Clark picks up where he left off

There are several golfers who have love affairs with the Waialae Country Club course, and you can count Tim Clark among them.

The South African has 10 runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, including his 2011 tie for second here with Steve Marino. Last year, an elbow injury kept Clark from competing in the Sony Open in Hawaii, but he was back Thursday and enjoying every minute of it en route to a 6-under 64.

It left him in a tie for third with Scott Piercy, two shots off the pace of PGA Tour rookie Scott Langley. Clark birdied his last hole at the ninth to shoot 32 on the back and 32 on the front to put him in good position entering today’s second 18.

"Not a whole lot of expectations coming down, but I always enjoy the start of the year," Clark said. "I love coming out here to Hawaii. It’s just a great place, and obviously a course that I really like and have played well at in the past. For me, it’s just a great way to get the year started."

Shot of the day

Past Sony Open champion K.J. Choi had the shot of the day when his approach at the par-3 17th hit Webb Simpson’s golf ball in flight, sending both in crazy directions.

Simpson got to put his ball back in its original location on the green, but Choi’s landed in the bunker, where he had to play it.

He got up and down for a par, while Webb knocked in an 11-footer for birdie. That’s not something you’re going to see too often.

Inside the numbers

Take this statistic for what it’s worth, but Langley’s 198 feet of putts is a PGA Tour record of sorts. His playing partner, Russell Henley, was 10-for-11 on putts of inside 10 feet. No wonder they were 15 under together and the two top finishers after the first round of the first full-field event of 2013.

The hardest hole on the course Thursday was the par-4 second with a scoring average of 4.333. There were eight birdes, 85 pars, 47 bogeys, three doubles and one dreaded "other."

The easiest hole was the par-5 18th with a scoring average of 4.333. There were two eagles, 94 birdies, 46 pars and two bogeys.

There were 10 bogey-free rounds on Thursday, carded by: Langley (62), Clark (64), Stephen Ames (65), Piercy (66), Webb Simpson (66), Matt Jones (66), Ryan Palmer (67), Vijay Singh (67), David Mathis (69) and Chez Reavie (69).

Matt Kuchar carded a 4-under 66 on Thursday during his 900th official round on the PGA Tour.

KEY HOLE 9
Par 5,506 yards

First-round leader Scott Langley made the turn in 5 under after rolling in a 56-foot putt for eagle, one of six for the day at the ninth, which was the second-easiest hole on the course with a scoring average of 4.532.

There were six eagles, 69 birdies, 54 pars, nine bogeys and two double bogeys at No. 9. Three golfers were still on the course when play was suspended.

–Paul Arnett, Star-Advertiser