KAPALUA, Maui >> Cameron Smith isn’t here to defend his Sentry Tournament of Champions title, which he won last year with a PGA Tour record 34 under par.
Whoever takes his place as 2023 winner might have to beat that mark in order to do so.
A field of 39 golfers opened the calendar year under what felt like a summer sun, blistering the Plantation Course once again to open the TOC on Thursday.
Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm and J.J. Spaun are tied for the lead after shooting 9-under 64 in picture-perfect conditions. Tom Kim, who at 20 years old is the second-youngest player ever to tee it up at Kapalua, is a shot back. Six golfers are tied at 7 under and another six players sit three back of the lead.
Only one golfer failed to break par and the 68.231 scoring average in the first round is the lowest ever at Kapalua.
All of that put together means it’s going to be a track meet to the finish with another possible record-setting score to come.
“If we have as little wind as we had today, yes, I would say so,” Rahm said of the chances of another 34-under score winning the tournament. “There’s a stretch of this golf course from 12 on where you can give yourself a really good birdie look on every single one of the holes. You just have to take advantage. We’ve seen it every year.”
Rahm nearly took the lead outright with an eagle putt on 18 that burned the left lip. He had to settle for one of his eight birdies to go along with an eagle at No. 5.
Including last year’s runner-up finish at 33 under, Rahm has shot five straight rounds of 66 or better at Kapalua.
“I’ve been able to do it where you start making birdies and you just have to keep just putting your foot on the gas because somebody else is doing it and you just have to do it,” Rahm said.
The field combined to shoot 187 under par, and all but one golfer shot at least 2 under par. Weather conditions are expected to remain the same throughout the weekend.
The PGA Tour’s first elevated event is going to be a mad dash for the $2.7 million first-place check.
“The game plan today — it was just to go out and be patient and give yourself opportunities,” said Morikawa, who tied the lowest opening round of his career. “It was nice to see one (putt) go in on 4 from, like, 30 feet. That just kind of got the round propelled from there.”
Morikawa, the first to hit the clubhouse at 9 under, had his putter catch fire to start the back nine with six consecutive birdies, the longest streak in his PGA career. He followed up the long putt on No. 4 with a 21-footer on 11 and then was able to two-putt from 51 feet on 15 to get to 8 under.
The 25-year-old has five career PGA Tour wins, including the 2019 PGA Championship and the Open Championship in 2020. But after failing to win a tournament last season and earning a trip to Maui only by qualifying for the Tour Championship, Morikawa has sought help from different people to improve his game, including one very familiar to Hawaii golf.
“I’ve been talking with Parker McLachlin a little bit about short game,” Morikawa said. “We worked (together) last week in Hawaii. Just kind of figuring things out. It’s good to have someone that knows a lot about short game and you just kind of bounce ideas off.”
Patience was the word Morikawa used to describe his round, but it might be tough to keep with the stress knowing that par won’t be good enough.
Rahm, ranked No. 5 in the world, and Morikawa, who is No. 11, are joined at the top by Spaun, who is ranked 86th.
The 10-year PGA Tour pro made his Kapalua debut Thursday after winning his first career tournament at the Valero Texas Open last April.
He did not make a bogey and had nine birdies, including three on his opening five holes through the hardest part of the course.
“It was a great first round for me out here on Tour and in competition,” Spaun said. “I can’t ask for anything more. I drove it nice. I putted nice. So I really can’t complain about anything today.”
For the third year in a row, the opening round had at least 25 rounds shot in the 60s. Prior to 2001, the most opening rounds in the 60s were 17 in 2015.
