The first full field event of 2025 on the PGA Tour takes place this week when the Sony Open takes place in Hawaii with all of the 144 entrants looking to get the new campaign off to a winning start and set themselves up for the year.
It will be a bit of a sombre week as Grayson Murray was the winner of this tournament a year ago but his sad passing last May will offer up the chance of reflection ahead of the event crowning a new champion.
Recent Winners
2024 – Grayson Murray
2023 – Si Woo Kim
2022 – Hideki Matsuyama
2021 – Kevin Na
2020 – Cameron Smith
2019 – Matt Kuchar
2018 – Patton Kizzire
2017 – Justin Thomas
2016 – Fabian Gomez
2015 – Jimmy Walker
The Course
It is the Waialae Country Club that hosts the tournament once again this week. As with most island tracks the wind is the best defence for this place but the organisers are said to have given the track a little tougher look with rough said to have been allowed to grow to three inches. The greens are slow though so that won’t completely stall the scoring but it might avoid a repeat of last week where scoring got out of control. The course is a par 70 but it only measures 7,044 yards so it isn’t overly long.
If you consider that only Russell Henley has won this tournament on debut in recent times then course management is very much a feature of this place. The other thing to consider when we look at the list of recent winners is they are all tremendous putters but now the rough is up a little bit it might bring the ball strikers into the game as much as the bombers. Keep good putters in mind this week though.
The Field
The field for the Sony Open was probably never going to be the strongest of the year given that we had a Signature Event last week and that the new venture between Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy started this week and took some of the elite stars away so the field is probably best described as competitive rather than anything special. It does however have the former winner and man who is looking to complete the Hawaii double this week in Hideki Matsuyama.
He heads up a pretty strong international charge which includes Corey Conners, Tom Kim, Byeong-Hun An and the 2023 champion Si Woo Kim while the home challenge will be led by players such as the Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley and J.T. Poston. There isn’t a huge European contingent here with the DP World Tour having a Ryder Cup warm up this week but those from the continent who are here include Robert MacIntyre, Sepp Straka and Thomas Detry.
Market Leaders
Hideki Matsuyama has won around Waialae in the past and he is the 9/1 favourite to reclaim the title. That would come a week after breaking all records in winning The Sentry on Sunday where he basically led the field a merry dance. A repeat of that effort in a much weaker field would have him a huge runner here but the wind is expected to get spicy throughout the week and that is something which might bring him back to the field. I wouldn’t want to be massively against him but at single figures I can allow him to win if he is good enough.
Corey Conners is the second favourite this week, which is probably an acceptance of how competitive the field is rather than anything special. The Canadian can be taken at 16/1 to win the tournament and he would certainly fit the ball striking part of the requirement around here. I have to say I’d rather be on someone with a hotter putter at this price because there is still enough in the field to outdo him in that department but he merits respect given his current standing in the rankings.
Tom Kim and Russell Henley come next in the betting. Both can be backed at 20/1 with different mainstream bookmakers. I suspect Kim will be better when there is just a little more freedom off the tee but there is nothing to suggest that Henley should be discouraged. He has won this title before and although it was 12 years ago he is very much still good enough to win again. He has three top fives here since he won too and of the two I’d much rather be on his side.
Maverick McNealy is the only other player in the field who is shorter than 33/1. You can get him at 28/1 although if you want more places it will generally be 22/1 for the man who arrives here off the back of a top 10 finish at The Sentry last week. That bodes well when retreating to lesser company here and we know he is one of the best putters on the PGA Tour generally so if he can continue to strike the ball well there is no reason to believe he can’t built on a T7 here two years ago.
Main Bets
I’ll go with a couple of main bets this week with the first of those coming in the form of a man who won twice last season in Austin Eckroat. Eckroat won at PGA National and in Mexico last term and those are courses which correlate fairly well with this tournament and although you could argue he was never really in contention in Maui last week, he got some rust out of his system and put together a fair effort. This week will need nothing like the scoring power that you needed last week so that is very much a positive and he led at the halfway mark here a year ago before fading. You would imagine if he gets in that position again he will be much more comfortable after he has won a couple of tournaments and will have the confidence of that with him. I think he’s a solid each way play here.
I really like ball strikers around here and with that in mind Davis Thompson, another player who won a tournament last season, is my other main bet. He won the John Deere Classic on a course with a similar profile in terms of par and yardage to this one and he scored very well in that tournament. Thompson shot himself out of The Sentry with a five over par opening round and you don’t do anything in a shootout from that position but to his credit despite having little motivation from a winning standpoint, he carded 20 under par for the next three rounds and if he can take the form of that into this tournament with him then he has every chance here. Thompson was ninth in ball striking on the entire PGA Tour last season and if he can hit the ball that well here he would be in with every chance.
Outsiders
Andrew Putnam has been a runner up in this tournament in the past and there is nothing to suggest that he can’t go well here, especially as he has been in the top 10 of this event in the last two years. He hits the ball solidly enough and is very good on the greens and those are the two credentials I like the most in this tournament. The fact that Putnam seems comfortable with the course and the expected conditions certainly helps and at a price which allows him to be an outsider pick I think he is more than worthy of a go here.
Patton Kizzire is the other one that I think is worth a go here. He has won this tournament in the past and I regularly note that a golfer going back to a place with good memories is almost worth a shot to them so I’m hoping that is the case here. He has won the Procore Championship in the back end of 2024 as well so he brings relatively recent winning form and confidence into the event with him and he is another for whom the conditions won’t be a problem. We’re still at the time of year that overall form doesn’t carry too much weight given all the inactivity so at a three figure price I will pay to see how well he goes here.
Tips
Back A.Eckroat to win Sony Open in Hawaii (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-8)
Back D.Thompson to win Sony Open in Hawaii (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back P.Kizzire to win Sony Open in Hawaii (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back A.Putnam to win Sony Open in Hawaii (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back him here:
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