Sony Open Tournament Preview
For those of you who tailed 83% the tout industry in picking Cam Smith congratulations. I’ll just hang out at the JV table wondering why Sungjae forgot how to chip and putt. Not that it would have mattered as Cam played historically well and now heads back to the site of his 2nd PGA Tour Victory at Waialae Country Club on the South-Eastern coast of Oahu. The Seth Raynor designed Waialae Country Club is one of the longest running tournament sites as it had its maiden event back in 1965 when Gay Brewer won in a playoff to pocket the $9,000 check. While the field may lack some of last week’s luster, the $1.35 million dollar 1st place check and 500 Fedex Cup points will mean a hell of a lot to the eventual winner. Kevin Na heads back to defend his title after a solid yet unspectacular 13th place finish at Kapalua where 8 of the last 10 winners at Sony played the week prior.
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
· 144 Man Field with Top 65 & Ties continuing for the weekend
· Average Winning Score just a shade under -20
· Course Record 59 shot by Justin Thomas in opening round of 2017 led to his victory following his win at Sentry TOC
· Russell Henley won in 2013 playing in his 1st PGA Tour event; had won an event on the KFT 6 weeks prior.
While Waialae and Kapalua are both located in Hawaii, the two courses couldn’t play much more differently. Where Kapaula is wide and hilly, Waialae plays as a tighter tree-lined flat track. Even though the course is near the coast, Waialae isn’t nearly as exposed to potentially windy conditions which allows the winning score to consistently get into the low 20-under range. Both par 5s are reachable for most of the field and without any reachable par 4s, scoring will have to come the old fashioned way of hitting fairways, close iron shots, and making putts. The course essentially breaks down into thirds as the first 6 holes have 4 of the toughest holes, 7–12 have four of the easiest, and the last 6 produce average scores. History tells us that the winner will have likely played at the Tournament of Champions and even more importantly posted a top 15 at some point during their last 3 events.
WAIALAE COUNTRY CLUB AT A GLANCE
· Seth Raynor Design
· 7,044 Yards
· Par 70 (4 Par-3s, 12 Par-4s, 2 Par-5s
· Short and narrow course but non-penal rough.
· If winds pick up, can affect scores but not usually the case
· Last 5 Years Winning Score, Winning Player, cut line
· 2021 -21, Kevin Na, -4
· 2020 -11, Cam Smith, +1
· 2019 -22, Matt Kuchar, -2
· 2018 -17, Patton Kizzire, -2
· 2017 -27, Justin Thomas, -3
FIELD NOTES
· 140 Players including past champions Kevin Na, Cam Smith, Matt Kuchar, Patton Kizzire, and Russell Henley.
· Bryson DeChambeau just Withdrew but other big names include Hideki Matsuyama, Webb Simpson, and Sungjae Im.
· 21 players in the field played last week at the Tournament of Champions.
· 40 players making their Sony Open Debut
Weather forecasts looks to continue what we saw last week at Kapalua with ideal scoring conditions with only some wind appearing Sunday afternoon. While the field seems relatively new and unproven, I would expect to see plenty of low scores with the young aggressive players going after this short course.
