HONOLULU — Jeff Maggert is starting his 23rd season on the PGA Tour, and some things never change.
“The fun part about this week is that everyone is in a good mood," Maggert said Wednesday. “They’re not complaining about how they’ve been playing."
Much like spring training in baseball, the Sony Open is filled with optimism for players young and old as the first full-field event of the season.
No one has more confidence than Dustin Johnson, coming off a season-opening win at the Tournament of Champions the day before on Maui.
Everyone else starts from scratch. The rookies tend to have higher expectations, perhaps because they don’t know any better.
John Daly remembers his rookie season in 1991, when he missed half the cuts in his opening six events, tied for fourth at the Honda Classic and felt like he had his card locked up for next year when he drove up to Crooked Stick as an alternate for the PGA Championship and won.
“I was just trying to get my card before the PGA," Daly said. “As for the rookies, I’m not going to speak for them, but I would think they’re goal is to make $850,000 as quickly as they can and keep their card."
Good thing he’s not speaking for them.
Luke List was asked for his No. 1 goal as a rookie and said he wanted to get in all the majors as quickly as possible, starting with the Masters only three months away.
“I know it will probably require a win, but I still think a bunch of good play might do it," he said.
There was talk it might be difficult for the young players to get into tournaments this season. But everyone moving up from Q-school and the Web.com Tour got into the Sony Open. Of the 23 rookies at the Sony Open, five of them have never been to a PGA Tour event unless they bought a ticket.
— The Associated Press
