Kisner finding his game at Rocket Mortgage Classic

HONOLULU — The easygoing vibe in Hawaii is a perfect fit for Matt Kuchar, who spends as much as a month at a time on the islands when his schedule allows. The Sony Open in Hawaii is more about work than play, and he’s having just as much fun. Kuchar ran off four birdies in five holes to start his second round Friday, handled the par 5s at Waialae again and finished with another round of 7-under 63 to take a one-shot lead over Andrew Putnam. “To shoot 7 under back-to-back is unexpected, but awfully excited,” Kuchar said with the same smile he wears for most any occasion. Kuchar was at 14-under 126, matching the lowest 36-hole score of his PGA TOUR career. He also had a 126 in Las Vegas in 2008. Putnam, playing in the afternoon, had a bogey-free 65 and was one shot behind. Chez Reavie (65) and Stewart Cink (62) were four behind. Jordan Spieth had a short week after a long break from golf. In his 2019 debut, Spieth had a 66 and missed the cut by one shot. Needing to birdie the last four holes to qualify for the weekend, Spieth ran off two birdies, missed a 10-foot birdie putt and then narrowly missed chipping in for eagle. “I loved the fight,” Spieth said. “I feel like I was trying to win the tournament trying to make the cut, which is not something I want to get used to.” He returns in two weeks at Torrey Pines. No one had a more memorable round than Reavie. He holed out for eagle three times from the fairway — a sand wedge from 101 yards on No. 10 at the start of his round; a 9-iron from 149 yards on No. 16, and a gap wedge from 135 yards on No. 6. The PGA TOUR only began keeping hole-by-hole records in 1983, and no one had ever made three eagles in one round on par 4s since then. Reavie didn’t think all that much about it until he piped a drive on No. 8 and hit a wedge that covered the flag. “It was on a good line, and that was the only time it crossed my mind — `Wow, could we make another one?'” he said. “The other two, I just hit the shot I was trying to see and it was going at the hole. Never expected it to go in. It’s always a surprise when it disappears.” So odd was this round that Reavie made more eagles than birdies, and the one shot that made him think the ball might go in the hole led to a par. “Apparently, I need to go buy a lottery ticket today,” Reavie said. That would be a good idea, except Hawaii doesn’t have a lottery. For now, he has to figure out how to make up four shots on Kuchar. Cink made nine birdies in his round of 62. Marc Leishman (64) and Ted Potter Jr. (65) were at 9-under 131. Kuchar sometimes comes to Hawaii with his wife and two kids even when he’s not playing golf. He has been to five of the islands, and plans to stay another few weeks after the Sony Open. He likes it better when he can play a few tournaments. He became eligible for the winners-only field at Kapalua last week by winning at another beach resort — Mayakoba — last year, opening with rounds of 64-64, the kind of start he has enjoyed at Waialae. Clearly, the 40-year-old is in a better spot than when he had gone more than three years without winning and was left off the Ryder Cup team for the first time in 10 years. He felt as though he was grinding too hard, and that’s not a trait he wears well. DIVOTS: Keith Mitchell had a hole-in-one on the seventh hole with an 8-iron from 176 yards. … Of the five players over 50 in the field, Steve Stricker and Davis Love III made the cut. Stricker holed a 55-foot eagle putt on his last hole to make it on the number.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Webb Simpson was disappointed when his second-place finish at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational didn’t give him a big boost in the standings for the United States team for the Presidents Cup. He had started the week 11th but only jumped one spot. So, with just three weeks remaining to play his way into the top eight automatic qualifiers, Simpson decided to call U.S. Captain Tiger Woods. “I thought I was going to move up more and I didn’t, and he told me to play better, so that was funny,â€� Simpson recalled Wednesday with a grin. “I said, Fair enough.â€� Simpson is currently 149 points out of the No. 8 spot held by Gary Woodland – and none of the players ranked higher than him are competing this week at the Wyndham Championship in the regular season finale. The team will be finalized after the BMW Championship. Woods will then make his four Captain’s Picks after the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions, which will be played Oct. 28-Nov. 3 in Shanghai. But Simpson, who has a win and two other top-three finishes at the Wyndham Championship, wants to go ahead lock down his spot. The Presidents Cup will be played Dec. 9-15 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. It will be the 13th time the biennial event has been contested with the Americans holding a 10-1-1 advantage. “You want to qualify because from BMW to HSBC, that’s a long waiting period and that gives guys who are maybe not quite on his radar a chance to play their way onto the team,â€� Simpson said. “So yeah, I’m thinking about it a lot. I want to make it. “That was my first team event in 2011 in Melbourne and I can’t imagine how cool it would be to play for Tiger, the guy that we all grew up watching. Yeah, I hope I’m there.â€� Jordan Spieth also has Presidents Cup aspirations – and he comes to the Wyndham Championship with a much taller task in front of him. He’s ranked 27th in the U.S. standings after two uncharacteristically quiet seasons that have seen Spieth post a combined total of just eight top-10s finishes. Spieth, who lost in a playoff at the 2013 Wyndham Championship in his only other appearance at the event, isn’t assured of a spot in the first two Playoff events, either. He’s currently 67th in the FedExCup and only the top 70 make to the BMW Championship, being played this year at historic Medinah Country Club. Spieth has played in every Presidents Cup since Fred Couples picked him as a rookie in 2013, as well as every Ryder Cup.  Making the U.S. Team is a “massive goalâ€� for the three-time major champion, who calls the international match play events the “most fun weeks of the year.â€� “I understand that as of now I’m pretty far out of it, but I’m not going to think much about it,â€� Spieth said. “The best way for me to, you know, deserve a pick is to take care of my own business over the next few weeks.  … “With this many years, I’m aware of when I’m close and I’m aware when I’m not. So, I’m just trying to stay as patient as possible, give myself as many birdie putts, greens in regulation being an important stat for me over the next few weeks, and should work my way up and have a chance.â€�

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K.J. Choi’s two-shot victory Sunday at the PURE Insurance Championship gave him his first PGA Tour Champions win.

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