HONOLULU — As Chan Kim stood over his ball on the No. 6 green at Waialae Country Club, a nearby car alarm blared just as he was about to putt.
Kim backed off and gathered himself. When he stepped back up, his 8-foot attempt to save par would not drop.
It was that kind of day for Kim and the two other local golfers in the 144-man field on Day 1 of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Former Kaimuki High standout Kim, University of Hawaii golfer Blaze Akana and Big Island pro Hunter Larson were in some of the last groups to tee off Thursday and experienced increasingly wet and windy weather, though all of them saw their rounds go sideways well before that.
Kim (5 over), making his first start as a full-fledged PGA Tour member at age 33, and Akana (7 over), the local amateur entrant for the second straight year, were forced to suspend their rounds due to darkness. They have two and three holes to complete, respectively, at 7:30 a.m. Friday before they begin their second rounds.
They have a long way to go to become the first local player to make a cut at the Sony since Eric Dugas in 2019.
“It was pretty brutal out there,” said Akana, who had to bust out his umbrella from Nos. 13 to 15. “Tried to manage my game, I just couldn’t score today – one birdie out there. But I got three holes in the morning, so hopefully (I’ll) finish out the round strong. But 7 over, really windy, some rainy conditions, rough stuff.”
The winds came in from the west, which seemed to throw off the local players used to trade winds at Waialae. Akana said it was a little reminiscent of Tuesday’s practice round but otherwise unlike anything he’d experienced training on the flat course.
Larson, the Aloha Section PGA champion from Naalehu, finished his round in near-darkness at 18-over 88, 10 shots removed from the closest golfer.
He acknowledged he had plenty of nerves as he stepped up to the first tee box of the biggest golf platform of his life, even as local supporters cheered.
“I was just trying to get the ball to stay on the tee, to be honest with you,” Larson said. “I was a little bit nervous in that regard. It’s kind of hard to go through your routine when a lot of stuff’s coming at you.”
Through bad swings – and good swings that turned out bad anyway – he said he kept a positive attitude throughout and will approach Friday’s round looking to better his first go-round.
Kim, an eight-time winner on the Japan Tour who earned his PGA Tour card in August through Korn Ferry Q-School, birdied his first hole of the day; he drove the green on the 359-yard No. 10 and two-putted from 13 feet. But on the next, the 183-yard 11th, he experienced his welcome-to-the-PGA moment. He nearly aced the par-3 hole – only to see his ball carom off the base of the flagstick and finally stop some 70 feet out wide.
He made bogey and the mojo of that hole seemed to follow him. He made the turn at 1 over, but double-bogeyed No. 1 when he landed in a fairway bunker hitting into the wind. He got up and down with a 13-footer on No. 2, but bogeyed Nos. 4 through 6 before getting one back with a 16-foot birdie on No. 7 amid cold wind and rain.
He was lining up a 33-foot putt for birdie on No. 8 when the horn sounded to finish play at dusk. Kim could not be found for an interview after being whisked back to the clubhouse upon his round’s suspension.
Cam Davis, a 28-year-old Australian ranked 44th in the world, leads the PGA’s first full-field event of 2024 by two strokes after shooting 8-under 62. He closed with five birdies among his last six holes.
Defending Sony champion Si Woo Kim shot a 1-under 69 in the featured group of the day along with 2022 winner Hideki Matsuyama (even) and last week’s Sentry winner Chris Kirk (4 under, T-seventh).
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.