HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 Davis Riley 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\u2019s season-opening Sony Open.<\/p>\n
Riley was at 12-under 198 on the oceanside course, with Harry Hall (66), Chris Gotterup (68) and Kevin Roy (69) tied for second.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou 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,\u201d 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
\u201cI just started feeling really good with the swing and I was hitting my start lines,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThat\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/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 to win the 2023 Zurich Classic.<\/p>\n
He started slow Saturday, making bogeys on Nos. 1 and 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could feel myself a little tense or trying to force it a little early just because we\u2019re coming off the offseason,\u201d Riley said. \u201cWe hadn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/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
\u201cHitting the ball where I\u2019m looking and doing well judging the wind tee to green,\u201d Hall said. \u201cDid a lot better job today of making some putts.\u201d<\/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
\u201cI would say putting today was probably the toughest,\u201d Gotterup said. \u201cObviously, hitting shots in this wind is hard, but it\u2019s 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\u2019re in bad shape, but when it\u2019s blowing 25 (mph) off your left and you got a left-to-righter, it\u2019s not easy to make anywhere, and especially here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy is winless on the tour. He had a share of the first-round lead with defending champion Nick Taylor and was part of a five-man logjam at the top Friday with Riley, Taylor, S.H. Kim and Adrien Dumont de Chassart.<\/p>\n
Taylor struggled on the back nine Saturday in a 70 that left the Canadian three shots back with Ryan Gerard (68) and John Parry (69).<\/p>\n
\u201cI grinded it out and gave myself a chance for tomorrow,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of all you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Canadian Corey Conners had a 65 to get to 8 under.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like when it\u2019s windy here,\u201d Conners said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan Spieth birdied the 18th for his third 68 to reach 6 under. Hideki Matsuyama also was 6 under after a 65. He won at Waialae in a playoff in 2022.<\/p>\n
Vijay Singh 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\u2019s 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
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 Davis Riley birdied four of the last seven holes Saturday at wind-swept Waialae Country Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-416953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}