HONOLULU – Joaquin Niemann has not regretted the 18th hole of the Sony Open.
Four days after a pair of pars in Kapalua’s last hole caused the playoffs to be lost, Niemann punched a 50-foot chip for the Eagle on Thursday in hole 18 for an eighty-eighty-two percentage point of leadership with Jason Kokrak and Peter. Malnati.
“It was a good way to end it,” Niemann said. “I spent a few days thinking about this last hole, but taking all the positive aspects of the week and taking them out for this week.”
These were not easy days for Niemann. The 22-year-old Chilean is still too young to have experienced the inevitable losses that pile up in this sport. He played in Kapalua on Sunday with Sergio Garcia, who has experienced many failures, and who told him to think about what was going well.
It did so much in an afternoon breeze in Waialae in a field with soft dry, green streets and low scores. Niemann’s only bogey was when he fell asleep on a 25-foot birdie over hole number 12, made him run 10 feet through the hole and make three putts. The finish was exquisite.
Kokrak played without a bogey, and was as pleased with a 15-foot putt pair at No. 1 (his 10th hole of the round) as any of his nine birdies. He had a 25-foot by 61-foot eagle in the closing hole that narrowly missed.
Malnati was the only 62-year-old to play in the morning, although conditions were similar for much of the day.
The 64-year-old group included Daniel Berger, among the 31 players in last week’s Champion Sentinel Tournament in Maui, and Jim Herman, who should have been there.
Herman arrived in Hawaii a week later than I expected and was happier than ever. He recovered from the coronavirus and got his lowest score in his tenth appearance at the Sony Open to start his year off to a good start.
He qualified for Kapalua at the Sentry Champions Tournament winning the Wyndham Championship, his third professional victory. But his COVID-19 test came back positive as he prepared to go to Maui, and personal isolation for 10 days left him no time to get to Kapalua.
“I feel pretty good,” Herman said. “Viously, obviously, today’s low score helps you feel a little better. I didn’t know what to expect to come out this week.”
Herman said he spent four miserable days facing the virus and that he still doesn’t have his full flavor and smell. The biggest concern was the slight inflammation of the lungs, which pressed against the back and made it difficult to settle. He was finally able to hit a few golf balls last weekend and only played one round of golf.
The score was ideal for different reasons than Kapalua on a very different route. The Pacific coast wind on the edge of the course is normal. But it’s been dry enough for the ball to roll, useful in street shots, not so much when it’s offline and into the rough.
There was another turn in Waialae: out-of-limit participations for about 350 meters on the left side of 18th Street. The tour this year erected them out of danger for those going down the 10th route and without the tents and stands due to of the absence of spectators, it might have been tempting for more players to take their starting point on the 18th by the 10th.
This never occurred to Niemann’s head. He reached a great tie that still fell through the fairway to the drop, came low and ended on a good note.
It sure was different from last week. Niemann missed a 6-foot birdie in regulation (and shot 64), and then in a playoff at par-5 18, shot slightly and went down a slope to the left of the green, leaving a hard chip and a par. Harris English won with a putt birdie.
“It was the first time it hurt me, like finishing a golf tournament,” he said. “Probably one or two days I keep thinking about how I couldn’t make a little bird on the 18th and I did. I was talking to my coach, to my psychologist. We talked for an hour all over the tournament, not the 18th. be a good way to capture all the positives of that week. “
The Englishman, hoping to be just the third player to sweep the Hawaii swing, had three bogeys on a four-hole stretch in his second nine and had to watch two of the last three holes to get a pair of 70.
The score was so low that only 30 players on the field of 144 players surpassed the pair.
“They have it playing fantastic,” said Webb Simpson, one of 22 players 65 and older. “I think all golfers like it especially when we see good driving and the ball bounces 10 feet in the air. It’s a good feeling.”