Tom Hoge leads at Kapalua where good golf exceeds expectations in PGA Tour opener

KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — Tom Hoge grew up in North Dakota and found the ideal vibe for Kapalua on Thursday, keeping expectations low and riding the momentum of good golf on his way to a 9-under 64 to take a one-shot lead at The Sentry in the PGA Tour season opener.

Hideki Matsuyama tried out a new putter — he saw someone else use it and figured it would work for him — and he had a birdie-eagle-birdie stretch on the back nine that carried him to a 65 and was one back along with beefed-up Will Zalatoris.

That was the theme for the first day of a new PGA Tour season with so much more at stake than previously. Most of the 60-man field is coming off a short winter's nap with the holidays, looking to shake off some rust on a Plantation course with some of the widest, most generous fairways they will see all year.

Xander Schauffele, the double major winner and highest-ranked player in the field, was among the few who showed up on the weekend at Kapalua. He twice had a fruitless search for his golf ball that led to bogey on the back nine that led to a 72.

Hoge, among the 29 players who made it to Kapalua without winning — the field includes the top 50 in the FedEx Cup last year — and wasn't sure what to expect.

The weather didn't allow for much practice in Fort Worth, Texas, where he now lives. Neither did the birth of his first child, a boy named Thomas Bennett, born a few weeks ago.

“I played all the way through Mexico the first week of November, then was just at home,” he said. “We had our first child in early December, so kind of forced time off. I feel like with the changes in the schedule, last year was a lot of golf from now until the Tour Championship. I felt like I was pretty burned out at that point.”

If the game was rusty, his putter was not. He made a 15-foot birdie out of the gate, saved par with a 6-foot putt on the next hole, holed an 18-foot birdie on the third and chipped in from a dicey spot on the fourth hole.

“It just kind of frees you up. And you’re in Maui, just no expectations, just let it go and see what you can do,” he said.

Zalatoris arrived looking a lot bigger. He took two months off after failing to reach the Tour Championship and used that time to build some muscle, which he hopes will give him a little more longevity from back issues that have forced him to miss too much time.

He missed the last four months of 2022, then the rest of 2023 with back surgery when he had to withdraw from the Masters.

“I don’t feel like I’ve even had surgery now,” Zalatoris said. “The ceiling is something that I wanted to keep raising, because I knew that if I was going to be sitting at 160 pounds and trying to hit it 300 yards out here, it’s not a recipe for longevity.”

He left the BMW Championship in August at 163 pounds. He weighed in at 182 pounds when he got on a plane from Dallas to Maui.

“I'm hoping that this year my best golf is at the end of the season,” he said.

The first day of the new season wasn't bad. Zalatoris played bogey-free, though a three-putt on the par-5 fifth — the easiest hole on the Plantation — felt like a bogey.

Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young and Corey Conners were at 66, while Tony Finau was in the group at 67 in his first tournament in four months because of surgery on his left knee.

Matsuyama, who had been playing in Japan during the fall, fell back with a three-putt bogey from 15 feet on the 13th hole. He followed with a pedestrian tee shot on the next hole, but hit wedge to 10 feet for birdie and was on his way. He hit 5-wood to 5 feet for eagle on the 15th, wedge to 4 feet for birdie on the next and had a chance to tie Hoge until he didn't catch all of his 3-wood on the downhill 18th and failed to get up-and-down for birdie.

The new season starts without Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who punctured his hand on broken glass preparing Christmas dinner.

It also is the start of a new structure when only the top 100 players in the FedEx Cup — down from 125 players — keep full cards for next year.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Matthieu Pavon, of France, hits from the 12th fairway during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Corey Conners, of Canada, hits from the 12th fairway during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Will Zalatoris tosses his ball to his caddie on the fourth green during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

From left; Will Zalatoris, Robert MacIntyre, of Scotland, and Si Woo Kim, of South Korea, walks across the fourth green during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Tom Hoge putts on the 18th green during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Justin Thomas hits from the 13th tee during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, hits from the 13th tee during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan,, left, hands his ball to his caddie on the 12th green during the first round of The Sentry golf event, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York)

TOKYO (AP) — A standoff between rival government forces outside the presidential compound in South Korea has been a startling development, even for observers used to the country's famously rough and tumble politics.

