PGA handles Waialae

South Africa's Rory Sabbatini doesn't let the winds of Waialae stop him in the Sony Open

THE WIND at Waialae was overrated during yesterday's opening round of the $5.1 million Sony Open in Hawaii.

Sure, it blew morning, noon and night. And yeah, the PGA Tour's best talked about how difficult it was to find the fairways off the tee or to putt from more than 10 feet away. But by day's end, there were still 32 golfers in the red and another 16 came in at even par with South African Rory Sabbatini at the top of the list with a 5-under 65.

David Toms and K.J. Choi, two veterans of the real-time breezes that blew at the Mercedes Championships last week, were tied for second at 4-under 66 with Charles Warren and Jeff Gove. Seven golfers were another shot back at 3-under 67, including past Sony and Hawaiian Open champions Jeff Sluman and Jim Furyk.

Two other winners from back in the Waialae day were under par as well. Jerry Kelly was among five golfers at 2-under 68, and Paul Azinger was one of 15 golfers at 1-under 69. But after 18 holes, Sabbatini ruled the day.

"The wind was blowing first thing this morning," Sabbatini said. "I couldn't believe you only get a grace period of three or four holes before the wind would really pick up. It was blowing from the get-go, and just continued to get harder, and the gusts just made the conditions out there tough clubbing, and for putting, too."

You won't get any arguments from Toms or Choi. Even though both played in the high-wire act of the winners-only tournament last week that had the trades gusting to 45 mph, it was a mountain wind on Maui with wide-open fairways.

Here, the fairways are much tighter, forcing the golfers to be careful of the tree lines that are found on nearly every fairway. The greens are also different. Last week, they were new and slick. These greens held approach shots better and didn't have the speed of a week ago.

"This week, the pine trees are very tall and when it's windy, we can see it when we hit the ball," Choi said. "Conditions are good. But it's more softer and better than last week. Last week was very hard greens."

Toms said he knew all week that the conditions were going to be difficult here. The wind was up last week at the Mercedes, and it's still hanging around this week at Waialae. The good thing is, the longer you're in it, the easier it is to deal with it.

"I've been over here for almost two weeks now and it's been blowing every single day," Toms said. "So it would be a shock to me to wake up and not hear the trees blowing. So you just have to deal with it and do the best you can. You know, good, solid golf shots are still rewarded, even when the wind is blowing."

And the leaders had plenty of those. Sabbatini birdied five of the final seven holes, but also sprinkled in three bogeys during the day.

He offset those with two more birdies on the front side. Toms managed six birdies for the day, including one on the opening hole.

A bogey at the sixth after an errant tee shot and another bogey at the par-3 17th from the back bunker kept him from taking the lead outright.

Choi managed a similar scorecard with six birdies and two bogeys. All three golfers birdied the two par-5s to put themselves in a solid position entering today's second round. The weather forecast calls for breezy conditions with rain sprinkled in for good measure.

"I think my day started at 2 a.m. when I heard the wind blowing, along with everybody else," said Sluman, who won the Sony Open in 1999. "All of my years coming here, I never really felt wind like that at night. So I knew it was going to be a tough day. It's all crosswinds. There are very few holes straight into the wind or downwind."

The wind certainly caused Michelle Wie some problems. She wound up one step from the bottom with a 9-over 79. Only Jimmy Walker was worse at 10-under 80. Defending champion Vijay Singh also had problems with a 1-over 71.

Mercedes champion Stuart Appleby, who was paired with Singh, managed to turn in an even-par 70. After today's round, the top 70 and ties will move on to the weekend, where conditions will likely be the same.

"Well, there's no real hiding from the wind," Sabbatini said. "The wind gets you, other than the trees, that's about the only thing. Kapalua, you can get a lot of break from the wind with the hillside and stuff like that. Obviously here, it feels like every hole is across the wind. There's not any hole that feels like it's straight down."

FIRST-ROUND LEADERS Rory Sabbatini 34-31 -- 65 David Toms 32-34 -- 66 K.J. Choi 32-34 -- 66 Charles Warren 34-32 -- 66 Jeff Gove 33-33 -- 66 Jeff Sluman 34-33 -- 67 Chad Campbell 34-33 -- 67 Peter Lonard 35-32 -- 67 Jim Furyk 36-31 -- 67 Bubba Watson 32-35 -- 67 James Driscoll 34-33 -- 67 Vaughn Taylor 34-33 -- 67

