Garcia, Akins work in concert with major aspirations

HONOLULU — Russell Henley set a strong target Friday in the Sony Open in Hawaii when he was 6 under over his final six holes and closed with a 30-foot eagle putt for a 7-under 63 and a three-shot lead among the early starters at Waialae. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Keita Nakajima: Five Things to Know So much of the morning was up for grabs after 18-hole leader Kevin Na began to fade, with as many as five players having at least a share of the lead. Henley made the turn by holing a greenside bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 18th hole, only to miss the green long and into a back bunker for bogey on the toughest first hole. And then he couldn’t miss. He birdied both par 3s on the front nine from inside 10 feet, holed a pair of 12-foot birdie putts and finished with his eagle. That put him at 15-under 125, three shots ahead of Haotong Li (65), and four clear of Matt Kuchar, who has been in Hawaii since four days before Christmas and sounds like he is in no hurry to leave. Waialae is where it all started for Henley. He began his rookie season in 2013 at the Sony Open by setting a 36-hole record at the time at 126 and outlasting Scott Langley in a weekend duel to win. Henley previously had won on the Korn Ferry Tour when he was still at Georgia. Easy game, right? “Didn’t take me very long to realize it’s really hard,” Henley said, who has three career victories as he starts his 10th year on TOUR. “Had a lot of up-and-downs my first year, second year, I mean, every year. After this first one, I remember thinking it might be easier than I thought.” He laughed before adding, “But it’s not.” It felt easy at times on another gorgeous day along the Pacific, with minimal wind and an abundance of tropical warmth, and pure greens. The flat stick can be his best club in the bag, and Henley was just as deft with the 6-foot putts as some of his birdies. Li has had a few big moments in his career, most notably at Harding Park in 2020 when he became the first player from China to hold the lead after any round in a major. He was two ahead in that PGA Championship until fading on the weekend. He also was at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne at the end of 2019, though that didn’t go so well, starting in the practice round when his fill-in caddie got lost and decided to head into the clubhouse for coffee as Li played on out of another player’s bag. He lost both his matches. Ditching contact lenses for designer glasses, he was steady in his round of 65, leaving him in contention for the weekend while playing on a sponsor exemption. Another exemption was equally impressive, if not more. Keita Nakajima, the No. 1 amateur in the world, had an early bogey that left him around the cut line. He answered with a 6-iron to 12 feet for birdie on the par-3 17th, and he shot 30 on the back nine for a 64. Nakajima was in the large group six shots behind Henley, a group that included Stewart Cink (63), Seamus Power of Ireland (68) and Chris Kirk (65). Na opened with a 61 and was 10 shots worst the next day. He didn’t make a birdie until his ninth hole and kept burning the edges on putts. On Thursday, some of those putts he narrowly missed were for birdie in his bid for a sub-60 round. On Friday, they were for par, and it sent him from a one-shot lead after the opening round to seven shots behind Henley. Cameron Smith, who won at Kapalua at 34-under par, had a 71 and was headed toward a missed cut. Kuchar has been over on the Big Island since Dec. 21, and he plans to take the next two weeks off before heading over to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Even though he has missed the cut the last two years at Waialae, this is a tournament he doesn’t like to miss. Plus, he won the Sony Open three years ago. He birdied five of his last 10 holes. “Love the golf course. Love the environment,” Kuchar said. “You throw in the state of Hawaii, as well. For me it’s a paradise and always excited to come here.”

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Rickie Fowler, playing in The American Express for the first time in six years, carded a 7-under 65 Thursday to sit one stroke off the lead shared by Zac Blair and Grayson Murray. “It’s a good start,” Fowler said. “Obviously you look at scores it’s usually pretty low out here, especially when you look at weather like this and the conditions of the courses. Conditions are perfect here at La Quinta. Greens are about the best that we see all year.” Fowler, Scottie Scheffler and Hank Lebioda shot 65. Fowler and Scheffler opened at La Quinta, while Lebioda played PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course. Murray and Blair shot 64 in sunny and mostly calm conditions. Grayson closed with a bogey on the par-4 ninth on PGA West’s Stadium Course, also the site of the final round in the pro-am event. “I’ve been here since Dec. 30 working on the game and I feel like I probably am the most prepared of the field for all three courses,” said Murray, the 2017 Barbasol Championship winner. “Coming off of a long offseason you never expect to come out the gates like I did firing, but I’m comfortable around all three of these courses. … I love it out here in the desert.” Blair had a bogey-free round at La Quinta Country Club. “It was perfect today, course was in really good shape,” Blair said. “Drove it really well, made some good putts. But it’s a little easier out here this week right now than it was in Hawaii last week, so it’s nice.” Phil Mickelson struggled off the tee in his first round of the year, shooting a 2-under 70 to fall six strokes behind Blair and Murray. “I didn’t score as I probably could have or wanted to, but I really had a good day,” said Mickelson, the 49-year-old Hall of Famer competing for the first time since early November. “It wasn’t quite as sharp as I wanted it to be, maybe a little bit rusty, but it was a good first day.” Related: Leaderboard | How Phil became a social media star | Q&A: Zac Blair Mickelson, also the tournament host, birdied the par-5 fifth and sixth holes to get to 3 under, then gave away two strokes on the par-4 eighth when he drove left into the water and hit his third left of the green. “I’ve been working on kind of a little low shot to get it in play and I hit it a few times today and I didn’t hit it as efficiently as I wanted to, but the miss wasn’t as bad as some of my other drives,” said Mickelson, the tournament winner in 2002 and 2004. Mickelson hit so far left on the par-4 ninth that he was in the rough on the far side of the adjacent first fairway. It wasn’t that bad of a shot, though, because he was trying to hit into the first fairway to give himself a better angle at the back right pin. “Takes the water out of play and I just have a much better angle,” Mickelson said. “I actually pushed it a little bit across and got a little bit unlucky to be behind the tree, but I ended up just chipping a little wedge underneath it and getting it on.” The Hall of Famer made a tap-in par there, and birdied the par-5 11th and 13th, holing out from the rough on 13 after failing to reach the green from a left bunker. He made bogey on the par-4 17th, missing a 7-footer after hitting left into a bunker. “I feel like I’m ready to go on a tear, like I’m excited to play,” Mickelson said. “Felt like 70 was the worst I could have shot, I’m going to come out tomorrow and get it going.” Playing partner Tony Finau shot 69. Mickelson and Finau will play the Nicklaus Tournament Course on Friday, then the adjacacent Stadium Course on Saturday. Defending champion Adam Long opened with a 69 at La Quinta.

Click here to read the full article…