munneypicks

Tournament: We remain in Hawaii but move to the island of Oahu for this weeks event, the Sony Open held at beautiful Waialae Country Club. This is the second event of the 2016 calendar year but the first full field event. Many people will see a lot of PGA TOUR rookies for the first time this week, if they did not watch much of the wrap around season. I think this year has some formidable rookies but I do not believe this years class is as good as last years which performed very well at Waialae. 

Course: Waialae Country Club is a Par 70 track that plays a bit over 7,000 yards. It is a very flat course and very different from last weeks Tournament of Champions course. Hawaii can get very windy at all times of the year so that will definitely come into play.

Field: Full field this week and we will have a cut. Big names in the field include the champion of the past two tournaments here Jimmy Walker, Adam Scott and Matt Kuchar. Really a good field I would say.

What to Look For: This course is a short par 70 where the difficulty is predicated on the tradewinds as always in Hawaii. Course experience is crucial here as one must know their way around the course to have some success. Having played already is certainly an advantage as well so our eye will be on those who teed it up last week. Rookies are not to be completely overlooked though as Russell Henley won here in his first start in 2013. There are 5 other courses I find very similar to Waialae (Sea Island, Colonial, PGA National, Sedgefield, and Harbour Town). We will look at performance at these courses as well.

Picks:

Marc Leishman e/w*: Leishman is 6/6 making cuts at the Sony Open and while he hasn’t won here, his worst finish in 6 tries is last years 37th place. That is very impressive considering Leishman isn’t the type of player to go 6/6 making cuts so that means he likes the course. Leishman also should have some confidence coming in off of a Nedbank Golf Challenge win on the European Tour in December.

Chris Kirk e/w*: Another player with a great record at Waialae. Kirk has two top five finishes here in the last three years. He also has a victory at Sea Island and seems to play his best golf when he’s able to putt on Bermuda greens. Kirk did not have a good outing last week, but just getting the reps in in Hawaii are more beneficial than sitting out last week in my opinion. 

Russell Knox e/w*: I’ve been high on Knox for a couple of years now and loved seeing him breakthrough a couple of months ago in China. Knox has the game for this course no doubt and seems to have turned a bit of a corner here last year when he finished 13th after missing the cut the previous three years. Experience here is key and Knox has it. I expect him to build on his China win this year and this is a great place to do so.

Troy Merritt e/w*: Merritt seemingly won out of nowhere last year in Washington DC. That got him into the Hyundai TOC last week where he finished a pedestrian 18th. Last season Merritt racked up 3 top 10 finishes. All at shotmakers courses. And this is certainly a shotmakers course. He imploded with a 5-over 75 in the final round last year but was tied for third after three rounds. After a PGA TOUR victory, his should be able to improve on that finish.

Pat Perez e/w*: Perez is another player who makes his chops on shotmakers courses. His only top 10’s last year came at Pebble Beach and Colonial. Perez has 3 top 10’s at Waialae and hopes to continue that success this week. At these odds, it’s worth a shot that he ends up in contention again

1.5u Marc Leishman e/w* @ 33/1

1.25u Chris Kirk e/w* @ 45/1

1.25u Russell Knox e/w* @ 45/1

0.50u Troy Merritt e/w* @ 165/1

0.25u Pat Perez e/w* @ 200/1

9.5u Total @ Stake

*If your book does not offer e/w betting, place 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to win and 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to place top 5