One is the last player to raise a PGA trophy at Waialae Country Club.

The other is the last golfer to raise a trophy on the PGA Tour.

Matt Kuchar and Justin Thomas teed off together in the same afternoon group in the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii on Thursday with a record at Waialae Country Club that would leave even the best golfers in the world envious.

Kuchar earned his ninth PGA Tour win here last year with a score of 22-under 258, the third-lowest in Waialae history.

One of the two golfers to go even lower? That’d be Thomas, who in 2017 set a PGA Tour record of 253 after shooting a 59 in the first round.

Neither of those two, nor the other 142 in the first full-field event of 2020, will be threatening those numbers this year, as the two reigning champions endured one of the toughest rounds in recent memory with just 30 players finishing in red numbers.

Last year, 75 players shot 69 or better in the first round.

Kuchar, who is making his 15th appearance at Waialae, needed a birdie on 18 to close as one of just three of the 10 defending champions in the field to shoot under par.

It was more than just the wind that made Kuchar’s 1-under 69 a difficult round.

“The first hole plays nearly straight downwind today, and I mean, it’s blowing 25 miles an hour. I had 165 to the front,” Kuchar said. “Most I had (last year) to the front of (No.) 1 was 135, so I mean it’s a 30-yard difference. The wind is helping 20 miles an hour more amount of help, but it was just that much firmer and faster and the ball was rolling a ton last year.”

It didn’t get any easier on the greens, either.

“Standing over putts is hard,” said Kuchar, who needed 29 for his round. “You feel yourself getting blown around (and) you know your ball is going to get blown around once you hit it.”

By the time it was over, Kuchar just wanted to beat the oncoming rain that started to fall again.

I’m happy to be done, scorecard in,” he said.

Thomas, who had shot more rounds in the 50s than in the 70s in his last three appearances on Oahu, had an even tougher time. He bogeyed three of his first five holes and had as many bogeys Thursday on his way to a 2-over 72 as his final two rounds on Maui when he beat Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele in a playoff to win the tournament.

“Not exactly what you’re looking for after a week like last week,” Thomas said. “It was a grind, which was what last week was, so it was really hard to stay focused.”

Zach Johnson, the 2009 champion, flirted with an early lead before closing with a 1-under 69.

Jerry Kelly, the 2002 winner with nine career top-10 finishes at Waialae, made the turn at 3 under before two bogeys and a double dropped him back to even par for the round.

Ryan Palmer, who has three top-10 finishes since winning 10 years ago, closed birdie-birdie to tie for second at 3 under.

“We’ve all probably experienced wind like this at some point, but it’s rare,” said Johnson, who is making his 15th appearance at Waialae. “I’ve not experienced it here.”