Day made Sony Open favorite
By Sportsbook.ag
Tournament: Sony Open in Hawaii
Date: Jan. 15-18
Venue: Waialae Golf Course
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
After an exciting finish at the Tournament of Champions last week, the PGA Tour stays in the Aloha State for the Sony Open. The field will include six of the top-25 players in the current World Golf Rankings, including No. 8 Jason Day, the highest-ranked player in the tournament. Defending champion Jimmy Walker will also be present for this one, and was huge last year with a score of 17-under while finishing with a 63 on Sunday.
Low scores are common in this event as 10 of the past 15 winners had a score of 15-under or better on the par-70, 7,068-yard course. With a fairly shallow field in this one, the door is wide open for some new names to get a win while also giving some of the more well-known players a chance to dominate. Let’s take a look at a few of the golfers who have a shot at hoisting the trophy on Sunday afternoon.
Golfers to Watch
Jason Day (12/1): It is hard to ignore the talent emanating from Jason Day, who remains in the top-10 of the World Golf Rankings despite having just two career PGA Tour wins. In his two events so far this year, the Hero World Challenge and the Tournament of Champions, the Aussie has placed 5th and 3rd, respectively, while putting up a huge performance (62) on Monday in last week’s big tourney. The key stat that could put him over the edge this week is his ability to score on par-4's as he has earned a birdie or better on 14-of-44 (31.8%) such holes, and will be facing plenty of these on the par-70 course.
Jimmy Walker (16/1): Walker was able to grab a win at this event during his breakout campaign in 2014, and has remained hot going into this season with top-5 finishes in two of the past five events. His driver has been spectacular so far, as Walker is averaging 299.3 yards off the tee (30th on tour) and has hit 82.6% of greens from 200+ yards (14th on tour). Walker has moved up to 21st in the World Golf Rankings and looks prepared to keep climbing the leaderboard with his strong play.
Ryan Palmer (33/1): The name of the game is consistency, and Palmer has been one of the more steady golfers on tour over the past year. He made the cut in 20-of-23 tourneys last year and finished 22nd in the WGC event back in November, which was his only PGA event played so far. Palmer has placed in the top-10 twice at this tournament over the past five seasons and will look to continue his strong putting that helped him gain .291 strokes in 2014 (35th on tour).
Marc Leishman (35/1): Leishman has been strong so far this year and earned a 9th-place finish in his most recent PGA event, the WGC-HSBC Champions in November. While he has always been a solid player, his performances at this course have been out of this world, and he has not ranked worse than 22nd at this event in the past five years. This includes coming off back-to-back, single-digit finishes. With scores of 68 or better in seven of his past eight rounds at Waialae, Leishman should be expected to compete throughout.
Charles Howell III (35/1): While Leishman has been great at this course, the play of Howell III has been out of this world. He has yet to miss a cut in 13 starts while placing 8th, 3rd and 2nd in each of the past three years. Overall he has nine top-10's while playing in the Sony Open, and will be a nice darkhorse pick with his 136th world ranking coming in.
Sony Open in Hawaii Betting Odds - Provided by Sportsbook.ag
Jason Day 10/1
Jimmy Walker 14/1
Chris Kirk 17/1
Matt Kuchar 17/1
Hideki Matsuyama 20/1
Russell Henley 21/1
Zach Johnson 21/1
Brendon Todd 29/1
Harris English 30/1
Luke Donald 30/1
Tim Clark 30/1
Charles Howell III 35/1
Marc Leishman 35/1
Ryan Palmer 35/1
Sang-Moon Bae 35/1
Robert Streb 40/1
Gary Woodland 45/1
Graham Delaet 45/1
Kevin Na 45/1
Webb Simpson 45/1
Ben Martin 70/1
Brian Harman 70/1
Jerry Kelly 70/1
Kevin Streelman 70/1
Paul Casey 70/1
Boo Weekley 75/1
Brendon de Jonge 80/1
Francesco Molinari 80/1
Tony Finau 80/1
Chris Stroud 90/1
Jason Kokrak 90/1
John Senden 90/1
Scott Langley 90/1
Scott Piercy 90/1
Seung-Yul Noh 90/1
Billy Hurley III 100/1
J.B. Holmes 100/1
Matt Every 100/1
Shawn Stefani 100/1
Brian Stuard 110/1
Justin Thomas 110/1
George McNeill 120/1
Hudson Swafford 120/1
Robert Allenby 120/1
Russell Knox 120/1
David Hearn 140/1
Carl Pettersson 150/1
Carlos Ortiz 150/1
Daniel Summerhays 150/1
Geoff Ogilvy 150/1
Jeff Overton 150/1
Mark Wilson 150/1
Pat Perez 150/1
Rory Sabbatini 150/1
Stewart Cink 150/1
William McGirt 150/1
Matt Jones 190/1
Angel Cabrera 200/1
Danny Lee 200/1
K.J. Choi 200/1
Morgan Hoffmann 200/1
Spencer Levin 200/1
Blayne Barber 230/1
Camilo Villegas 230/1
John Huh 230/1
John Peterson 230/1
Kevin Kisner 230/1
Andrew Svoboda 240/1
David Lingmerth 240/1
Adam Hadwin 250/1
Alex Cejka 250/1
Alex Prugh 250/1
Andrew Putnam 250/1
Bill Lunde 250/1
Brian Davis 250/1
Brice Garnett 250/1
Cameron Percy 250/1
Carlos Sainz Jr. 250/1
Chad Campbell 250/1
Chad Collins 250/1
Chez Reavie 250/1
Colt Knost 250/1
Daniel Berger 250/1
Davis Love III 250/1
Derek Fathauer 250/1
Fabian Gomez 250/1
Heath Slocum 250/1
Hideto Tanihara 250/1
Hiroshi Iwata 250/1
Hyung-Sung Kim 250/1
J.J. Henry 250/1
James Hahn 250/1
Jason Gore 250/1
Jhonattan Vegas 250/1
Jim Herman 250/1
Jim Renner 250/1
Johnson Wagner 250/1
Justin Hicks 250/1
Justin Leonard 250/1
Kenny Perry 250/1
Kyle Reifers 250/1
Luke Guthrie 250/1
Mark Hubbard 250/1
Martin Flores 250/1
Max Homa 250/1
Michael Putnam 250/1
Nicholas Thompson 250/1
Nick Taylor 250/1
Ricky Barnes 250/1
Sam Saunders 250/1
Scott Brown 250/1
Sean O'Hair 250/1
Steven Alker 250/1
Steven Bowditch 250/1
Stuart Appleby 250/1
Tim Wilkinson 250/1
Tom Gillis 250/1
Tom Hoge 250/1
Troy Merritt 250/1
Vijay Singh 250/1
WC Liang 250/1
Yusaku Miyazato 250/1
Zachary Blair 250/1