HONOLULU – Cam Davis didn’t envision an 8-under 62 at Waialae Country Club in his future Thursday. But he didn’t mind signing for one to take a two-stroke lead when play was suspended due to darkness with 19 players left to complete the first round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
“I think when I was standing on the first tee staring into a 30-mile-an-hour wind on a 500-yard, par-4 I was thinking, well, pars are good today,” he said.
On a windswept afternoon, the 28-year-old Aussie birdied five of the last six holes to card a career low and build off a final-round 8-under 65 at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course at The Sentry.
“I thought, well, as long as I can build off that round and continue that on to this week and next week, that is the sort of momentum I was looking for,” he said. “It was very cool to back it up with a really good round.”
Davis made nine birdies in all – his lone bogey came at the fifth, which played the toughest on the day – and his putter heated up even as the temperature dipped below 70 (and felt like 50) on this island paradise.
“I was seeing the green reads pretty well for some reason today. Sometimes they don’t come too clearly, but today I felt like I was seeing them well and putting decent speed and just hitting good putts on top of that,” said Davis, who canned a 37-footer on No. 13 and a 21-footer at 15. Yet he was proudest of the 5-foot par putt he sank at 17.
“Made a lot of really good putts today,” he said. “That one on 17 just to keep the score moving forward was really nice.”
All round long, he had his wife’s family visiting from Seattle following his group and he gave them plenty to cheer about.
“They cheered for a couple pars as well,” he said. “A lot of them haven’t seen a golf tournament before and it was really fun to put a good round together in front of them.”
Here are four more things to know from the first round at the Sony Open.
