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Star-Bulletin Sports


Friday, January 19, 2001


S O N Y_ O P E N



Sony Open Hawaii


Nicklaus makes different
kind of turn at ninth hole

Leader board | First round results
Daly joins leaders | Key hole
Sony Open Notebook


By Dave Reardon
Star-Bulletin

GARY Nicklaus will never forget the ninth hole at Waialae.

He's hoping to create good memories of it this year to erase the bad.

In the 2000 Sony Open, Nicklaus took a 12 on the 510-yard par-5. What made things worse was it happened on the 72nd and final hole of the tournament for him; Nicklaus, a Tour rookie at the time, sank further down the prize money list with each errant shot.

He ended up 10-over for the tournament, tied for 72nd place. Completing the hole in par would have meant finishing 19 spots higher.

"Every time I step on that tee, I think about it," Nicklaus said. "But the wind was not as hard (yesterday) as last year."

The son of the legendary Jack Nicklaus birdied the hole yesterday on his way to a 32-34--66 that had him tied for fifth at 4-under with 12 others going into today's second round of the Sony Open.

Nicklaus beat No. 9 this time: He hit a 3-wood second-shot to within 20 feet of the cup and two-putted. It was one of five birdies for him yesterday, including a 15-foot chip-in on No. 18 -- a much better way to finish off than he did in last year's final round.

In the 2000 Sony, Nicklaus shot 69 in the first round but his performance fell off each succeeding day.

Nicklaus made the cut in only 11 of the 30 events he played in last year, but did take home $409,409 in earnings.

He wants to substitute quality for quantity in his second full year on the Tour; Nicklaus plans to be more selective in the events he enters.

"The second half of last year I lost my confidence and kept playing, playing, week after week. That didn't help," Nicklaus said.

"In the off-season I recharged the batteries a little bit.

"My goals are to win a tournament and be in the Tour championship at the end of the year," he said. "If I accomplish that, a lot of the rest will take care of itself.

If looks mean anything, Nicklaus has a shot at greatness. The 32-year-old son of the Golden Bear bears a striking resemblance to his father.

Except for the new goatee the son sports this year.

"He could grow one, but it'd be gray, or white," Nicklaus joked.

"It's nothing, just to do something different," he said.

Obviously, Gary Nicklaus hopes to continue doing something different this weekend than he did last year, especially at the ninth hole.


Map

Key hole: No. 13 l Par 4 l 478

There's a simple way to make a hole more difficult -- lower its par.

The dogleg right No. 13 at Waialae used to be a bit of a pushover in its previous incarnation as a par-5 when the Sony Open was the Hawaiian Open.

Now it's an unyielding stalwart as a 478-yard par-4.

Larry Mize, who shares the first-round lead, had few difficulties overall yesterday in carding a 33-31--64, but he felt fortunate to come out of No. 13 with a par.

And he's not particularly superstitious.

"I'd go with 13 as the toughest today. The crosswind made it a challenge," Mize said.

Another of the leaders, Brad Faxon, didn't hesitate when asked which hole he felt was most challenging.

"You've got to hit such a good drive (on 13)," said Faxon, who also parred it. "Just a few guys can carry that bunker (on the right)."

Others back in the pack might have disagreed with Mize and Faxon. Judging by average score, holes 2, 6 and 4, in that order, ate up the field worse than No. 13.

But if you were playing well and hungry for birdies, the 13th wasn't the place to look. It surrendered only eight yesterday.

Par was achieved by 99 golfers, 28 got bogeys and seven absorbed double bogeys.

As Waialae pro Greg Nichols wrote in a description of the revised No. 13, "Par is now a very good score on this hole."


Dave Reardon, Star-Bulletin


SONY OPEN NOTEBOOK

Tapa

Sony Open Hawaii


Locals struggle in
first round

IT was a rough day for amateurs at Waialae Country Club yesterday. The two non-pros in the Sony Open field, locals Tommy Kim and Brandan Kop, struggled in the first round.

Kim shot 45-35--80 and Kop was not much better at 41-36--77.

"Going five over on three (consecutive) holes on the front nine killed me," Kop said. He bogeyed No. 4 and double-bogeyed the fifth and sixth holes before recovering to shoot 1-over on the back nine.

"For me, the course is too tough because I spray," said Kop, who hit 4-of-14 fairways. "I've got a new driver and I hit it good on the range. My strengths are chipping and putting, so I've got to be more precise."

Kim hit the ball long as expected, averaging 295.5 per drive -- maybe too long.

"It wasn't so much nerves as adrenaline. If I had it to do over, I probably would've been more conservative," he said. "When I got to 5-over early, I started going for pins and that probably made it worse."

Kim also recovered on the back nine, with birdies on 11 and 18.

Local pros fared only a little better overall.

Peter Jacobsen, who represents Waikoloa on the Tour, was the best of the bunch at 1-under 33-36--69.

Makena pro Brian Sasada shot par at 36-34--70.

Japan Tour and Pearl Country Club pro David Ishii, the tournament champion in 1990, shot 38-35--73. "I made a couple poor tee shots and couldn't save my par putts," Ishii said.

Matthew Hall (Hapuna) came in at 37-37--74 and Douglas Bohn (Kapalua) shot 38-40--78.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: The 426-yard, par-4 second hole ranked as the most difficult yesterday, playing to an average score of 4.361. The only birdie there was turned in by Joe Ozaki. The easiest hole? The 551-yard 18th, which played to a 4.438 average. The other par-5, the 510-yard ninth, was the next easiest hole, even tough it gave up more eagles (4) than No. 18 (2).

PAR FOR THE COURSE: Sixty-eight of the 143 players bettered par-70 in the opening round, while 17 shot even par.

NO BOGEY MEN: Only three players played a bogey-free first round -- co-leader Brad Faxon, Cameron Beckman and Spike McRoy, the 2000 Buy.Com money leader.

TOUR ROOKIE OPEN: Twenty-three of the 25 PGA Tour rookies are playing this week at Waialae. The only rookie no-shows are Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Tim Clark. Jimenez, who played on the European PGA Tour, was tied for second with Ernie Els in last year's U.S. Open at Pebble Beach where Tiger Woods won by a record 15 strokes. Clark withdrew before the first round because of a strained right wrist.

ACES IN THE HOLE: Shigeki Maruyama aced the 173-yard seventh hole, using a 7-iron. Brandt Jobe posted the first ace in 2001 in last week's Tucson Open. ... J.J. Henry had a hole-in-one in the first Sony Open satellite pro-am Wednesday at the Kapolei Golf Course. He used a 6-iron to ace the 205-yard 16th hole and win a round-trip airfare for two to Madrid, Spain.

TOY 'CANON': Emanuele Canonica is only 5-feet-2, but the Tour rookie from Monaco parlayed his long hitting into a 4-under 33-33--66 to position himself well for today's second round. He averaged 310 yards per drive yesterday, with a long of 342 yards.

THEY'RE BACK: Last year's PGA Tour Media Guide wiped out the Hawaiian Open history, omitting the names of all of the tournament's champions and their winning scores from 1965 through 1998. As if it all never happened. Well, in the 2001 media guide, all of the pertinent information has been restored.


Bill Kwon and Dave Reardon, Star-Bulletin



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