The first-round leaderboard at the Sony Open in Hawaii backed up a trend of recent winners at Waialae Country Club.
The success of golfers who played on Maui the week before — the last five winners at Waialae all played in the Tournament of Champions — was not only evidenced by Andrew Putnam’s opening-round 62, but also by some of the names nowhere to be found after Day 1.
Three-time major winner Jordan Spieth, playing here for the first time without teeing it up on the Valley Isle the week before, made just one birdie and followed it up with one of four bogeys to shoot 3-over 73.
Zach Johnson, the 2009 Sony champion who has finished in the top 15 in four of the past five years, shot over par for just the second time in his last 22 trips around the par-70 course.
And Adam Scott, who played on Maui before three of his four top-20 finishes in his past six trips to Oahu, needed a birdie on his last hole just to get to 2 over in a tie for 112th.
The three have combined to play on Maui 19 times, but none of them made it into the winners-only event this year.
“At least one of the events has to be the first event (and it) happens to be the Sony this year,” said Spieth, who was nearly seven shots off the 66.25 scoring average of his past eight rounds at Waialae. “I like playing into tournaments, into majors, trying to kind of get yourself into form as you come to an event.”
In Spieth’s case, not playing just meant another week since he last teed it up when he missed the cut in Mexico in mid-November.
He conceded as much on Wednesday, saying he was unsure where his game was at after his wedding and honeymoon during the nearly two-month break.
It was an adventure upon his return, hitting just half of his fairways and losing almost three strokes in putting to finish in a tie for 127th.
“I went through a couple different swings today. It was kind of a test, I guess,” Spieth said. “It’s very unusual. I don’t feel like I’ve been in this situation before.”
Unless you had a Maui hangover like Gary Woodland, who finished runner-up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions despite shooting 5 under with a three-shot lead entering the final day, last week provided an excellent warm-up to the much shorter and tighter Waialae course.
Matt Kuchar took advantage of perfect afternoon conditions to shoot 63 and finish two back of the leader.
Brandt Snedeker rolled in birdies on three of his final seven holes to sit in a tie for seventh place at 4 under and defending champion Patton Kizzire fired a bogey-free 67.
Even Woodland, who bogeyed three of his first six holes, birdied two of his last three to get to 1 over.
“The greens (here) are rolling perfect,” said Snedeker, whose second-place finish here in 2016 came after he placed third on Maui. “The biggest break you’ll see here is maybe a foot of break maybe on a putt. (On Maui) if you had anything under a foot you would be excited. Everything was 5, 6, 7 feet, over 10 feet.”
Of the 23 out of 33 golfers on Maui who made the 40-minute inter-island flight, 14 finished under par and seven finished in the top 27. Only Spieth and Andrew Landry shot worse than 72.
Although the scores indicate it’s an advantage playing the week before, the long, hilly layout at Kapalua does leave players a little fatigued coming over to Oahu just a couple of days later.
“Maui kind of beats you up as a player, to be honest with you,” said Jason Dufner, who shot a 4-under 66. “Usually at the end of the week of Maui I’m pretty beat up and tired.”