
