KAPALUA, Maui >> With With nearly half the field teeing it up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions for the first time, you wouldn’t figure four of them would be in the top 10 after the opening round, including 18-hole leader Joaquin Niemann.

Throw in a golf course that is practically brand new after a nine-month renovation project and you might have a recipe for disaster among the first-time sect that numbers 15 of 34 playing this week in this PGA Tour winners-only event.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Not only did Niemann’s 7-under 66 delight a nice crowd that gathered at this West Maui location, he had plenty of company, with Tyler Duncan (69), Matthew Wolff (69) and J.T. Poston (70) among the 10 best.

And that’s saying something when they’re sharing the leaderboard with the likes of Justin Thomas (67), Matt Kuchar (68), Rickie Fowler (68) and world No. 3 Jon Rahm (69) in this elite field. If they were in awe of these golfers and this setting, they didn’t show it.

“When I turned pro, I remember I was a little scared,” Niemann said. “I didn’t know if I was going to be good enough to compete on tour. And after the first week I played, that I played really good, I figured out that — I knew if I played good, I can be on top of the leaderboard.”

That sentiment was echoed by Wolff, who a year ago was playing golf at Oklahoma State, and Duncan. Both first-time winners, they were excited just to be here, much less open with rounds in the top 10.

“This is probably one of the most fun courses that I’ve ever played, just with the views and all the slopes of the greens,” Wolff said. “I feel like there’s so many different ways to play this course. You can hit it high, especially with the firm greens, or you can run it up. And you can have so many different styles around this place, it’s really cool to see so many different styles of … different types of players have success here.”

Duncan felt some of the same excitement.

“I played awesome,” Duncan said. “I hit a lot of really good shots, and this course is incredible. It’s not like a lot of courses we play with being on the side of a mountain and these views, and the greens are firm, so it’s hard to get it close. I figured this is probably about the calmest day you guys have here in Maui, so looking forward to some wind this weekend, make everything a little more challenging and make the course play probably more how it’s supposed to.”

Inside the numbers

There’s one thing a PGA Tour event is never short of and that’s statistics. But unlike football and basketball, where numbers are easy to read and translate, golf is a different breed of sports animal.

Take two-time TOC winner Dustin Johnson as an example. He made 166 feet and 1 inch of putts in Thursday’s opening round, the second-most of his career, and shot only a 1-under 72. A hot putter, right? Well, you could also say his approach shots weren’t close to the hole and you’d be right.

Johnson had only seven pars on his card that included one eagle, five birdies, four bogeys and one double at the par-5 ninth. That’s what you call a roller-coaster round. Niemann and Rickie Fowler also had good days with the putter. Both were 16-for-16 with putts inside 10 feet. They were the only two players in the field who could make that claim.

Holes of the day

The par-4 third was the most difficult hole, with a scoring average of 4.324. There were no birdies, 25 pars, seven bogeys and two doubles. The easiest hole was the par-5 fifth, even with a new pot bunker in the middle of the fairway. The scoring average was a blistering 4.471. There were three eagles, 16 birdies, 11 pars and four bogeys for the round.