Matt Kuchar tops Sony Open after second round

After a two-year absence, Matt Kuchar’s fondness for Waialae Country Club has indeed grown.

Already a fan favorite at the Sony Open in Hawaii, Kuchar enters the weekend atop the leaderboard in his return to Waialae after two years away.

Kuchar didn’t need much to get reacquainted with the layout in posting a 63 on Thursday. He repeated that number on Friday to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at 14 under.

With a brilliant 36 holes behind him and 36 ahead, Kuchar enters today’s round in contention on a course where he’s posted four top-five finishes in his career.

“It’s one of my favorite stops on the tour. I love the golf course. I love the island of Hawaii, the culture. It’s a great week,” Kuchar said. “I love the simplicity of this week, staying on property and just so many great things about this week.

“So certainly missed, and glad to be back.”

A regular visitor to Hawaii, Kuchar has taken in much of what the islands offer and plans to continue on to the Big Island and Kauai after the tournament. Among the items still unmarked on his Hawaii checklist, a visit to Molokai and lifting the Sony Open trophy.

To accomplish the latter he’ll have to fend off a pack led by Andrew Putnam, who followed his opening 62 with a bogey-free 65 on Friday to keep the pressure on Kuchar at 13 under and join him in the final group today.

“It was another great day. Course is playing tough, fast, and firm. Just happy to have a pretty clean scorecard and have another great round,” Putnam said.

Kuchar has banked more than $1.077 million in Sony Open earnings and, including his two rounds this week, Kuchar has an average score of 66.5 over his last 22 tours of the course, failing to break 70 on just three occasions.

He skipped the PGA Tour’s Oahu stop in 2017 and ’18, but a win at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico in November earned him a spot in the Sentry Tournament of Champions and he tied for 19th at the Kapalua Plantation Course.

He naturally made the hop over from Maui and began the week by posting his best 36-hole start in 14 appearances at Waialae. Kuchar’s previous best was 12 under in 2015, when he went into the weekend tied for the lead with eventual champion Jimmy Walker and then-rookie Justin Thomas.

“Just two great days. To shoot 7 under back to back is unexpected, but (I’m) certainly awfully excited,” said Kuchar, who teed off at No. 10 Friday morning and opened with three consecutive birdies to race past first-round leader Adam Svensson.

“Been on some good form, so felt really good (Thursday); today probably wasn’t quite as clean. I think I hardly missed a fairway yesterday and today missed a handful. Boy, the golf course gets tough when you’re playing from the rough. Even if you have short clubs in your hand it’s challenging.”

Kuchar made the turn at 5 under for the round when he dropped a putt from nearly 16 feet for eagle on No. 18. He cooled slightly over the next nine, finding the fairway bunker off the tee on Nos. 6 and 9. After laying up out of the sand on the par-5 ninth, a deft touch with a wedge from the fairway left him inside of 3 feet for a closing birdie.

Kuchar’s 63 in the opening round was only good for solo third on Thursday, eclipsed by Svensson’s 61 and Putnam’s 62. He was still short of low-round honors again on Friday, with Stewart Cink shooting a 62 to vault into contention at 10 under.

Cink is tied for third with Chez Reavie, who signed one of the oddest scorecards of the day, with three eagles from the fairway countered by a double bogey on No. 4 on his way to a second straight 65.

Putnam’s putter wasn’t quite as hot as it was on Thursday — when he needed just 23 from the short stick — but he still rolled in a 51-foot birdie on the par-3 seventh to get to 12 under.

“That was reminiscent of yesterday. That was just kind of a bonus putt that went in. Probably didn’t putt quite as good today, but still putted pretty well,” Putnam said.

A wedge from the rough on No. 9 set up a 3-foot birdie to close the gap on Kuchar to one shot.

Svensson, a tour rookie from Canada, struggled in his follow-up to his lowest score as a pro and plunged out of the top 10 with a 4-over 74.

Jordan Spieth provided a bit of drama late in the afternoon for the sizable gallery following the former world No. 1. Coming off a 73 on Thursday, Spieth made a run at the cut line on Friday with three birdies in his last four holes. But he needed an eagle on No. 18 to get to 2 under and his chip across the green threatened before sliding to the right. He ended his tournament by knocking in a birdie putt, with the flagstick in the hole, to close at 1 under for the week.

“For not playing well at all and being on the bad end of the draw, to miss the cut by one is reassuring,” Spieth said. “I also love the way we fought back there at the end. That was fun. I felt like I was trying to win a golf tournament just to make the cut, which is not really something I want to get used to, but early in the season when I started the day 17 shots back, it was something where I could actually feel some pressure and make adjustments, too.

“I knew coming in that the game was off and needed to kind of start to fine-tune. So I’m in a good space given what happened.”