SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 15, 2026

Corey Kuzuma

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Corey, very steady round for you today. How did you feel about your preparation coming into this Sony Open opportunity?

COREY KOZUMA: Yeah, I felt the preparation was good. I was very lucky that the membership here at Waialae and the golf professional staff were very generous in letting me come out and do as much prep work as I needed.

Which paid off a lot for today.

Q. I know you work at Mid-Pac Country Club.

COREY KOZUMA: Uh-huh.

Q. I'm guessing you've played that course a lot. What are the Waialae conditions compared to Mid-Pac?

COREY KOZUMA: It's a little bit of a different -- two different tracks. Waialae is always in great condition, but it is kind of like a what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

Mid-Pac, our front nine is a little bit more kind of the same and our back nine is placed up against a hill, so you get a lot of doglegs and a lot of different elevation changes.

Obviously Waialae is always going to play tougher with the greens, pin locations, and with the difference in speed as well.

Q. What's kind of going through your head, especially on the front nine as you're rattling off pars?

COREY KOZUMA: Yeah, that was kind of the game plan. Just looking at it like it's like a marathon. Just trying not to get too overly aggressive or too frustrated on missed putts. It was a lot of just steady, make as many pars as you can, and eventually you'll catch one or two.

Q. Saw a couple holes, but you were in the bunkers sometimes. You were able to get up and down. Talk to me about being able to do that even though you get in a sticky situations.

COREY KOZUMA: Yeah, the bunkers out here are great. They're very consistent, and for the most part very predictable. Honestly with the rough it's probably better to be in the bunker than in the rough. We can control it a lot better, and usually leave it in places where you're not short siding yourself and have a pretty good chance of getting up and down.

Q. I know we talked before the tournament of how you wanted to take it in and still go play your game. Were you able to do that today?

COREY KOZUMA: Yeah, I think I did a pretty good job of that today. It was super cool seeing everyone out there in full force. I had to reel myself in a little bit. Took me a couple holes to learn how to breathe again.

After that we just kind of got going. Yeah, pretty steady round today.

Q. Talk a little bit about kind of maybe the next couple hours going into tomorrow, what you feel you need to do to perform tomorrow and what you're looking to get out of the second round.

COREY KOZUMA: Yeah, I think a lot of rest. It's a long week and this is my first event. But this whole week has been awesome. It's been an unbelievable experience. You know, I think rest is probably number one. Maybe grabbing something to eat, getting a little bit of practice in, probably seeing everyone that came out.

Yeah, just taking it easy and enjoying it.

Q. What does it mean to you to be here playing Sony this week given that no one really knows what the long-term future of this event holds?

COREY KOZUMA: It means everything. You know, I think for us, our Class A professionals here, this is the end goal for us, earning that spot to play in the Sony. It would be extremely sad if the tournament doesn't continue on.

So it's just a matter of taking it all in, making the most of every day and second that I'm out here, sharing it with everyone who has come out, and hoping it won't be the last time we can do that.

Q. Curious, have you come close to qualifying for Sony in the past?

COREY KOZUMA: I think -- let me see. At our Section Championship two years ago I lost by one to get that spot, and then --

Q. Pretty close.

COREY KOZUMA: Pretty close. I was able to play in one of the Governor's Cup qualifiers, which is how we get the amateur spot in.

But that was many moon ago, so, yeah, it's been pretty close.