Paul Peterson makes his PGA Tour debut at age 36 and co-hosts the Sony Open

HONOLULU — The Sony Open is the first stop on the PGA Tour, and Paul Peterson made quite the first impression. He opened with a 6-under 64 and shared the lead with five others Thursday on a pleasant day at Waialae.

Harry Hall, Denny McCarthy and Eric Cole, who all got off to an early start in Hawaii last week in Kapalua, also opened 64 along with Adam Schenk.

Tom Hoge, who tied for eighth at Kapalua, had the only 64 of the afternoon in a round that featured two eagles. The second Hoge described as a gift — an 8-iron from the rough from 189 yards that hit the pin and dropped into the cup.

“I was just hoping it would come down before it went over the green,” he said.

Hideki Matsuyama, who set a record par at Kapalua, birdied two of his last three holes for a 67. He is trying to become the third player to swing the hole in Hawaii.

Peterson is no ordinary rookie.

The lefty from Oregon State has five passport books with stamps from about 44 countries. He was booked on six tours around the world, not including mini-tours in Arizona and the Dakotas when he was just starting out.

“Whether I feel like a rookie, no,” Peterson said. “I traveled a lot. I’ve seen a lot of golf in a lot of places. I feel like all of that helped prepare me to get here. … Do I wish I was here a little earlier? Yes. But do I regret any of the experiences I had along the way? No.”

The Sony Open is the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of the year, drawing a large group of beginners and graduates from the Korn Ferry Tour.

Peterson finally came home with a top-30 finish on the Korn Ferry Tour, which included a win in Tennessee. He felt good all week and had such a good practice on Tuesday that he wanted the tournament to start a day earlier.

The wait didn’t hurt him. He was riding along with three birdies in eight holes when he belted his 7-wood in a soft, tropical breeze on the par-5 ninth hole to 5 feet for eagle. With birdies and two of the next three holes – six straight threes on his card – he was a player who reached 7 under.

A couple of soft bogeys followed, and Peterson followed with another 7-wood birdie range to two-putt the par-5 closing hole to join the others.

Peterson left Oregon State and tried the Canadian tour before getting his ticket on the Asian tour. He claimed his first Czech Masters victory over Thomas Pieters on the European Tour, added another title in Myanmar and concluded that membership of the Japan Golf Tour could help him break into the top 100 in the world rankings.

He never made it that high – No. 120 was his best – and has yet to play a major.

But the travels, the different conditions inside the rope and the cultures at night, helped him to develop. And there were a few memories along the way. None were better than in 2015, when he was exempted from the KLM Open.

“Tom Watson started his last European tour and we paired up on Sunday,” said Peterson. “It was the coolest. He was the coolest. He signed my golf ball.”

The trip also showed him that he didn’t handle the wind well. When it blew up in Oregon, he just didn’t play. He has a home in Arizona and the conditions were too clean. So he moved to Sea Island off the coast of Georgia, north of Florida, where he also saw plenty of action with several PGA Tour players.

So yeah, he’s a rookie. He just doesn’t feel like one, and he certainly didn’t look like one.

Conditions remained ideal in paradise – barely a breath of wind in Kapalua – but Bermuda’s rough is tricky and Waialae’s greens were always tricky to read.

Cole, McCarthy and Schenk all went bogey-free. Hall had a more stressful time, at least when he wasn’t making 10 birdies. The 27-year-old from England, who played college golf at UNLV and now lives in Las Vegas, took two shots to get out of the bunker on No. 8 because of a double bogey that slowed his swing.

But it’s still up since last week. Hall won the ISCO Championship in Kentucky last year, an opposite field event. He’s not into signature events, so Kapalua was a rare opportunity and he made the most of it.

He also uses a real swing coach he found in Las Vegas – Butch Harmon, who is nearing retirement and has agreed to take over.

“I approached him, and he reached out to me a few months after that and said, ‘It would be nice to see you.’ “I started working with him, and since then I’ve been playing very well,” Hall said.