HONOLULU — Three golfers with Hawaii ties will compete in the 2024 Sony Open, which begins Thursday at Waialae Country Club.
Journeyman Chan Kim, 33, is making his debut as a full-fledged card-carrying member of the PGA Tour. Kim, a veteran of the Japan Tour, earned his PGA membership through the Korn Ferry Tour in August.
Kim, the 2006 HHSAA boys individual champion out of Kaimuki High, won eight times in eight years in Japan and decided to make another run at the PGA through Q-School.
“Getting to the PGA Tour was always the goal, and now that I’ve achieved it, I can’t wait,” Kim told the PGA in a video released Wednesday. “It’s been a journey but one I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
Kim, who was born in South Korea and raised in Hawaii, missed the cut at the 2022 Sony in his only previous start here through a sponsor's exemption.
"It was a special event that I grew up watching as a kid," Kim said this week. "I remember coming every year and watching these guys hit over bunkers where when I was growing up, I wasn't hitting it very far. ... Now to be a PGA Tour member and coming back here, to kick everything off here pretty much in my hometown, it's a treat."
University of Hawaii senior Blaze Akana is in the field for the second straight year after blitzing a qualifier for local amateurs at Waialae in November – he posted a 66 to win by six shots. Akana, a Kamehameha graduate, was 3 over after two days to miss the Sony cut by five strokes in 2023.
And Hunter Larson, of Naalehu on Hawaii Island, is in as a first-time winner of the Aloha Section PGA sectional championship.
Kim goes off at 1:20 p.m. at No. 10 with Ryo Hisatsune of Japan and Pierceson Coody of Plano, Texas. Larson tees off at the same time at No. 1 with Vince Whaley of Alpharetta, Ga., and Chandler Phillips of College Station, Texas.
Akana, one of two amateurs in the field, is in the last group of the day at 1:40 p.m. at No. 1 with Norman Xiong of San Diego, Calif., and Jimmy Stanger of Jacksonville, Fla. Xiong claimed the last of four spots in Monday’s qualifier on the sixth playoff hole.
Several other local golfers made a run in Monday’s qualifier, including John Oda, who won the Hawaii State Open in that event’s return in December. Oda shot 67 to make it to the playoff but couldn’t claim one of the two remaining spots up for grabs.
Makena Golf Club pro Eric Dugas was the last Hawaii golfer to make the cut at the Sony Open, in 2019.
The featured group Thursday is defending Sony champion Si Woo Kim, 2023 winner Hideki Matsuyama, and last week’s Sentry winner, Chris Kirk. They go off at No. 1 at 8 a.m.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.