exceptional golf for the opening of the PGA Tour

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan returns his ball to his caddy on the green of the 12th hole during the first day of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — North Dakota native Tom Hoge found the perfect atmosphere at Kapalua on Thursday, keeping his expectations modest and taking advantage of his good golf form to shoot an under-par 64-9, allowing him to win a one-shot lead in the PGA Tour season opener.

Hideki Matsuyama experimented with a new putter, convinced of its effectiveness after seeing it used by another player. He made birdie-eagle-birdie on the back nine, finishing with a score of 65, while Will Zalatoris, who had put on muscle during the offseason, followed closely behind him.

This was the theme of this first day of the new PGA Tour season, with the stakes higher than ever. The majority of the 60 participants are returning from a short winter break, looking to shake off the rust on this Plantation course which offers wide and welcoming fairways, among the most generous they will encounter throughout the year.

Xander Schauffele, two-time major winner and best player of the event, was one of the few to shine this weekend in Kapalua. However, he lost two golf balls on the back nine, costing him bogeys, finishing with a score of 72.

Hoge, among 29 players who qualified for Kapalua without a win last year, wasn’t sure what to expect.

Weather conditions were not conducive to much practice in Fort Worth, Texas, where he currently resides. The fact that her first child, a boy named Thomas Bennett, was born recently also didn’t work in her favor.

“I played in Mexico the first week of November and then I was just at home. We had our first child at the beginning of December, so I had to take a bit of a break. I feel like last year, with the change in the calendar, there was a lot of golf before the Tour Championship. At that point, I felt quite exhausted,” he says.

If his game lacked a little rhythm, his putter, on the other hand, did not suffer the same fate. He made a 15-foot birdie off the tee, saved a par with a 6-foot putt on the next hole, made an 18-foot birdie on the third hole and birdied from a tricky position on the fourth hole for a another birdie.

“It’s a bit liberating. And you’re in Maui, no expectations, just let go and see what you can do,” he added.

Zalatoris, for his part, showed a more imposing build. After missing qualification for the Tour Championship, he took two months off to strengthen his muscles, hoping it would give him more longevity in the face of back problems that cost him a lot of playing time.

He was out for the final four months of 2022, as well as the remainder of 2023 after back surgery, which forced him to withdraw from the Masters.

“I don’t even feel like I’ve had surgery now,” he admits. “I wanted to continue to raise my level of play, knowing that if I weighed 160 pounds and tried to reach 300 yards, that wasn’t the best recipe for longevity. »

He left the BMW Championship in August weighing 163 pounds and traveled to Maui weighing 182 pounds.

“Hopefully this year my best golf will be at the end of the season,” he said.

The first day of the new season was not a failure. Zalatoris played bogey-free, although a three-putt on the par-5 fifth hole — the easiest hole on the Plantation course — looked like a bogey.

Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young and Corey Conners posted scores of 66, while Tony Finau finished with 67 in his first tournament in four months following left knee surgery.

Matsuyama, who was playing in Japan this fall, suffered a setback with a bogey three-putt from 15 feet on the 13th hole. After a plain put-in on the next hole, he hit a wedge shot to 10 feet for birdie, then reached 5 feet for eagle at the 15th, hit a wedge again to 4 feet for birdie on the hole next and had a chance. to tie Hoge, but did not make his 3-wood shot at the 18th hole to scratch a birdie.

This new season begins without Scottie Scheffler, the best player in the world, who injured his hand on a broken glass while preparing Christmas dinner.

It also inaugurates a new structure: only the 100 best players in the FedEx Cup, compared to 125 last year, will keep their playing cards for next year.

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Good to know

• The PGA Tour takes place each year with a renovated calendar, allowing players to better prepare between competitions.
• Kapalua’s Plantation Course is renowned for its wide fairways and unique challenges, attracting world-class players.
• Physical adjustments to players, like Zalatoris, have become common to improve longevity and performance on tour.