Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama shot an 8-under-par 65 to grab a one-stroke lead over Collin Morikawa at the PGA Tour’s season-opening The Sentry tournament at Kapalua, Hawaii, on Friday. With the usual wind factor almost absent, it was a day of low-scoring on the beautiful Plantation Course with only two players shooting over-par.
Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, hit his stride with a run of three straight birdies from the fourth hole on, adding another on the par-3 eighth. He added four more birdies on the back nine, including a 35-foot birdie putt on the 11th, and said he felt his injury problems were now out of his mind. “I just have to believe that I’m in good shape and ready to go, so that’s where I’m at,” said the 32-year-old, who is now in contention for his 20th professional win and his 11th on the PGA Tour. Matsuyama sits on 16-under after two rounds and doesn’t have to worry about a charge from world number one Scottie Scheffler, who is missing the event after hurting his hand in a Christmas Day cooking accident.
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But Californian Morikawa, whose grandparents were born just 10 miles from the course in Lahaina, also shot 65 to make sure he heads into the weekend in contention. Morikawa took full advantage of the birdie chances on the back nine with a streak of five straight birdies from the 13th hole. “I just hit some quality shots and gave myself a run of birdie opportunities. I felt like for the entire back nine I had birdie looks. Obviously, I made a handful, but it was just nice to see a couple drop and hit also, you know, a couple close on 14 and 15,” he said. “It’s not telling myself I got to be patient. I just know this golf course and I know at any point you can kind of go on a little stretch of birdies, and I just had to keep playing my game. The game felt solid enough to shoot a low score and thankfully it came on that back half of the round today.”
A quartet of players were a further shot back of Morikawa — Canadian Corey Conners, American Maverick McNealy, who shot 64, overnight leader Tom Hoge, who slipped back after his 68, and Belgian Thomas Detry (65). USA Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley also shot 64 and sits three shots off the lead after ending his round with an eagle on the 18th, where he sank a 29-foot putt. Wyndham Clark, the 2023 US Open winner, was also on 13-under after his 64, which included seven birdies on the back nine. “I don’t necessarily prefer this low, but at the same time, we make courses like this look easy. To be honest, it’s not that easy,” he said. “Typically, there’s a lot of wind here, and we didn’t have much wind today, so you’re going to have a lot of birdie looks and sometimes eagle looks. I’ve never really shot 20-under on the PGA Tour, so maybe I can break it this week.”
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