(Photo credit score: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images)
The first full-field occasion of the 2025 PGA Tour season tees off with the Sony Open of Hawaii on the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu on Thursday.
It begins the race for a lot of vital milestones for the gamers, starting with the AON Swing 5 that gives entry into early signature occasions, and the race for the decreased 100 PGA Tour playing cards that will probably be allotted for subsequent season.
Our golf specialists preview the Sony Open and supply their favourite prop picks together with finest bets to win this week.
SONY OPEN
Location: Honolulu, Jan. 9-12
Course: Waialae Country Club (Par 70, 7,044 Yards)
Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)
Defending Champion: Grayson Murray
FedEx Cup chief: Matsuyama
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 7-10:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 4-6 p.m. (NBC/Peacock), 6-8 p.m. (GC)
Streaming (ESPN): Thursday-Friday: 12-10:30 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday: 1-8 p.m.
X: @SonyOpenHawaii
PROP PICKS
–Billy Horschel to Beat Matt Kuchar (-110 at DraftKings): On the floor, this may appear to be a secure play. Horschel enters the week ranked fifteenth on the planet, whereas Kuchar is languishing at 124th whereas failing to crack the highest 30 in his previous three begins. Horschel is not precisely in high type with a pair of missed cuts to go along with a forty seventh and 51st since profitable the BMW PGA Championship in September. Both are straight drivers of the ball, which typical performs properly round tree-lined Waialae.
–Ben An Top 20 (110 at BetRivers): An misplaced to Murray in final yr’s playoff following a T12 in Honolulu the earlier yr. He closed out 2024 with a T18 on the BMW PGA Championship and a win on the Genesis Championship earlier than kicking off 2025 with a T32 at The Sentry.
–Nico Echavarria Top South American (160 at DraftKings): Echavarria is a career-best 66th on the planet because of a scorching near 2024 that noticed him win the Zozo in Japan, end T6 in Mexico after which T2 at The RSM Classic earlier than posting a T32 final week. The others on this prop are Emiliano Grillo (190), Alejandro Tosti (500), Cristobal Del Solar (750) and Camilo Villegas (900).
BEST BETS
–Hideki Matsuyama (900 at DraftKings) completed T30 and T48 the previous two years right here, however the 2022 Sony Open winner is coming off a record-setting victory at Kapalua following a T2 in Japan to shut out 2024. He’s additionally the top-ranked participant within the discipline at No. 5. DraftKings reported the Japanese star leads the sector with 11 % of all cash and 9 % of the entire bets backing him to win.
–Corey Conners (1400) additionally began the yr robust with a T5 on Maui for his third consecutive end or T7 or higher worldwide.
–Tom Kim (2000) has a pair of runner-ups in his previous three begins, together with on the Hero World Challenge in his most up-to-date occasion. He’s third at DraftKings with 8 % of the entire cash backing Kim to win this week.
–Russell Henley (2000) has a superb observe file at Waialae that features a win in 2013, a runner-up in 2022 and a T4 final yr. His historical past in Honolulu has led the general public to again Henley with 11 % of the cash to win.
–Ben An (2800) completed T2 final yr whereas carding 4 rounds of 68 or higher.
–Luke Clanton (3000) is not simply the world’s top-ranked newbie, he is ranked 87th on the planet total. He has a pair of top-5 in his previous three PGA Tour begins, and is fourth within the discipline with 6 % of the cash backing Clanton to assert his maiden tour victory this week.
–Austin Eckroat (3500) is already a two-time winner on tour and coming off a stable T15 at Kapalua.
NOTES
–This is the primary full-field occasion of the 2025 season, with 35 gamers within the 144-player discipline having competed in The Sentry final week.
–Murray died final May by suicide following a prolonged battle with psychological well being and habit. His dad and mom this week introduced the formation of the Grayson Murray basis. Murray beat An and Keegan Bradley in a playoff final yr for his second profession PGA Tour victory, following his maiden title on the 2017 Barbasol Championship.
–Ricky Castillo is considered one of 25 new PGA Tour members within the discipline. The former University of Florida star is of Filipino respectable, and his grandparents immigrated to Hawaii. Other tour rookies embrace three Japanese gamers: Rikuya Hoshino, Kaito Onishi and Takumi Kanaya.
–Nick Dunlap, who in 2024 grew to become the primary participant in tour historical past to win as an newbie and an expert in the identical season, will make his occasion debut.
–Justin Thomas shot a course-record 59 within the first spherical in 2017 en path to profitable the occasion with a 72-hole file rating of 253.
–Field Level Media