Eric Dugas of Kihei and Makena Golf Club posted his best score at the Sony Open to lead the four-player contingent of local golfers in the field.
Dugas earned a spot in the field for the second straight year and fourth overall by winning the Aloha Section PGA Stroke Play Championship and finished the opening round with a 3-under 67. He’ll start today’s round tied for 14th.
Moanalua graduate Brent Grant qualified on Monday as the co-medalist at Hoakalei Country Club and rallied from a rough start to finish at 2-over 72. He started on No. 10 and was 5 over through 10 holes but birdied three of his last four holes and came with 7 inches of an eagle on the par-5 ninth.
Jared Sawada of Mililani also earned a spot in the Monday qualifier and opened his third Sony Open appearance at 2 over. He began the day with nine consecutive pars before a triple bogey on No. 1. He birdied the next hole and the last with a bogey on No. 6.
Maryknoll sophomore Peter Jung won the exemption reserved for a local amateur and finished his opening round at 14 over.
Plenty changes on tour
There are several changes on the PGA Tour as the new calendar year begins, and they don’t all have to do with the rules. The Sony Open in Hawaii is the 10th event on the tour calendar and part of a new schedule the tour is calling the season of championships.
The Players Championship moving to March and the PGA Championship finding a new home in May are part of a six-month stretch of significant events that ends with the FedEx Cup playoffs in August. The FedEx Cup has dropped from four events to three, with the season ending before Labor Day. Since there are only three tournaments, the first cut will be at 125 for the Northern Trust, 70 for the BMW Championship and 30 for the Tour Championship won last year by Tiger Woods.
A strokes-based scoring system at the Tour Championship will crown a singular champion. To make that work, instead of a points reset before the season-ending event, it will be strokes. This is how it works. The leader after the first two FedEx Cup events will begin the Tour Championship at 10 under par. The next four players will start at 8 under through 5 under. The next five will begin at 4 until players No. 26-30 begin at even par.
There is also a $10 million Wyndham Rewards-sponsored bonus where the top 10 players before the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs will get a little extra spending money. The man in first after the final regular-season event will get $2 million, with the golfer finishing 10th earning $500,000. Last year, Dustin Johnson finished first in the regular season, beating Justin Thomas by 83 points. Runner-up in this bonus format is $1.5 million. The winner of the FedEx Cup season title takes home $15 million.
New-look greens at Waialae
Defending Sony Open champion Patton Kizzire returned to a course presenting a couple of new challenges.
The greens at Nos. 10 and 18 were renovated in the year since Kizzire edged James Hahn in a six-hole playoff. After his first official round on the course, Kizzire found the changes added some difficulty to the par-5 18th, where players typically lose a stroke to the field with anything worse than birdie.
“Number 10 is more of a layup hole now,” Kizzire said. “We tend to lay up on No. 10, especially with the front pin. I think once you see the pins in the back of the green you’ll see more guys pushing it down there.
“And No. 18 is certainly more difficult. That green is playing really firm and is elevated there in the front right, which gives a lot of guys some problems. It’s made it at least a stroke more difficult.”
