{"id":420680,"date":"2026-01-18T06:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T06:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420680\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T06:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T06:28:07","slug":"late-birdies-stake-davis-riley-to-2-shot-lead-at-wind-swept-waialae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420680\/","title":{"rendered":"Late birdies stake Davis Riley to 2-shot lead at wind-swept Waialae"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU — Davis Riley<\/a> birdied four of the last seven holes Saturday at wind-swept Waialae Country Club for a 3-under 67 and a two-stroke lead with a round left in the PGA Tour’s season-opening Sony Open.<\/p>\n

Riley was at 12-under 198 on the oceanside course, with Harry Hall<\/a> (66), Chris Gotterup<\/a> (68) and Kevin Roy<\/a> (69) tied for second.<\/p>\n

“You got to make some gritty pars in these conditions and just try to make some putts on these fast greens in crosswinds in tough putting conditions when you have a chance,” Riley said.<\/p>\n

Riley rebounded from a bogey on the par-3 11th with a birdie on the par-4 12th. He hit a wedge inside 2 feet on the par-4 14th and made a 15-footer on the par-4 15th. On the par-5 18th, he ran his 60-footer 7 1\/2 feet past and made the comebacker.<\/p>\n

“I just started feeling really good with the swing and I was hitting my start lines,” Riley said. “That’s the biggest thing in this wind, is hit your start lines and control the curvature, and I felt like I was hitting some really good hold shots against the wind and hitting my start lines.”<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Riley is ranked 101st in the world. He won the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge for his lone individual PGA Tour title, and teamed with Nick Hardy<\/a> to win the 2023 Zurich Classic.<\/p>\n

He started slow Saturday, making bogeys on Nos. 1 and 3.<\/p>\n

“I could feel myself a little tense or trying to force it a little early just because we’re coming off the offseason,” Riley said. “We hadn’t had really any competitive juices like this in a couple months. I definitely felt like I was forcing it a little bit early and trying to be a little perfect and I just felt a little tense.”<\/p>\n

Hall rebounded from a bogey on 15 with a birdie on 16. The Englishman won a playoff in the 2024 ISCO Championship for his lone PGA Tour title.<\/p>\n

“Hitting the ball where I’m looking and doing well judging the wind tee to green,” Hall said. “Did a lot better job today of making some putts.”<\/p>\n

Gotterup closed with a 10-foot birdie putt on 18. He won the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic and the 2025 Scottish Open.<\/p>\n

“I would say putting today was probably the toughest,” Gotterup said. “Obviously, hitting shots in this wind is hard, but it’s hard for everyone. I think late in the day some of the greens get a little tough after everyone has walked on them. Not that they’re in bad shape, but when it’s blowing 25 (mph) off your left and you got a left-to-righter, it’s not easy to make anywhere, and especially here.”<\/p>\n

Roy is winless on the tour. He had a share of the first-round lead with defending champion Nick Taylor<\/a> and was part of a five-man logjam at the top Friday with Riley, Taylor, S.H. Kim<\/a> and Adrien Dumont de Chassart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taylor struggled on the back nine Saturday in a 70 that left the Canadian three shots back with Ryan Gerard<\/a> (68) and John Parry<\/a> (69).<\/p>\n

“I grinded it out and gave myself a chance for tomorrow,” Taylor said. “That’s kind of all you can ask for.”<\/p>\n

Fellow Canadian Corey Conners<\/a> had a 65 to get to 8 under.<\/p>\n

“I like when it’s windy here,” Conners said. “I think it really puts a premium on the ball-striking. You really got control your ball. Was able to hit a lot of good shots.”<\/p>\n

Jordan Spieth<\/a> birdied the 18th for his third 68 to reach 6 under. Hideki Matsuyama<\/a> also was 6 under after a 65. He won at Waialae in a playoff in 2022.<\/p>\n

Vijay Singh<\/a> was 4 under after a 68. The 62-year-old Hall of Famer is using a one-time career money exemption to play in full-field events. He’s making his 25th start in the event he won in 2005.<\/p>\n

The season started a week later than usual because The Sentry at Kapalua on Maui was canceled due to water issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU — Davis Riley birdied four of the last seven holes Saturday at wind-swept Waialae Country Club for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-420680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}