January 14-17
Waialae Country Club, Honolulu, Hawaii
$6,600,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 4

One year after losing to Cameron Smith in a playoff, Brendan Steele shot the lowest score of his PGA career and took a two-shot lead in the Sony Open with a 9-under 61.

''You hope that you come back and you play well and erase whatever negative memories there are,'' said Steele. ''But all the memories are pretty positive. Playing great here last year was good, and I'm excited for the challenge tomorrow. I know it's going to be really tough. Guys are coming after me. But I'll just do my best and hopefully it will be enough.''

Round 1 leader and last week's runner-up Joaquin Niemann was outside the top-10 until he birdied the par-3 17th and eagled the 18th for a 63 to finish two shots behind Steele.

“The eagle was huge. I wasn't really satisfied on my first 16 holes. I thought I was playing great. I thought I could put myself in a better position, and then finishing that way and making eagle on 18 made me really happy and gave me a bit of motivation for tomorrow,” said Niemann.

“I took a lot of experience from last week. I'm just going to try to put everything I took from last week into this week and hopefully try to win it. I'm playing great. Just need to keep doing the same stuff I've been doing these two weeks and hopefully get a good round tomorrow, and you never know.”

Kevin Na started his round five shots off the lead but matched his career-low round with a 61 to tie with Niemann at 16-under.

“I played great. I made my share of putts. But on 17, you're thinking, OK, I make birdie here, eagle the last and I have a 59 and how often do you get a chance for that magic number,” said Na. “And it's definitely in your head. If you're a professional golfer, it's in your head. It was fun and exciting. Unfortunately, we misread that putt totally.

''The golf course is so gettable that somebody can go shoot 8 or 9 under. Yeah, I am in a good position but it's what you shoot Sunday. I'm still going to need a low one tomorrow.''

Overnight leader Nick Taylor, who led by two shots after round 2, made four birdies and two bogeys to close with a 68 and lies tied in ninth place at 14-under.

Ten players scored 64 or better on Saturday and the average score of 66.7 set a new record for the Sony Open.

Heavy rain is forecast for Sunday and starting times have been moved up by two hours with hopes of finishing before it starts.