Sony Open in Hawaii Preview and Picks

Happy New Year and welcome to our first newsletter of 2024! The Sentry Tournament of Champions kicked off the golfing season and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the PGA Tour has in store. Stay tuned for all the latest stats, insights, and highlights from the golf world. Here’s to a year of great golf!

Without further ado, onto the Sony Open (and a new Golf Guide for the 2024 season detailed below)…

This week’s field includes:

The field includes 54 of the top 100 and 22 of the top 50 in the latest Official World Rankings: The top 100 players are #8 Matt Fitzpatrick, #9 Brian Harman, #14 Tyrrell Hatton, #16 Keegan Bradley, #20 Sahith Theegala, #25 Chris Kirk, #27 Russell Henley, #30 Ludvig Aberg, #31 Lucas Glover, #33 Kurt Kitayama, #35 Emiliano Grillo, #36 Denny McCarthy, #37 Harris English, #38 Corey Conners, #39 Eric Cole, #40 Justin Rose, #41 J.T. Poston, #43 Will Zalatoris, #44 Cam Davis, #46 Si Woo Kim, #48 Adam Hadwin, #50 Hideki Matsuyama, #52 Byeong Hun An, #54 Nick Taylor, #55 Matt Kuchar, #56 Alex Noren, #57 Adam Svensson, #58 Robert MacIntyre, #59 Brendon Todd, #61 Tom Hoge, #62 Andrew Putnam, #64 Aaron Rai, #65 Billy Horschel, #67 Matt Wallace, #68 Justin Suh, #71 Vincent Norrman, #74 Ryo Hisatsune, #76 Alexander Bjork, #77 Keith Mitchell, #78 K.H. Lee, #82 Luke List, #83 Erik Van Rooyen, #84 Alex Smalley, #85 Seamus Power, #86 Patrick Rodgers, #88 Taylor Montgomery, #92 Matthieu Pavon, #93 J.J. Spaun, #94 Gary Woodland, #95 Austin Eckroat, #96 Ben Griffin, #97 Mark Hubbard, #98 Akshay Bhatia, #100 Zac Blair.

Last year 14 of the top 50 played.

The field includes 9 of the Top 25 on the FedEx point standings for 2023.  Those players are #9 Keegan Bradley,#9 Matt Fitzpatrick, #14 Russell Henley,#16 Tyrrell Hatton, #18 Lucas Glover, #19 Si Woo Kim, #22 Brian Harman, #24 Nick Taylor, #25 Corey Conners.

The field includes 7 past champions: Si Woo Kim (2023), Hideki Matsuyama (2022), Matt Kuchar (2019), Patton Kizzire (2018), Russell Henley (2013), Ryan Palmer (2010), and Zach Johnson (2009).

A perfect way for fantasy golfers to check on the past performance of all the players in the Sony Open in Hawaii field is our performance chart listed by average finish.  Another way to check who is the best is through a special formula worked out in Golfstats that gives us the best average performances at the Sony Open in Hawaii in the last five years or check out our sortable 8-year glance at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

The Buzz:

Since 1999 when it was slotted behind the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the Sony got an added boost in that most of those at the Sentry made the short flight to Honolulu to play this event.  Over the years, it’s gone up and down, but most of the time, being behind the Sentry has helped the field for Sony.

Of the 59 players that played last week in Kapalua, 37 have made it to the Sony.

