After carding eagle on final hole Friday to make the cut on the number, former CU golfer Jeremy Paul finishes 45th in his PGA Tour debut, in Hawaii; Denver native Mark Hubbard notches top-25 showing
By Gary Baines – 1/12/2025
Almost a year ago — Jan. 17, 2024 to be exact — former University of Colorado golfer Jeremy Paul scored the biggest victory of his golf career, winning a Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas. It led to the German native earning a PGA Tour card for the first time.
This January — specifically the Sony Open in Hawaii that ended on Sunday in Honolulu — marked another momentous occasion for Paul, even though he didn’t come close to victory this time.
The reason? The former Buff, who long has aimed to compete on the PGA Tour, made his Tour debut this weekend at Waialae Country Club. Not only that, but he made the cut in spectacular fashion, sinking an 18-foot eagle putt on his final hole Friday to advance to the weekend on the number.
After a solid weekend — albeit one without a stellar highlight to match Friday’s — Paul’s first finish in a PGA Tour event will go down as a 45th-place showing. The 30-year-old earned $24,382 for that memorable first check on golf’s premier circuit.
Paul went 70-67-68-68 for a 7-under-par total at the Sony Open, which left him nine strokes out of a playoff won by Nick Taylor. For the week, Paul posted an eagle, 10 birdies and five bogeys.
Before earning his PGA Tour card, Paul played 88 events on the Korn Ferry Tour, with two of his four top-5 finishes on the KFT coming at The Ascendant presented by Blue at TPC Colorado in Berthoud.
Meanwhile, Denver native Mark Hubbard had a solid showing to his 2025 PGA Tour season as he tied for 21st place at the Sony Open on Sunday. The 35-year-old graduate of Colorado Academy followed up rounds of 68-67-70 with a 5-under-par 65 on Sunday, giving him a 10-under total.
Paul and Hubbard will return to action Thursday at The American Express in La Quinta, Calif., where they’ll be joined in the field by Denver native Wyndham Clark. Nick Dunlap, who won the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club, will defend the title he won as an amateur there last year. Dunlap placed 10th on Sunday in Hawaii.
For all the scores from the Sony Open in Hawaii, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com