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Sony Open in Hawaii

At Waialae Country Club
First round, par-70

Rory Sabbatini	34-31	--	65
David Toms	32-34	--	66
K.J. Choi	32-34	--	66
Charles Warren	34-32	--	66
Jeff Gove	33-33	--	66
Jeff Sluman	34-33	--	67
Chad Campbell	34-33	--	67
Peter Lonard	35-32	--	67
Jim Furyk	36-31	--	67
Bubba Watson	32-35	--	67
James Driscoll	34-33	--	67
Vaughn Taylor	34-33	--	67
Tom Byrum	34-34	--	68
Brent Geiberger	37-31	--	68
Jerry Kelly	35-33	--	68
Fred Funk	33-35	--	68
Tommy Armour III	35-33	--	68
Paul Azinger	36-33	--	69
Jeff Maggert	33-36	--	69
Loren Roberts	34-35	--	69
Tag Ridings	36-33	--	69
Will MacKenzie	35-34	--	69
Roger Tambellini	35-34	--	69
Steve Schneiter	33-36	--	69
Jon Mills	34-35	--	69
Richard S. Johnson	34-35	--	69
Mathew Goggin	36-33	--	69
Jerry Smith	35-34	--	69
Steve Jones	33-36	--	69
Paul Goydos	34-35	--	69
Dudley Hart	34-35	--	69
Jeremy Tucker	38-31	--	69
Arron Oberholser	36-34	--	70
Bo Van Pelt	37-33	--	70
Arjun Atwal	36-34	--	70
Robert Gamez	34-36	--	70
Vance Veazey	33-37	--	70
Nathan Green	36-34	--	70
Henrik Bjornstad	33-37	--	70
Steve Lowery	36-34	--	70
Stuart Appleby	36-34	--	70
Jason Bohn	35-35	--	70
Mark Calcavecchia	35-35	--	70
Carlos Franco	36-34	--	70
Billy Mayfair	36-34	--	70
John Engler, Jr.	34-36	--	70
Shane Bertsch	35-35	--	70
J.B. Holmes	36-34	--	70
Joe Ogilvie	35-36	--	71
Patrick Sheehan	37-34	--	71
Harrison Frazar	35-36	--	71
Brad Faxon	32-39	--	71
Tom Lehman	35-36	--	71
Carl Pettersson	37-34	--	71
Olin Browne	33-38	--	71
Rich Beem	38-33	--	71
Stewart Cink	34-37	--	71
Chris Couch	35-36	--	71
Bill Haas	35-36	--	71
David Branshaw	33-38	--	71
Charles Howell III	36-35	--	71
Aaron Baddeley	37-34	--	71
Vijay Singh	36-35	--	71
Lucas Glover	35-36	--	71
Adam Scott	34-37	--	71
Joe Durant	35-36	--	71
Thomas Levet	36-35	--	71
David Ishii	35-36	--	71
Hunter Mahan	34-37	--	71
Kiyoshi Miyazato	36-35	--	71
Nicholas Thompson	38-33	--	71
Heath Slocum	34-38	--	72
Jason Gore	39-33	--	72
Mike Weir	39-33	--	72
Parker McLachlin	35-37	--	72
Camilo Villegas	35-37	--	72
Bubba Dickerson	36-36	--	72
Alex Aragon	38-34	--	72
Jesper Parnevik	35-37	--	72
John Riegger	38-34	--	72
Michael Allen	35-37	--	72
Ryuji Imada	35-37	--	72
Shigeki Maruyama	35-37	--	72
Troy Matteson	37-35	--	72
Kaname Yokoo	36-36	--	72
Jeff Overton	37-35	--	72
Yusaku Miyazato	36-36	--	72
Craig Barlow	36-37	--	73
Brett Quigley	36-37	--	73
John Huston	35-38	--	73
Kevin Hayashi	37-36	--	73
Hidemichi Tanaka	37-36	--	73
Todd Fischer	36-37	--	73
Dean Wilson	36-37	--	73
Jonathan Kaye	37-36	--	73
Peter Jacobsen	35-38	--	73
Bart Bryant	36-37	--	73
Shiv Kapur	37-36	--	73
Ron Whittaker	36-37	--	73
Craig Stadler	39-35	--	74
Woody Austin	37-37	--	74
Tim Petrovic	36-38	--	74
Jeff Brehaut	38-36	--	74
Stephen Leaney	38-36	--	74
Kris Cox	40-34	--	74
D.J. Trahan	38-36	--	74
Justin Rose	40-34	--	74
D.A. Points	39-35	--	74
David McKenzie	37-37	--	74
Jason Schultz	37-37	--	74
Tadahiro Takayama	37-37	--	74
Charley Hoffman	39-35	--	74
Eric Axley	39-35	--	74
Frank Lickliter II	39-36	--	75
Greg Chalmers	39-36	--	75
Kenny Perry	38-37	--	75
David Duval	40-35	--	75
Sean O'Hair	38-37	--	75
Ryan Moore	39-36	--	75
Thaworn Wiratchant	37-38	--	75
Nick Watney	38-37	--	75
Pat Perez	40-35	--	75
Jay Haas	37-38	--	75
Tom Pernice, Jr.	37-38	--	75
Steven Bowditch	39-36	--	75
Charlie Wi	38-37	--	75
Alex Cejka	39-37	--	76
Shaun Micheel	40-36	--	76
Daniel Chopra	38-38	--	76
Daisuke Maruyama	41-35	--	76
Craig Perks	39-37	--	76
Ryan Palmer	36-40	--	76
Chris Riley	40-36	--	76
Joey Snyder III	40-37	--	77
Todd Hamilton	38-39	--	77
Brandan Kop	37-40	--	77
Brad Elder	41-37	--	78
Beau Yokomoto	40-38	--	78
Corey Pavin	40-38	--	78
Wes Short, Jr.	39-39	--	78
Robert Garrigus	38-40	--	78
John Cook	41-38	--	79
Michelle Wie	37-42	--	79
Jimmy Walker	40-40	--	80