KAPALUA, Hawaii – Is 40-under possible? That would be four rounds at 10-under or better on Kapalua’s par 73 course.
Is that unattainable?
This year, with Collin Morikawa at 16-under at the halfway point, such a score is a pipe dream, but what about another year in the not-too-distant future, when the course is playing hard and fast and scoring is plentiful?
“You go in spurts,” Jordan Spieth said after a 7-under 66. “You have that, like call it 5 through 9 you’re looking to go 3- or 4-under, and then you have that stretch of 14 through 18 where you want to take advantage. And then if you can play the other holes 1- or 2-under, then you’ve got a chance to shoot a low round.”
Luke List shot an 8-under 65 on Friday for the low round of the day despite a bogey from under 100 yards on the gettable 16th.
Making his first trip to the Plantation Course, List sees scoring opportunities everywhere.
“Even though it’s a par 73, there’s definitely a 59, 58 out here,” List said. “It just kind of needs to be the right conditions based on the wind, I think, is the biggest thing. But a lot of times with the wind, you do get some downwind holes and that makes some of the holes shorter and gives you some more scoring opportunities.”
List believes that no wind is the perfect setup for players to go bananas and run up low scores.
Last year, three 61s and two 62s were recorded as scoring was plentiful with winner Cameron Smith shooting 34-under, Jon Rahm 33-under and Matt Jones 32-under.
“With the talent now, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to see 14-, 15-under,” List said. “I was thinking single-round 14. But 40-under, that’s — I would be impressed if that gets to that point. What was it, 34 last year? That’s pretty good in itself.”
Xander Schauffele’s First Career Withdrawal Leaves More Questions
Schauffele, 29, arrived in Hawaii not knowing if his lower back would be OK to go, but he gave it a shot. He withdrew mid-round on Friday.
The ailment cropped up at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last month. Schauffele was unsure of what exactly was happening, but as the week went on with pills, sleep and treatment, his back freed up and he played with discomfort, but not enough to stop from finishing the tournament.
That was not the case on Friday in Maui.
“I feel like I’m going back and forth with myself,” Schauffele said. “(Caddie) Austin (Kaiser) told me on nine, he’s like, ‘You know, we have a lot of tournaments coming up on the West Coast Swing, and it’s a big swing for us.’ And he’s like, ‘Are you going to look back and feel like really proud of yourself for gutting it out and maybe hurting yourself more or should we pull out and be smart here because we have a long way to go?'”
Schauffele listened and came back to the clubhouse for the first tournament withdrawal of his career.
“I’ve never had a scan or anything, so I’m going to go home, get a scan, just try to be as smart as possible,” Schauffele said. “Trying to get an MRI done. I should have done it after Bahamas, but it was so funny, I felt so great after, I was back to full-everything routine after that. So that was probably a little immature on my part, to be completely honest.”
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