Sony Open 2015: Daily Leaderboard Analysis, Highlights and More
The chance to spend a weekend in beautiful Hawaii and play golf on a gorgeous course at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu is the dream vacation for many folks. Now just imagine getting paid to do it.
Such is the life for the PGA golfers at this weekend's Sony Open, as many of the top golfers in the world do battle for a winning share and 500
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Leaderboard
Sunday Recap
Never let it be said that Jimmy Walker can't play with a lead. Taking a two-stroke advantage into Sunday following a third-round 62, he went about stretching that advantage in the fourth.
The Oklahoma City native carded a seven-under 63 on Sunday, besting the field by nine strokes and getting his first win in nearly a calendar year. This is Walker's fourth victory overall on the PGA Tour and second at the Sony Open, which he won last season.
His consistency on the course played major dividends all week, as Walker carded four straight rounds in the 60s for a breezy win. Playing with a sizable lead and next to the struggling Matt Kuchar, Walker was free to play a relatively conservative round of golf. He chose to go bananas instead, going the entire round without a bogey and sprinkling seven birdies in for good measure.
“I wish I knew,” Walker told reporters, when asked about why he's so successful at the Waialae Country Club. “I’ve always enjoyed coming here. I think this is one of the best golf courses we play. It shows what a good golf course is, and what it doesn’t have to be.”
The win vaults Walker into a (very early) lead atop the FedEx Cup standings. He came into the event eighth and seems to be trending in the right direction. Last week he went to a playoff against eventual champion Patrick Reed at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. This week he's lapping the field in perhaps the best overall weekend of his career.
With Walker lapping the field, Sunday largely consisted of watching the movers fall farther down the leaderboard. Rory Sabbatini overcame a dispiriting 73 on Saturday and flipped it around for a seven-under 63 on Sunday, moving his way back into the top 10. Pat Perez and Chris Kirk each had five-under rounds to vault up the leaderboard. On the flip side, Sunday proved to be a nightmare for Tim Clark and Troy Merritt, as they squandered top-10 spots with awful rounds.
But the day—heck, the week—was defined by Walker. His nine-stroke victory is perhaps the most impressive feat of this early PGA season. While we're still months out from the year's first major, the 36-year-old late bloomer should be considered a sleeper contender.
Or, at the very least, we know who we'd put our money on the next time the PGA makes a trip to the Aloha State.
Saturday Recap
Another day in Hawaii, more radical developments at the Sony Open. The low scores from the first two days didn't go away. On the contrary, there were some big movers on Saturday, none more than Jimmy Walker and Brian Harman.
Walker seems like a good place to start since he ended the third round with a three-stroke lead at 16 under. He started the day in a good position after consecutive rounds of 66 but put together a stronger performance on Saturday to vault into the top spot with a 62.
PGA.com highlighted Walker's hot streak as he prepared to make the turn:
Walker would keep things going to close out the round, as noted by Doug Ferguson of The Associated Press:
Seeing Walker in a good spot to win shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, he won this event last year by shooting a 17-under par.
At the time of his win last year, Walker told Bob Harig of ESPN.com that it was a huge turning point for him because it helped validate him as a player:
"I've always felt like I belonged, and you need affirmation every now and then, and the win a couple months ago was like, yeah, OK, I can do it. I did it; I was supposed to be able to do it, everybody told me I was supposed to do, and I finally did it.
And then it's, well, are you going to be the guy that won and you never hear from again, or are you going to win again and are you going to win again? I've always felt like I could, and it's nice to get it done and do it again.
"
Walker has 18 holes to go, but he is more than comfortable coming through in the clutch on this course. It's also easy to win when you are hitting shots like this one, via PGA Tour on Twitter:
Even though Harman isn't in the lead, he did make one of the biggest jumps from the second round. He started play on Saturday in 14th place before firing a 64 to finish in a tie for second place. The American star didn't have a blemish in the round, going bogey-free for the first time all tournament.
The biggest overall jump belonged to 24-year-old Max Homa, who is looking for his first career PGA Tour victory. He wasn't playing badly in the first two rounds, entering Saturday at four under par, but no one saw a seven-under 63 coming to give him an outside shot at winning three strokes behind Walker.
Homa was so far off the radar in the third round that the PGA camera crews missed his eagle on No. 16, though it was still captured on the PGA Tour's official Twitter feed:
Even though he lacks a PGA Tour victory, Homa has tasted the winner's circle before. He won the BMW Charity Pro-Am on the Web.com Tour last May. The young American also competed in the 2013 U.S. Open but missed the cut.
Matt Kuchar, who entered the third round in first place, struggled to get anything going. He wasn't bad with two bogeys and two birdies on the front nine, but he just had issues taking advantage of all the low scores going around. His one saving grace came on the 16th hole with a birdie that brought him into a tie with Harman.
