The PGA Tour continues its Hawaiian retreat with the Sony Open at the beautiful Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, HI. Similar to the Plantation course the tour played last week, Waialae is played on Bermuda Grass and is often known as one of the easiest courses on the tour. The par 70, 7044-yard course is as simple as they get when it comes to the difficultly on the tour and in the past, has always favored the players who are atop the field in Approach to the green due to the heavy dose of Par 4’s.
Though the field goes back to normal this weekend with 144 golfers, only about half of the top 50 golfers in the world are participating this weekend as you can tell by the odds layout with merely 20% of the field being less than 50/1 odds. With that being said, we are going to focus our selections on ball strikers, putting, approach shots gained and most importantly, course history.
Starting off the 2021 Golf season with a positive weekend, lets hope to roll it over into this weekend!
2021 Golf Schedule:
- 1) Sentry Tournament of Champions (+3.5U)
Outright Winners:
Tier 1: Top 30 World Ranked golfers with fantastic odds
- 1) Kevin Kisner 32/1 (1.75U to Win 56U)
Kisners a natural at Bermuda grass putting with stats having him no less than 30th in strokes gained putting in his last 4 seasons on the tour. Though the Kis is not in the greatest of form right now, he is coming off back to back cuts made and a solo 2nd at the RSM Classic back in November. Like I stated above, were really focusing on course history for most of these plays and in his last 5 starts here Kisner has 3 Top 5’s and a top 25. For someone as consistent as Kisner with his putter, I will take my chances on him being in the hunt once again come Sunday.
- 2) Abraham Ancer 32/1 (1.25U to win 40U)
For some odd reason, I love this guy. Breaking through in the 2019-2020 Season by finishing 13th in the FedEx cup ranking which saw him climb up to a top 25 world ranking, Ancer is a straight up competitor. The fact that the 29-year-old Mexican has not won on the PGA tour yet is mind boggling and I guarantee a victory for young Ancer in the very near future. Though Ancer’s 2021 stats aren’t up to his ability with him being ranked 87th in total shots gained on the tour, he has still made all 7 of the cuts on the young season with 4 top 20’s and a solo 4th at the Shriners back in October. That should prove to you how talented this guy is and entice you to lay this sort of value on one of the better golfers competing in this tournament.
Tier 2: Former Sony Open champion longshot
- 1) Zach Johnson 50/1 (1.25U to win 62.5U)
The freaking Needle! Never been a fan of Zach Johnson but one cannot deny his skill given his age. The 44 year old two time major champion (07 Masters and 15’ Open) is off to a great start in his 20-21 Campaign with a perfect 6 of 6 cuts made including 2 Top 10’s at the US Open and RSM Classic. Johnson is seeing a career resurgence due to his stellar approach to green and putting stats that have him ranked inside the top 20 of total shots gained on the tour. Missing the cut here only twice in the last 16 years, Johnson won here in 2009 and has two top 10’s here in the last 5 years. Really good odds for a past winner in great form right now.
PROP BET TIME
Placing Finishes (Top 5/Top 10)
- 1) Cameron Smith Top 10 +380 (1.25U to win 4.75U)
Winner here last year, Smith is in fantastic form right now and though his stats aren’t telling, the young Aussie has seen himself make 5 top 25’s and every cut so far in the 20-21 Season that has vaulted him to 16 in the FedEx cup standings and 27th ranked in the world. Love the value here for Smith to make a run at his 2nd straight Sony Open title.
- 2) Charles Howell II Top 10 +480 (1.25U to win 6U)
Though he has never won at Waialae, Howell probably plays the best golf of his life here. 19 for 19 on cuts made including two T2’s, two T3’s, and thirteen T15’s. If I were a betting man, which I am, I would say Howell will be near the top again come Sunday.
- 3) Lanto Griffin Top 10 +520 (1.25U to win 6.5U)
Like the Odds here for the player. Griffin is in solid form coming in with a T13 last weekend at Kapalua and has made 5 of 7 cuts with 2 T10 finishes coming back in October. Griffin finished tied for 7th here last year in tougher conditions so we will take our chances.
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