KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Matt McCarty waves to the crowd after sinking his putt on the 13th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club on Friday.
1/2 KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Matt McCarty waves to the crowd after sinking his putt on the 13th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club on Friday.
KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Patrick Fishburn hits his fairway bunker shot on the 16th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club 2/2 KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Patrick Fishburn hits his fairway bunker shot on the 16th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Matt McCarty recognizes the crowd after sinking his putt on the 13th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club on Friday.
KYLE TERADA / IMAGN IMAGES Patrick Fishburn hits his bunker shot on the fairway on the 16th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf tournament at Waialae Country Club. It was nostalgia time at Waialae Country Club Friday morning, as champions from more than a decade ago. took the stage at the start of the second round of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
As the afternoon progressed, hungry and lesser-known players moved up the leaderboard, and Patrick Fishburn and Denny McCarthy finished the day tied for first at 10 under par in the first full event of the PGA Tour season.
Both are looking for their first Tour victory.
McCarthy was among six golfers who shot 64 Thursday to tie for the lead after the first round. But with bogeys on two of his first three holes Friday, he didn’t seem destined to be in the same position heading into the weekend. He calmed down, however, and shot a 4-under 66.
“I played better than yesterday, I think, from tee to green,” McCarthy said. “Hit a lot more fairways today. I missed a lot of short putts, but I guess I made up for it.
This is McCarthy’s fourth Sony Open. He has made the cut and improved his finishing position every year since 2022. He finished tied for 24th last year, when he shot 66 on Saturday and Sunday.
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McCarthy has finished second on the PGA Tour twice, most recently when he lost in a playoff at Valero last year.
Fishburn made a 6-foot birdie on his final hole Friday to cap his second 5-under-par 65 in two days, and at that point he was alone in the lead. He birdied three straight holes on the front nine.
“That was the key, getting some momentum early,” said Fishburn, who finished third in two of his 27 PGA Tour starts. “I felt really good with all the clubs in the bag. … The times I missed the green, I got up and went down. I touched one. I also felt good on the greens.
Kensei Hirata moved quickly to the top Friday with birdies on his first four holes, launching the day’s best round of 7-under-par 63.
He enters play today tied for third at 9 under for the event with Eric Cole and 36-year-old PGA Tour rookie Paul Peterson, who both shot 67 on Friday after being in the top six tied for first place after the first round.
Zach Johnson finished his Friday morning round tied for the lead at 8 under with Sepp Straka and Lee Hodges. They start today tied for sixth with JJ Spaun and Alex Smalley, who tied them in the afternoon.
Johnson, who started the day at 4 under, made the par-4 No. 3 with a second shot of 158 yards. Later, he briefly held the lead alone at 7 under.
“My approach is essentially no expectations. Other than that, basically staying where my feet are and executing a shot right there,” Johnson said. “I like my approach. It’s really quite simple, whether it’s a tee shot, an approach shot or a putt. Extremely simple.
Johnson, 48, won the 2009 Sony Open two years after winning the Masters. His most recent of his 12 PGA Tour victories is the 2015 Open Championship.
Another Sony champion, Russell Henley, finished his second round at 7 under for the event with a 67 to add to his first round 66. The day ended with him T11 with six others.
The 2013 winner here as a Tour rookie and playoff runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in 2022 would be in a better position today if not for a double bogey at No. 6, his 15th hole of the day. But he was still satisfied with his round.
“It’s always cool to come back to Hawaii. I just think about some of those fun memories, I had a lot of good tournaments here,” said Henley, who also finished fourth here last year. “I feel like I’m playing well. A bad move today. Not bad but not good, the execution kind of cost me. I played very regularly. I felt like I was resilient.
Kaimuki High alumnus Chan Kim, 34 and in his second year as a PGA Tour member, barely managed to qualify at 3 under. After a solid 66 on Thursday, he hit a 1-over 71 on Friday that started with a lot of promise.
Kim birdied No. 1 to move to 5 under for the event, then completed her bogey-free streak to start the 22-hole tournament. It ended at No. 5, and he also made bogey on the next hole. He recovered to play 1 until the end.
“It would be great if you could play every round without a bogey,” said the eight-time Japan Golf Tour winner. “Some rounds, if you’re not playing well, you just have to hang in there and do your best.”
Matsuyama, who set a PGA scoring record by winning The Sentry at Kapalua last week, shot 69 on Friday and is tied for 42nd at 4 under.
