2025 Sentry scores, takeaways: Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama just off the lead after Round 1

Tom Hoge has set the pace in the season opener, but a bevy of big names lurk close behind

Steady winds and an unusually soft golf course gave players something different to think about in the first round of the 2025 Sentry. While some struggled with the atypical conditions, Tom Hoge did not. Carding 10 birdies against just one bogey, the one-time PGA Tour winner fired a 9-under 64 in the first round of the PGA Tour season to command a one-stroke lead over Will Zalatoris and Hideki Matsuyama, with Collin Morikawa standing just one further back.

Hoge and Zalatoris aim to capture the second victories of their respective careers as Matsuyama marches towards another title on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, it is Morikawa who yearns for something more and seeks to right a wrong from two seasons ago. In firm control of the 2023 tournament before a back-nine collapse, the two-time major champion comes into the new year as motivated as ever to win on a golf course where he has notched five top-10 finishes in five prior attempts.

"I don't know [what it is about this golf course]," Morikawa said. "No, there's certain courses where you feel like you can birdie every hole. It's not like a forced thing that you can have happen, but I feel like out here, you hit some good approach shots, you can make some putts, and thankfully I've made a lot of putts throughout the years. Today was just to focus on today and I'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow happens."