Golf: Spieth in three-way tie for lead at Sony Open
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Jordan Spieth plays his shot from the 11th tee during the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES – Three-time Major winner Jordan Spieth fired seven birdies in his six-under 64 on Thursday, to share the PGA Tour’s Sony Open lead with Chris Kirk and Taylor Montgomery when darkness halted play.
Spieth and Kirk – who also had seven birdies – set an early first-round target at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Montgomery seized his share of the lead with a birdie at the 18th shortly before play was halted.
Spieth said he was confident he could maintain the pace, something that has not always been the case in recent years as the 29-year-old’s game hit the doldrums and he fought to make changes.
“Days like today I’m not surprised, but what I will say is I’m confident relative to other time periods I’ve been off to similar starts, which is a really good place to be,” said the American, who ended a near four-year title drought in 2021 and added a title at the Heritage in 2022.
“I believe I can shoot five- or six-under each day out here. Not to say that that means it’ll happen, but there are other times I would be sitting there going, how do I hold this together, to be honest.”
He opened with a birdie at the 10th and added another at the 12th. He rebounded from a bogey at the 13th with birdies at the 18th and first, then rolled in an eight-footer at the third and put himself inside two feet for a birdie at the fifth.
He picked up one more shot with a 27-foot putt at the par-three seventh.
“I feel like I left a couple out, but I also really had fun today,” Spieth, whose most recent Major was the 2017 British Open, added. “It can be a real fun golf course once you start peeling it down these fairways.”
Kirk, back in action after a break of almost two months, said he had been working on his fitness during the downtime.
The 37-year-old, who finished tied for second at Waialae two years ago as he mounted a comeback to the tour, is seeking a fifth PGA Tour title and his first since 2015.
Montgomery, a Korn Ferry Tour graduate chasing his first PGA Tour title, had joined the leaders with a birdie at the 14th, then bogeyed the 15th before his two-putt birdie at the par-five 18th.
Six players were in the clubhouse a stroke behind the leaders. AFP
