It is amazing how much difference a week can make on the PGA Tour. Despite remaining in the Aloha State for the 2025 Sony Open, players faced a far stouter test Thursday at Waialae Country Club compared to last week’s Plantation Course. Amid a round filled with higher scores and frustrating moments, six men raced to the top of the leaderboard with Harry Hall, Adam Schenk, Denny McCarthy, Eric Cole, Tom Hoge and Paul Peterson all sharing the lead at 6 under through 18 holes.
Six players holding the first-round lead ties a tournament record set in 1980. Five of those names came from the morning wave with Hoge being the lone player to post his 64 in the afternoon after narrowly missing his bid for 63 on the par-5 finisher. While the leaderboard is congested at the top and filled with long-time PGA Tour members like Schenk and McCarthy eyeing their first wins, the day belonged to Peterson — a 36-year-old rookie making his first start.
“[I had] the best kind of nerves,” Peterson said. “Just ready to go. I felt ready to go yesterday. I had a good range session on Tuesday and sent some TrackMan reports to my coach, and was just like, ‘Can we go tomorrow?’ Yeah, it’s been nice to feel like I’m hitting it well and getting off to a good start.”
Visiting more than 40 countries and six continents in pursuit of playing on the PGA Tour, Peterson began his career in an ideal fashion. After making birdie on his first hole as a card-carrying member, Peterson piled on three straight 3s around the turn. The Sea Island native quickly reached 6 under and broke through the metaphorical ceiling when he tacked on another birdie on the par-4 12th. The first man to reach 7 under on the day, Peterson fell back down to earth over his closing stretch and ended his round with a couple bogeys and a birdie on the par-5 18th.
Still, the seasoned rookie is right where he believes he belongs: on the PGA Tour and on top of the leaderboard at the Sony Open.
The Leaders
T1. Harry Hall, Adam Schenk, Denny McCarthy, Eric Cole, Paul Peterson, Tom Hoge (-6)
It’s not often the best putter in the world makes a switch on the greens, but that is exactly what McCarthy did ahead of this week. After putting together one of the worst putting performances of his career at Kapalua, the 31-year-old made a call to the bullpen and put a new putter in the bag. The decision proved effective as McCarthy looked much more like his usual self on the dance floor and gained just north of three strokes putting in Round 1.
“I really struggled last week on the greens. I find those greens really tricky to read last week,” McCarthy said. “For some reason, I like my gamer putter on fast Bermuda greens, but I struggle with them on slow Bermuda greens. These are a little slower again this week. I’ve just kind of been struggling looking down at my putter. It just hasn’t felt right lately. I don’t know what’s been going on, but it just hasn’t looked great to my eye the last couple months. I’ve been fighting it.
“So, after last week, I kind of had determined that I wanted to change this week, just something different to look at, and I really liked how this one felt. I went through a couple different putters trying them on the green and landed on this one, and it feels pretty good.”
The Contenders
T7. Henrik Norlander, Adam Hadwin, Ben Griffin, Patrick Fishburn, Sam Ryder, Ben Kohles (-5)
T13. Andrew Putnam, James Hahn, Webb Simpson, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Nico Echavarria, J.J. Spaun, Jackson Suber, Chan Kim, Nick Taylor, Sepp Straka, Zach Johnson, Brice Garnett (-4)
It is a party at 4 under with major champions like Harman, Johnson and Simpson and recent PGA Tour winners such as Echavarria and Taylor. The man to keep an eye on is Henley, who quietly became one of the best players in the world in 2024. While the winning upside has been lacking in recent years, the 35-year-old has been the model of consistency, especially at this golf tournament.
Henley entered the week with three top-15 finishes in his last four appearances, including a playoff loss at the hands of Hideki Matsuyama in 2022. Playing alongside Hidekion Thursday, Henley had a calm demeanor about himself as he got through a rough opening stretch and tacked on birdie after birdie to shoot 66.
How is Matsuyama performing?
After setting all kinds of scoring records at Kapalua last week, Matsuyama was a bit scratchy in his first round at Waialae. Exchanging a birdie for a bogey early in his front nine, the 11-time PGA Tour winner made one of the more bizarre birdies of his career on the par-5 9th.
Hitting his tee shot left, Matsuyama accidentally tossed his driver out of his hands on his follow through. He then approached his second shot with a few options and decided to thread the needle through the palm trees in front of him. Narrowly escaping disaster, Matsuyama escaped No. 9 with a birdie. It was his last birdie until the final three holes where he penciled circles onto his scorecard on Nos. 16 and 18 to sign for an opening 67.
2025 Sony Open updated odds, picks
- Tom Hoge: 11-1
- Harry Hall: 11-1
- Denny McCarthy: 11-1
- Hideki Matsuyama: 11-1
- Russell Henley: 14-1
- Eric Cole: 16-1
- Ben Griffin: 18-1
I like some of the afternoon guys from Thursday to make the quick turnaround and keep a good thing going Friday morning. Henley is chief among those as the former tournament champion battled back from a two early bogeys to play himself back into the mix. Henley peppers fairways and peppers greens in regulation as does Lucas Glover. The former U.S. Open champion was a little sloppy in Round 1, but he was still able to sign for a 67 and sits at 80-1.
