Nick Taylor began his title defense at the Sony Open in Hawaii with a stellar 8-under-par 62, and the Canadian finds himself tied for the first-round lead at the PGA Tour’s season-opening tournament Thursday in Honolulu.
The Canadian and Kevin Roy shot bogey-free 62s at Waialae Country Club and held a one-shot lead over Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup and John VanDerLaan and South Korea’s S.H. Kim as the last several groups were finishing their rounds.
Alex Smalley, England’s John Parry and Belgium’s Adrien Dumont de Chassart share seventh place at 64.
Taylor began his round on the back nine and birdied five of his first eight holes. He stuck his tee shots at the par-3 11th and 17th holes to 7 feet and 6 feet, respectively, setting up two simple birdies. He added birdies at Nos. 2, 7 and 9 coming in.
“Well, I think we got lucky with the forecast this morning. I expected some more wind,” Taylor said. “I hit it great, but, again, this course fits my eye. Again, with the wind (it) was even a little more so today. Irons were really sharp and was able to read the greens well.”
Taylor, 37, won the tournament last year by forcing a playoff with a chip-in eagle at the 72nd hole, then defeating Colombia’s Nico Echavarria on the second playoff hole.
Roy, 35, ran off four straight birdies at Nos. 8-11 to anchor his round. He had three top-10 finishes last season but is seeking his first PGA Tour title.
“I had a couple butterflies on the first hole, first tournament of the season,” Roy said. “So just, yeah, it’s huge to see those putts go in. I hit really good putts and obviously fell in the bottom the cup. Just carried that momentum for the rest of the round.”
Griffin and Gotterup had breakout seasons in 2025, with Griffin claiming three titles and making the U.S. Ryder Cup team and Gotterup winning the Scottish Open.
Griffin said of his round on Thursday, “I felt like I was pretty fortunate to be bogey-free. I hit it in a lot of greenside bunkers today, but sand saves were very nice. Gave myself a lot of looks and took advantage of the fact there wasn’t a ton of wind early on in our round.”
Notable names included Russell Henley at 5-under 65, J.J. Spaun at 66, Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at 67 and Collin Morikawa at 72.
–Field Level Media
