Pat Hurst selected as US captain for 2021 Solheim Cup

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HONOLULU — Different island, similar result. Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed finished the tournament with the same score. Only this was was Friday at the Sony Open in Hawaii. There was no playoff, only a plane back to the mainland. In wind that was vexing no matter how strong and soft greens so rare for this tournament, Thomas and Reed both missed the cut at Waialae and missed out on what could be a weekend where anything goes. Brendan Steele birdied five of his last six holes — the exception was a double bogey — for a 4-under 66 that gave him a share of the lead with Cameron Davis of Australia, who also had a 66. They were at 6-under 134, the highest score to lead the Sony Open through 36 holes since 2006. More unusual was the cut at 1-over 141, leaving only a seven-shot differential between first and worst. Five days ago, Thomas, the FedExCup points leader, outlasted Reed in a dynamic playoff on Maui that lasted three extra holes and went to the very edge of darkness at Kapalua in the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Neither will be around for the outcome on Oahu. “I’m playing great, playing good enough to still be winning this week,” Thomas said after two double bogeys ruined his round of 71. “Probably a little exhausted from last week, which is a good thing. No, I mean, played like crap so I deserve to have the weekend off.” It was his first missed cut since the U.S. Open last year at Pebble Beach. RELATED: Leaderboard | Thomas misses cut at Sony Open Reed made a 35-foot par putt and chipped in for birdie. It was all the other putts he missed, along with a flubbed pitch that went into a bunker and led to double bogey, that cost him. He shot 74. They both finished at 143 to miss by two shots. They battled hard last week on a big course in big wind. Just a coincidence that both missed the cut? Reed wasn’t buying. “I was missing my putts short, I had two three-putts. I missed everything,” Reed said. As he was signing autographs, he turned and smiled before adding, “I did sleep three hours more than usual last night.” It was his first missed cut since the PGA Championship in May. They had company. Defending champion Matt Kuchar made only three birdies in 36 holes and missed the cut by one. They all left behind a crowded leaderboard. Collin Morikawa, the first-round leader, kept missing in the wrong spot and had to birdie his last two holes for a 70. He was among eight players who were one shot behind at 5-under 135, a group that included Keegan Bradley, Ryan Palmer, Russell Knox and Cameron Smith. Gusts approached 30 mph in the second round and the greens at Waialae are never this soft. The course is getting soaked by rain every night, with occasional pop-up showers — even when the sun is shining — during the day. Approach shots that typically bounce forward are now spinning back.  That’s usually a recipe for low scoring anywhere, but not in this kind of wind. “I have not played in wind this tough,” Palmer said “You’re pumping 6-iron from 145.. That says a lot of what the winds are doing.” It was worse on Thursday, but no less a test. Steele was poised for a big finish when he holed a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 4 and a 35-footer for birdie on No. 5, moving up the board with four holes to play in his second round. And then the wind helped carry his tee shot out-of-bounds on the next hole, leading to double bogey. Steele bounced back with a tee shot into 4 feet on the par-3 seventh, a 12-foot birdie on the eight and an up-and-down for birdie at the par-5 ninth. “It was a wild finish,” Steele said. “I made one bad swing and made a double in between there. I was really happy with how I bounced back to make those good swings and good putts on the last few holes.” Thomas had not finished out of the top 20 in the last seven months, and his confidence was high after winning last week. The last time he won at Kapalua, he came over to Waialae and shot 59 on his way to a PGA TOUR-record of 253 for 72 holes. That won’t be the case this time. Thomas couldn’t get anything to fall, and it didn’t help when he put his tee shot in the water on No. 2, his 11th hole of the round. “I think honestly, playing the course as often as I have in the past hurt me this year because it’s just so weird, the greens being as soft as they are,” Thomas said. “You have to get adjusted to that. But everybody has to — it’s not just me.”

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With his heralded big brother on the sideline this week resting a troublesome knee, Chase Koepka did his part to make the family business shine at The Honda Classic. Koepka, 27, is the younger of the Koepka boys (Brooks, a four-time major champion ranked 12th in the World Ranking, is three years older). Chase played The Honda Classic on a sponsor exemption and seemed to taste a bit of everything over four days. On Sunday, he made a nice up-and-down from a plugged lie in a bunker next to the 18th green to place the finishing touches on a 3-under 67 that pushed him into red numbers for the week. On Friday, cut day, he became only the 10th player in Honda's history to birdie his way through the daunting Bear Trap (Nos. 15-17) and shot a second consecutive 69 and make it to the weekend. On Saturday, he played those same holes in 4-over par (bogey, bogey, double) and shot 74. Chase Koepka is still plugging along on his golf journey. He has followed his older brother's successful model of gaining experience mostly outside of the United States, getting starts on the European Tour and European Challenge Tour. So it was nice for the native of West Palm Beach just to compete, and play well, in front of familiar faces at his hometown tournament, a venue where he and his brother used to serve as standardbearers. Big brother Brooks fed words of encouragement through the tournament on FaceTime calls, and their father, Robert Koepka, showed where the boys get their toughness as he walked along in Chase's gallery less than two weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery. "It was amazing, the fact that I could play in front of my family and friends," Chase said on Sunday. "I know a lot of people haven’t been able to see me play golf in a while and for the first time a lot of my friends got to see me play, just in general. I think that was just something really, really special." Chase Koepka was twice a runner-up on the Euro Challenge Tour in 2017, and plans to mostly play the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021. He got ready for the Honda by playing a handful of mini-tour events, and for the most part, his game was plenty good enough, even if it wasn't always at its sharpest. As big brothers do, Brooks, who was runner-up at Honda two years ago, playfully gave Chase a hard time after his little brother struggled on Saturday. But as Chase showed all week at PGA National, he's not afraid to battle back. "I think my caddie told him that technically, my track record here is a little better than his," Chase said. "I don’t have a missed cut here, and I think he’s got a number of them. He does have a second-place finish. I’ll give him that." Brothers.

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