Defending Champion Walker Primed for Repeat in Sony Open


Jimmy Walker will be going for two in a row in the Sony Open. The 36-year-old Texan posted a sterling 8-under 62 after opening with a pair of 66s to take a two-stroke lead in the $5.6 million PGA Tour event at Waialae Golf Club in Honolulu.

After starting with four birdies and a bogey on the front nine, Walker, who secured his first victory in the 2013 Frys.com Open and sandwiched the Sony Open win inside the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for three titles and a a spot on the Ryder Cup team, heads into Sunday's final round at 16-under 194, two shots ahead of fellow veteran Matt Kuchar (68).

Walker was spot-on with the flat stick, racking up 11 one-putts Saturday. He certainly feels an affinity for the classic Seth Raynor-designed golf course in Hawaii. "I've always enjoyed coming here," Walker told reporters. "I like the golf course. I think this is one of the best golf courses we play. It shows you what a good golf course is, what it is and doesn't have to be.

"It's shorter, it's tight, green complexes are very benign to what we normally play. But I just think it's a good test. I think it's a good golf course. It's hard to hit fairways and then it's harder to hit greens when you don't hit the fairways."

Walker is pleased with how he's rebounded from a disappointing finish in last week's Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Maui, where he lost to Patrick Reed (not playing this week) on the first sudden-death playoff hole.

"It's nice," Walker noted. "I mean, I definitely wanted to win last week, but I tried to take - you try to take as much positives as you can out of the situation, and try to figure out what you did, what you could have done different. But we talked about what we did, and we liked what we did. It just didn't work out.

"And I had my chance on the last hole, but then to carry that into this week and to keep playing well, I knew I had been playing good, I've been hitting it good, and yeah, it feels good. It's nice to get back right where we want to be, having a chance to win, especially after last week. I think it's pretty cool."

Kuchar, the 36-hole leader, is looking forward to the challenge of going against Walker in tomorrow's last pairing. "Being in the final group, playing with Jimmy tomorrow, he's playing great golf. He should have won last week.

"His year last year was fantastic, certainly got a good track record here, knows how to play this course, and I don't expect anything but a really good round out of him. I think it's going to have to take a great round out of me to have a chance."

Three behind are Brian Harman (64) and Troy Merritt (67), while trailing Walker by four are South Africa's Tim Clark (68) and Justin Thomas (70).

Max Homa, a 24-year-old Cal grad and rookie on the PGA Tour - like Thomas - fired a 63 and is seventh at 199.

North Carolina's Webb Simpson, Kuchar's co-leader, stumbled to a 2-over 72 involving three bogeys and a birdie. The 2012 U.S. Open champion is tied for eighth at 10-under 200 with 10 others.

For all the scores, visit http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html.