For weeks, impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has remained in his compound and refused to respond to detention and search warrants. Scuffles broke out late last week as dozens of investigators were stopped from entering the compound by hundreds of presidential security guards and a barricade.

The spectacle followed Yoon's astonishing decision last month to impose martial law during a seemingly routine impasse with the opposition, which dominates parliament.

Here's a closer view of recent events as well as South Korea's tempestuous political history, which has seen presidents toppled, arrested, jailed and shamed as millions have taken to the streets in protest.

A government agency dedicated to fighting corruption and police are debating more forceful measures to detain Yoon. Dozens of investigators from the agency and police failed last week to bring Yoon into custody following a standoff with his security service.

Court warrants have been issued to detain Yoon and to search his residence. The warrants were set to expire on Monday but the anti-corruption agency requested a new warrant aiming to extend the window for Yoon's detention.

Yoon has been refusing to appear for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree on Dec. 3.

He has described his power grab as a necessary act of governance against a liberal opposition that has bogged down his agenda with its legislative majority. He has vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to oust him.

Martial law lasted only a few hours, but the country’s politics, diplomacy and financial markets have been shaken for weeks. The decree also exposed South Korea’s deeply polarized society.

Yoon’s lawyers on Monday filed complaints with public prosecutors against the anti-corruption agency’s chief prosecutor, Oh Dong-woon, and six other anti-corruption and police officers for orchestrating Friday’s detainment attempt, which they say was illegal.

Yoon's declaration of martial law unleashed a string of political aftershocks.

The anti-corruption agency, which is leading a joint investigation with police and the military, has been weighing charges of rebellion after Yoon declared martial law and dispatched troops to surround parliament. Lawmakers who managed to get past the blockade voted to lift martial law hours later.

Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended after parliament voted to impeach him on Dec. 14, accusing him of rebellion. The Constitutional Court has begun deliberations on whether to formally remove Yoon from office or reinstate him.

About 150 investigators tried to get Yoon on Friday in a tense standoff with the presidential security service that lasted more than five hours.

After getting around a military unit guarding the residence’s grounds, the agency’s investigators and police were able to approach within 200 meters (220 yards) of Yoon’s residential building but were stopped by a barricade of around 10 vehicles and approximately 200 members of the presidential security forces and troops.

In a statement, Park Jong-joon, chief of the presidential security service, hit back against criticism that his organization has become Yoon’s private army, saying it has a legal obligation to protect the incumbent president.

Yoon’s lawyers said they plan to file complaints against about 150 anti-corruption and police investigators who were involved in Friday’s detention attempt.

The why is incredibly tricky.

But a mix of history and geography have something to do with it.

The Koreas have been sandwiched between big powers for millennia, with China, Russia, Japan and the United States all playing parts of a great global game on the peninsula that extends from the east coast of Asia.

South Korea is deeply split, with the divisions reaching into many parts of life, from culture to class to gender to politics.

Much of the deep political divide can be traced to what happened at the end of World War II, when U.S. and Soviet forces met in the middle of the Korean Peninsula and agreed to divide the land into Washington and Moscow-backed spheres of influence. This solidified into independent rival Koreas in 1948 and then exploded into war and permanent division in 1950. After that, South Korea was run by a string of dictators until democracy came in the late 1980s.

Some of the passion evident in South Korean politics can be seen in the turmoil faced by recent presidents, many of whom have been jailed for corruption after leaving office.

A particularly sensational moment came in 2016 when millions protested against conservative President Park Geun-hye, who later became the first democratically elected leader to be forced from office since South Korea turned democratic.

Park, who was pardoned in late 2021 by her liberal rival and successor, had been serving a lengthy prison term for bribery and other crimes.

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stage a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)