KAHUKU — It was difficult to know who was more pleased, Matt Hall, Turtle Bay director of golf, or the two players who received sponsor's exemptions from the resort — David Ishii and Kiyoshi Murota — after the first round of the Turtle Bay Championship Friday.

Ishii eagled from the bunker at the par-5 18th hole to shoot a 4-under 68, while Murota finished off a bogey-free round with a birdie at the same hole for a 5-under 67.

They were hardly token sponsor's exemptions.

Murota is in a five-way tie for second, two strokes behind leader Fred Funk, while Ishii is tied for seventh in the Champions Tour's first full-field event of the year.

"I wish I could pick horses like I can pick sponsor's exemptions," said Hall, who congratulated both players after they finished within minutes of each other.

"Murota and I got sponsor's exemptions, so we want to not play bad, so the sponsors can say they gave it to somebody half decent," said Ishii, who occasionally glimpsed at the scoreboard to see how others were doing.

"Especially, I looked at the Japanese guys' scores. I figure I should be able to keep up with them."

Ishii saw Murota was 4 under after seven holes.

"Oh, no," Ishii told himself. He was even par at the turn with two birdies and two bogeys. "I was hoping I could shoot 1 or 2 under par on the back."

He wound up playing the back nine in 4-under 32, starting with a 30-foot birdie bomb at 11 and a bunker shot to within a foot for a birdie at 12.

He gave one back with his second three-putt of the round at the par-3 15th but birdied the next hole to get back to 2 under. Then came his sensational bunker shot for eagle at the 539-yard finishing hole.

With the pin in a left-front position, Ishii decided to go for the left bunker with a 5-wood from 235 yards.

"I felt it was better to be in the bunker, closer to the hole," said Ishii, whose sand shot rolled 5 feet, hit the flagstick and dropped for an eagle-3.

So instead of being 2 under, he went to 4 under and nudged his way onto the crowded leaderboard.

"I'm happy. I just wanted to shoot under par. Last year I had problems getting under par," said Ishii, who posted rounds of 73-72-72 to finish in a tie for 29th.

Murota was more successful than Ishii in last year's Turtle Bay Championship, finishing in a tie for 17th with a 54-hole total of 214 to earn $20,575.

That merited the six-time winner on the Japan Tour getting a sponsor's exemption again, according to Hall.

Murota doffed his golf cap and bowed to Hall at the 18th green, saying "nice guy, nice guy." He then pointed to the Turtle Bay Resort logo on his sleeve.

"Unbelievable. No bogey today," said Murota, who twice won the Hawai'i Pearl Open (1997 and 2002) and plans to enter the event again in February.

He birdied the first three holes, went 4 under with a birdie at the 6th and parred all the way until a birdie at the 18th.

"All short putt, short putt, short putt," said Murota, whose longest birdie putt was a 20-footer at the first hole.

"We had held the last (exempt) spot and there was talk we might give it away to another local player," Hall said. "But our feeling was that we already had our strongest local player already in the field by inviting David."

Murota got the second spot because of how he finished last year, according to Hall. "He finished the highest of all the sponsor's exemptions since we took over title sponsorship of the event."