Sony Open: Round Two recap and what to look for over the weekend

The Sony Open has just completed their second round. Along with a recap of round two, here are some storylines to watch over the weekend.

For those tuning in to the Sony Open on Friday expecting to see nicer weather, you must’ve been disappointed. Round two was able to finish before darkness set in, but that was the only part of Mother Nature that agreed with the golf course during the second round.

While winds got into the upper 20’s and lower 30’s on Thursday, they reached into the lower 40’s at times on Friday, making for some incredible to watch shots and many difficult moments for anyone playing.

There were plenty of times when a player would hit a shot, and the wind would slightly change. With the strength of the wind, it would lead to them missing greens and finding themselves in perilous positions. One player who didn’t care about the wind even being in a rough spot? J.T. Poston.

Yeah, that’s him playing a shot off of the incorrect tee box. The ball that the camera originally shows that is over on the right side of the green actually isn’t his. Poston’s ball is the one that is within ten feet of the hole. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the putt, and would finish with a par on the hole, and miss the cut by two.

Some were still able to score though, and the top of the leaderboard is quite crowded because of it. We have a tie at the top of the leaderboard between Brendan Steele and Cameron Davis at -6. Both of them shot -4 today, good enough to give them a one-shot lead over the rest of the field.

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Behind them though. Woah is it a doozy. There are nine golfers sitting at -5, and five golfers at -4. One of those golfers is Collin Morikawa, who was the round one leader at -5. He still sits there, after shooting an even-par round during day two.

There are a lot of golfers within range of Steele and Davis. In fact, I would say that all of them are in range. The cut-line was +1, meaning that there are 66 golfers that made the cut, and they are all within seven shots of the lead.

I always enjoy looking at the players who moved around a lot on Friday, either missing or making the cut because of it. The one that stands out from round two at the Sony Open is Vaughn Taylor. He opened with a 75, and followed with a 66, to get to +1 and barely make the cut. Hideki Matsuyama had nearly the same experience, opening with 74 and then a 67 to also make the cut at +1.

We can’t forget about the other end of the spectrum. Jim Herman and Eric Dugas both opened with a 71 and needed to shoot even par to make the cut. Instead, they turned in 80 and 78, respectively, finishing in the bottom 15 of the field.

It was worse for James Hahn, Patrick Reed, and Matt Kuchar all opened with scores of 69. They would shoot 75, 74, and 73 at the Sony Open on Friday, all missing the cut. Kuchar almost made it, missing the cut by one shot.

The wind is expected to stick around all week. This means we are in for a fantastic weekend of golf. It can be tough to score well on back-to-back days, as Morikawa showed. With all of the golfers one good day away from being a couple of shots from the top of the leaderboard, we could see the rare occurrence where someone who is at the bottom of the leaderboard after Friday’s round could find themselves in the midst of fighting for the top spot on Sunday.

Round three starts early Saturday morning. Luckily for most, you should be up and ready for a full day of golf with the tournament being in Hawaii.