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Nick Taylor’s familiarity with a potentially tight situation came in handy on Friday.
The Canadian had jumped into the lead in the fading sunlight at Waialae Country Club when he pulled his final drive of the afternoon into the fence separating the ninth fairway from the driving range, threatening to stall his surge.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been there before, so I had a hunch I was going to get a drop,” Taylor said. “It took a little extra time but happy, and I was fortunate we did.”
After conferring with a rules official, Taylor was indeed granted relief and he converted the break into a closing birdie to cap a career-best round of 8-under-par 62 that sent him into the weekend with a two-shot lead at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
A two-time winner on tour, Taylor enters today’s play at 12 under and will have quite a bit of firepower coming after him today with five players — with 24 tour wins, including two majors, among them — two shots back and another eight at 9 under.
“It’s so bunched, the scores are going to keep going low,” Taylor said. “Guys are going to shoot low, so you just have to keep the pedal down.”
Tour veterans Webb Simpson and Stewart Cink, each with seven titles and a major championship to their names, took advantage of a calm morning at Waialae to finish the first wave atop the leaderboard at 10 under.
That remained the score to catch for much of the afternoon second wave. Three-time winners Vaughn Taylor and Russell Henley, and Chris Kirk, who has four victories, expanded the group to a quintet late in the afternoon.
The pack at 9 under includes world No. 5 and PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa and first-round leaders Joaquin Niemann and Peter Malnati. Marc Leishman, Hideki Matsuyama, Charley Hoffman, Billy Horschel and Brendan Steele, last year’s runner-up, are also in that mix.
Taylor left the course Thursday morning feeling pretty good about his round of 4-under 66, his best 18-hole score at Waialae to that point. But with low winds turning the opening day into a birdie-fest, “I look up this morning before I teed off and I was in 40th.”
“You knew you had to kind of go low and with the fairways as firm as they are, the ball is rolling so you’re going to have shorter clubs in and the greens are still relatively receptive,” said Taylor, who won the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach before the pandemic shut down the tour for three months. “I think when the wind is down, you just have to attack as much as you can.”
Sitting at 1 over after his first five holes on Friday, Taylor played the next four at 4 under, highlighted by a chip-in for eagle at No. 18, his ninth hole of the day. He caught the morning leaders at 10 under with a run of three consecutive birdies on holes 3 to 5. He took the solo lead with a 6-foot birdie at No. 8 and after his wayward drive on No. 9, he hit his approach inside of 3 feet to set up his final birdie.
“I played well here last year. It was completely different conditions. It was really windy. It was wet. I’ve always liked here. In the past I’ve come here a little rusty. I’m usually back in Canada for December,” Taylor said. “Playing last week in Maui (in the Sentry Tournament of Champions) helps getting the rust off.”
Cink charged up the leaderboard with a bogey-free round of 7-under 63 as the wind barely ruffled the flags for much of the morning. Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, birdied his last three holes to finish with his second consecutive round of 5-under 65.
“Today was a dream day for playing here at Waialae,”said Cink, who won the 2009 British Open then went 12 years without a victory before opening the 2020-21 season with a win in the Safeway Open in September.
Henley followed up his 66 on Thursday with a round of 64 at the site of his first PGA Tour win eight years ago, when he went 24 under in just his third start on tour.
“Usually if somebody ever knows who I am, they usually talk about, ‘man, you really ran away with it here,’” Henley said. “I love this place. I love the greens. They just remind me of home growing up in Georgia, and they are fun to putt on. It’s a fun course.”
Niemann, the runner-up at the Sentry Tournament of Champions last week on Maui, shared the first-round lead with Malnati and Jason Kokrak. Kokrak fell back with a round of 1 over, while Niemann and Malnati remained in contention at 1 under, getting there in very different ways.
Niemann couldn’t get much going but was otherwise steady with 15 pars. Malnati had the look of a one-round wonder when he started his afternoon 5 over through his first seven holes, which included a double bogey at No. 6. He turned his day around with a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 8 and circled five more birdies over the next seven holes to climb back into contention with a 69 to finish the first 36 at 9 under.
“I still felt like I was the same player that shot 8 under yesterday and my game felt fine,” Malnati said. “I just told myself, “Keep going, you don’t have to try hard, you don’t have to press, you don’t have to do anything, keep going.”
In past years, some of the largest galleries of the week would trail Matsuyama around the course, but he produced middling results and his tie for 12th last year was his best Waialae showing to date.
He appeared on his way to another forgettable appearance after a run of three consecutive bogeys early Friday morning. He was 1 over for the day and just above the cut line at 3 under before playing his final seven holes in 7 under par. He punctuated his morning by hitting his approach on the par-5 ninth inside of 10 feet and draining the putt to finish with a 65 (carding a 28 on the front nine) and vault into contention.
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