Defending champion Nick Taylor made eight bogey-free birdies to share the first round lead with Kevin Roy at the season-opening Sony Open in Hawaii on the US PGA Tour on Thursday.
Canada’s Taylor, who defeated Colombia’s Nico Echavarria in a playoff at Waialae Country Club last year, used his sharp iron play to birdie three of the four par-3s after an effective offseason of training and a start at the Nedbank Challenge in December.
“I felt like my game sharpened coming here,” Taylor said. “It definitely helps to go to a course that you are familiar with.”
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Taylor teed off at No. 10, birdied Nos. 11 and 12 and had three straight birdies at Nos. 15, 16 and 17. He picked up strokes on the second and seventh holes, then made a two-putt birdie on the par-5 ninth to split the lead.
Like Taylor, Roy was one of the early starters in good conditions, racking up seven birdies in his first 11 holes. That included four in a row from the 8th to the 11th inning. He closed it out with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole.
Roy said he calmed down after a “tough” start in which he had to hit several testing par putts on the first two holes.
“Seeing the putt go in is huge,” he said. “I kept that momentum the rest of the round.”
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The tournament is the season opener because The Sentry, the former Tournament of Champions that normally opens each year in Kapalua, Maui, was canceled due to drought and water restrictions affecting the course.
Taylor and Roy topped the 63rd-place group, headlined by American Ben Griffin, by one stroke.
Griffin, who won three titles last year and is making his Ryder Cup debut, had seven birdies and no bogeys.
He was joined by Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup, John Vanderlaan and South Korea’s Kim Sung-hyun.
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