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Associated Press
Published on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 07:42PM EST
Last updated on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 11:19PM EST
HONOLULU, Hawaii - Graham DeLaet has never been happier to be on the PGA Tour, and it showed Thursday in the Sony Open.
One year after back surgery that made him wonder if he could ever play golf again, DeLaet chipped in for eagle and twice holed 35-foot birdie putts for a 7-under 63 that gave the Canadian a two-shot lead.
Carl Pettersson, former Sony Open champion K.J. Choi and Kyle Reifers were all at 65, while fellow Canadian David Hearn was in a group at 4-under par. He birdied two of his first four holes and four of his last eight for an opening round 66.
Calgary's Stephen Ames is four strokes back. He has been in Hawaii for his annual winter vacation, playing the Bay Course at Kapalua during the Tournament of Champions on the Plantation Course. But when he got to Waialae, he was 3 over through eight holes. Ames birdied six of the next nine holes and posted a -3,67.
"I'm just so excited to be back out," DeLaet said. "I had a good season my rookie campaign, and then it was all basically just taken away. And I realize now how fortunate we are to be playing golf for a living. My whole attitude is definitely better."
His game looked to be in pretty good shape, too. Thursday was a gentle start of the season in the first full-field tournament of the year on the PGA Tour, with the ocean breeze barely strong enough to move fronds on the palm trees that line the fairways. Just under half of those with early tee times broke par.
DeLaet, who hails from Weyburn, Sask., surged to the top of the leaderboard when he chipped in from just short of the green on the par-5 ninth, then holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the 10th and hit his approach to 6 feet on the 12th for another birdie. He took the outright lead with birdies on the last two holes, getting up-and-down from just short of the green on the par-5 18th.
At this time a year ago, he was a week removed from surgery on his lower back, which included shaving part of his disk to keep it from pressing against a nerve. The Sony Open offers pleasant scenery on TV, but he couldn't stand to watch. "It took me a couple of months before I could even watch golf," he said.
The injury was nothing new, first suffered when DeLaet was playing hockey as a junior. His lower back would give him fits, and then the pain would subside. Toward the end of his rookie season in 2010 — he finished 100th on the money list to easily keep his card — it got so bad that he couldn't sit for more than a few seconds.
Surgery took care of the pain, and DeLaet tried to return in the summer in the two tournaments sandwiched around the U.S. Open. His next start was supposed to be the AT&T National at Aronimink, but after playing a few holes before the Wednesday pro-am, he realized he was trying to get back too soon.
"I think I wanted to be there so bad that I felt that I was better physically than I actually was," DeLaet said. "I just knew that it's hard enough to compete out here when you're healthy, and I just knew that I wasn't in good enough shape to compete."
Playing on a major medical exemption, DeLaet has 26 starts to make $668,166 in order to keep his PGA TOUR card, which is the equivalent of what the 125th player on the PGA Tour money list made last year. First place at the Sony Open in Hawaii this week is $990,000.
"That would be a nice way to start the year," DeLaet said.
Steve Stricker, winner of last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, birdied his final two holes for an opening round 66. Should Stricker win this week, he would become just the second player to win both of the first two events of the season in Hawaii. Ernie Els won both in 2003.
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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