The good news was that not only was it an elevated event, but there was double the field that used to attend the Sentry.  Because of that, a lot more players tagged along and are in the field this week:

• Winner at Sentry – Chris Kirk

• 2nd at Sentry – Sahith Theegala

• 4th at Sentry – Byeong Hun An

• T-5th at Sentry – Brian Harman

• T-5th at Sentry – J.T. Poston

• T-14th at Sentry – Eric Cole

• T-14th at Sentry – Patrick Rodgers

• T-14th at Sentry – Akshay Bhatia

• T-14th at Sentry – Harris English

• T-14th at Sentry – Tyrrell Hatton

• T-14th at Sentry – Matt Fitzpatrick

• T-22nd at Sentry – Luke List

• T-22nd at Sentry – Erik Van Rooyen

• T-25th at Sentry – Si Woo Kim

• T-25th at Sentry – Nico Echavarria

• T-29th at Sentry – Kurt Kitayama

• T-29th at Sentry – Lucas Glover

• T-33rd at Sentry – Adam Svensson

• T-33rd at Sentry – Brendon Todd

• T-33rd at Sentry – Corey Conners

• T-38th at Sentry – Tom Hoge

• T-40th at Sentry – Andrew Putnam

• T-40th at Sentry – Matt Wallace

• T-40th at Sentry – Justin Rose

• T-43rd at Sentry – Emiliano Grillo

• T-43rd at Sentry – Denny McCarthy

• T-45th at Sentry – Keegan Bradley

• T-47th at Sentry – Ludvig Aberg

• T-47th at Sentry – Nick Hardy

• T-50th at Sentry – Camilo Villegas

• T-50th at Sentry – Seamus Power

• T-52nd at Sentry – Russell Henley

• T-52nd at Sentry – Nick Taylor

• T-52nd at Sentry – Davis Riley

• T-52nd at Sentry – Cam Davis

• 58th at Sentry – Hideki Matsuyama

• 59th at Sentry – Vincent Norrman

Since the Sentry and Sony are back to back-, only Ernie Els (2003) and Justin Thomas (2017) have won both events in the same year.  The good news is last week’s winner, Chris Kirk is in the field at the Sony, so there is a chance for a back-to-back Hawaii Slam, the first since 2022 with Cameron Smith.

Something New for the Year:

Now, for those looking for Pick Your Pro 2024, we aren’t going to have one like in past years. What we are doing is something better - we are producing a 200+ page eBook called GolfStats Guide to the 2024 PGA Tour season.

The book will preview every event from the Sentry through the Tour Championship, giving important information in making picks. The book will look at the top 80 players on Tour and give you charts you have never seen before. Here is a link to hint at what kind of content the book will have.

We did this book between 2008 and 2011, and it was very successful, and people loved it. Those who have a one-year subscription to GolfStats or those with monthly accounts who have been in good standing for the last eight months will get this book for free.

The bad news is that the landscape for doing this book is totally different than when I did the book 15 years ago. The changes in signature events, LIV golf, and the schedule have put me behind. Another thing I realized is how different the Tour and players have been since 2008. I can’t produce a book in December that has picks for events three to six months from now. Back in 2008, I could predict who would play in the Memorial six months before; now, with it being a signature event, we can’t predict who will play. So the solution we have come up with is a book that should be finished in a week with all 80 players and the first 12 events going through the Players Championship. We will update the book just before the Players for the rest of the events in 2024 and will update players who we don’t know how many events they play in, and we will be able to edit the players. Jason and I feel that you will find this a valuable addition to your membership of GolfStats.

The book is now finished and going out to our qualified subscribers in the next couple of days. Details on the book only purchase will be sent in a separate email. At 200+ pages of tournament and player info, it is a steal for the stand alone price of $35.

So, there are two ways to get our Fantasy Golf Guide: either get a one-year subscription to GolfStats, or you can buy the book for $35.   We feel this is a HUGE value to our members and think you will too.

Here is a preview of this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii for our Fantasy golf book

And here is a link to the Sony Open defending champion Si Woo Kim. Hope you enjoy the sneak peak at what our new GolfStats Guide to the 2024 PGA Tour Season has to offer.

We have a few more new things in store for 2024 so stay tuned!

Finally, for our premium members check out the “Best Bets” for the Sony Open. Good luck to all our fantasy players and bettors. Looking forward to a fun and refreshed 2024 season!

As always, we love to hear your feedback and we read all your emails. Please reach out to us at [email protected] or simply hit ‘Reply’.