Australia’s Cam Davis grabs US PGA Tour lead at Sony Open

LOS ANGELES – Cam Davis had an unplanned strategy, going slow and then “exploding” when he needed to.

On Jan 11, the Australian nabbed nine birdies in an eight-under 62 to seize a two-stroke lead in the suspended first round of the Sony Open, the first full-field event of the PGA Tour season.

Davis defied windy afternoon conditions at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii, launching a run of four straight birdies with a 37-foot putt at the 13th.

After rolling in a 10-footer at the 14th, he drilled a 21-foot birdie at 15th to claim a share of the lead.

Up by one after an eight-foot birdie at 16th, he added a final birdie at the par-five 18th for his career-low round on tour.

He was two strokes clear of Taylor Montgomery – who set an early target with a six-under 64 – when darkness halted play with two dozen players yet to complete the first round.

Davis said the wind was tough, but his comfort on the greens made up for it.

“I was seeing the green reads pretty well for some reason today. I felt like I was seeing them well and putting decent speed and just hitting good putts on top of that,” he said.

“(I) just kind of built a round slowly and then kind of exploded a little bit there at the end with a few in a row, very relaxing to not be stressing for pars today and having lots of putts for birdie.”

Montgomery, who also had nine birdies, had not played since the RSM Classic in November and said he was not sure what to expect, but he made the most of an early tee time that let him avoid the worst of the winds that picked up later.

“Very happy with how I started,” said the American, whose five back-nine birdies included three in a row from the 13th to the 15th and a final birdie at 18th to take sole possession of the lead.

“Month and a half without a tournament, you don’t really know what is going to come out... and to come out here, it was nice to have this kind of start. We definitely got a good tee time being able to play the first, like, six holes with no wind, and so that definitely helped.”

Former US Open champion Gary Woodland was even more uncertain in his first start since brain surgery in September to remove a lesion that had caused spells of anxiety and fear.

“Hearing my name called (on the first tee), there was a time when I didn’t know if that was going to be called again, so it got me a little more than I thought it was going to,” he said.

Under the circumstances, his one-over score hardly mattered.

“Probably the happiest I’ve ever been shooting over par, tell you that. The goal this week was to see how I was mentally, and I was really, really good,” he said.

Four players were tied for third on five-under 65 – England’s Aaron Rai, Stephan Jager of Germany and Americans Austin Eckroat and Webb Simpson. AFP