Golf Channel's Jason Sobel pointed out an interesting trend that's developed since the U.S. was embarrassed in the Ryder Cup:
There's a crowded field at the top of the leaderboard, so there will be plenty of fireworks during Sunday's final round. Walker is looking to secure his second straight win in this event, Harman is looking for his second career PGA Tour win and Homa wants his first.
Friday Recap
Coming off Thursday's first round, in which more than half of the 140-player field shot under 70, the second round of the Sony Open had a high standard to live up to.
Fortunately, there were still plenty of low scores to go around in Hawaii. Matt Kuchar has been the star of the tournament thus far, jumping out to the lead entering Saturday's moving day thanks to a seven-under 63 in the second round.
As Kuchar's scorecard, via the PGA Tour's official Twitter, shows, he played a clean round to keep his momentum going from the first round:
Kuchar told Jeff Babineau of GolfWeek.com that one thing he wasn't going to put pressure on himself to get off to a fast start:
“I don’t so much look at it like the guys who played a bunch in the fall got a head start,” Kuchar said. “I played twice. I know as the year continues on it’ll even and things will settle.”
As impressive as Kuchar's round was overall, it was not without some misfortune. Per Will Gray of GolfChannel.com, the American star had trouble on one of his fairway bunker shots late in the round:
Fortunately, the bad shot didn't come back to haunt Kuchar. He's not alone at the top, as Webb Simpson also sits at 12-under par thanks to a 66 on Friday.
This has been a tournament of change for Simpson, who is adjusting to a standard putter after ditching the belly putter. He has shown no ill effects from the change thus far with two bogeys in 36 holes. He did find a perfect solution that prevented him from being tempted to go back to the old putter, via PGA Tour on Twitter:
While Kuchar and Simpson ended the day tied for the lead, Paul Casey remains in the mix at eight-under par following a 70 on Friday. He did get a share of the lead early in the day thanks to this birdie on the 10th hole, via PGA Tour on Twitter:
Casey did hit a rough patch on the back nine, shooting three consecutive bogeys on No. 13 through 15 that knocked him down.
The shot of the day came from a player who isn't going to factor into the outcome of the tournament. Jhonattan Vegas was at one-under par following a bogey on No. 14, but a birdie followed by this eagle on No. 16 put him comfortably above the cut line, via PGA Tour on Twitter:
Vegas ended the second round at four-under par, so he will stick around for the weekend but is too far behind to be a serious threat.
Behind Kuchar and Simpson, there are 10 players within four shots of the lead heading into Saturday. That's nothing considering how low the scores have been already.
In other words, despite the stellar efforts of Kuchar and Simpson so far, this tournament is far from over. One slip on one hole for either Kuchar or Simpson is going to open the door for a player like Tim Clark, Troy Merritt or one of the many contenders poised to make a move.
Thursday Recap
Change was in the air at the Sony Open on Thursday.
Paul Casey and Webb Simpson opened the Sony Open with matching rounds of eight-under 62 to race atop the leaderboard. For Simpson, it was all about his back nine (the course's front nine), as he birdied seven of his last nine holes to pull even with Casey and tie Toshinori Muto's 28 on the front nine in 2012.
But the big story for Simpson was the fact that he switched to a short putter for the tournament and reaped the rewards.
"Today was a big day for me," he told Dave Shedloski of Golf Digest. "I was extremely nervous, first round on the PGA Tour with a short putter, but I just had a couple of [Bible] verses in my yardage book today that I kept reading, and I stayed calm. Today was a hurdle I felt like I needed to get over, and I'm just real thankful."
The rest of the field is probably a bit less thankful that Simpson was able to adjust so easily to the short putter. Of course, the real test will be whether Simpson can maintain the pace he established on Thursday.
Ditto for Casey, who himself seems to be reaping the rewards of a major change in his game, as he recently quit the European Tour, per Reuters. He seemed quite pleased with that decision, as Amanda Balionis of PGATour.com tweeted:
Casey and Simpson have a slew of players nipping at their heels, however, as Camilo Villegas and Robert Streb are a mere stroke off the lead, Rory Sabbatini is two strokes behind and six players are currently just three strokes off the pace.
Jonathan Randolph is one of those players at five under, in large part to this incredible approach shot on No. 6, per the PGATour on Twitter:
It doesn't get much better than that.
Streb had quite the impressive approach himself on No. 9, however.
And let's not forget Zach Johnson, who finished at No. 2 on the day in large part because he saved his best for last.
Now that's how you finish a round of golf.
The stage is certainly set for an excellent weekend of golf, as Casey and Simpson look to hold off the field and continue the success they had on the heels of major changes in their careers.
The rest of the field will be hoping for a different change, however—a change atop the leaderboard.
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