Sony Open

Sony Open

With the traditional year opening curtain raiser The Sentry sadly being cancelled this year to drought conditions that have irredeemably rendered Kapalua unplayable we find ourselves in the unusual situation of The Sony Open being the first event of the 2026 season.

The Sony Open was first played on the PGA Tour in 1965 and has been held at the same venue Waialae Country Club since its inception.

The first lead sponsor was United Airlines who took up the duties in 1991 before current sponsor Sony took over the reins in 1999.

Sadly the word on the grapevine is that with Sony’s sponsorship of the event coming to an end after this years edition, the tournament may well fall victim to the PGA Tour schedule potential restructuring which is rumoured to involve a later start to the year post Super Bowl.

Personally speaking the idea of no PGA golf for the bulk of January is not remotely appealing and the hope would be that the schedule will find room for events through the month in some manner. Either way though it appears the idea of the Hawaii swing has fallen very much out of favour and everything points to us sadly not being back here this year.

The strength of field has unfortunately suffered this year with many big names who historically would have chosen to hop over from the Maui to Honolulu not bothering this year.

The market is headed up by Russell Henley who has been something of a standing dish here over the years. Henley is then followed by Ben Griffin, JJ Spaul, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama and Keegan Bradley.

COURSE

As noted above the event has been hosted at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu since it was first played on tour in 1965.

The course was designed by Seth Raynor who also designed the Old White Course used for the Greenbrier.

The course is a Par 70 playing to just over 7000 yards and features Bermuda Greens.

The two par 5s are the 9^th and the 18^th. Both are great birdie opportunities with the 9^th usually playing to the easier stroke average of the two.

While the fairways aren’t overly tight at Waialae it is important to find them as the key to success here is accurate approach play in to smallish greens to set up plenty of birdie opportunities. In a nutshell strong iron play and a hot putter will be the order of the day to get the job done.

As is always the case in Hawaii wind is also a key factor here and how much it blows is  largely responsible for dictating how tough or otherwise the course will play.

HISTORY

So, let’s take a look at the last ten winners;

2025 – N Taylor

2024 – G Murray

2023 – SW Kim

2022 – H Matsuyama

2021 – K Na

2020 – C Smith

2019 – M Kuchar

2018 – P Kizzire

2017 – J Thomas

2016 – F Gomez

The most important historical factor, that the winner tended to have played The Sentry event the week before is obviously out of the window this year.

Without that stat to help us and the full field basically coming in ‘cold’ we really are going in somewhat blind this year with only course form and correlating form to go on.

From a correlating course point of view two players who have won here, Kuchar and Kizzire had also won the Mayakoba the previous fall, a feat that was also achieved in 2011/12 by Johnson Wagner. Finally, more recently then of course, Waialae specialist Russell Henley added the Mayakoba trophy to his cabinet in 2022. Sadly now of course Mayakoba no longer hosts a PGA Tour event, however it could still pay to look at past history there.

Meanwhile following Si Woo’s win in 2023 it is striking that four of the last nine winners, The South Korean, Smith, Kuchar and Thomas have also triumphed at TPC Sawgrass.

There is no doubt then that these two courses correlate well here!

In addition to form at the Mayakoba and The Players it is also worth looking at form at events held at other short coastal tracks such as the RBC Heritage, The RSM Classic, Pebble Beach and the Bermuda Championship.

Finally on a course correlation front the obvious link with The Greenbrier, also designed by Seth Raynor, is there to see with 2021 winner Kevin Na and runner up Joaquin Niemann both having triumphed at The Old White.

Last years champion meanwhile Nick Taylor has a top ten on his resume at The Old White alongside his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach.

While past course form is always useful it doesn’t seem hugely pertinent here. Grayson Murray had missed the cut in his only previous start here prior to last years win, Si Woo Kim had finished fourth here on debut in 2016 but had managed nothing better than 25^th in four subsequent visits prior to his win while 2022 champion Maysuyama had a best of 12^th and only two top 20s in eight previous starts. 2018 winner Patton kizzire had missed the cut on his only previous visit and Fabien Gomez had a best of 67^th in three previous visits, and of course Henley was making his debut.

Conversely though 2019 winner Matt Kuchar had a really solid bank of form here, which saw him finish 13^th in 2016 and third, sixth and fifth in the three years prior to that while 2020 winner Cam Smith had finished in the top thirty here the previous three years with a best of 18^th so he had also built up some good history here.

Na had played here 13 times prior to winning and had posted three top ten’s amongst plenty of poorer performances and MC so he had a real mixed bag here. Meanwhile bringing us up to date Taylor had back to back seventh place finishes to his name prior to winning last year.

Five of the last 12 winners were not American [Taylor, SW Kim, Matsuyama, Smith & Fabien Gomez] while looking at the winners from the US it is clear this event as a whole has been a domain for players who either hail from southern states or had a proven track record in events played in eastern/southern states of the US.

There have been two wins from Texas based Walker [as well as wins for Texan’s Johnson Wagner & Ryan Palmer in previous years]. Winners from the US over the past ten years, Grayson Murray, Matt Kuchar, Patton Kizzire and Justin Thomas also fit this bill [as does 2013 winner Russell Henley] with Vegas resident Na again the one who bucked this pattern.

In other words while you can ‘never say never’, not unsurprisingly allowing for the Bermuda greens, this is not historically an event won by players hailing from the West Coast of the US.

The highest winning score in the last 10yrs is -11 from Smith last year when the wind was an issue however as a rule the winning score has been -20 or lower with Matsuyama posting 23- under in 2022. Si Woo posted 19- under in 2023 while last year in trickier conditions Grayson Murray finished on 17- under alongside An and Bradley before triumphing in the play off while Taylor posted 16- under last year. Ultimately though if the wind does not get up this is clearly a low scoring event.

WEATHER FORECAST

We could see some showers early in the week however as things stand the tournament days look set to be dry with temperatures sitting in the low to mid 80s.

The wind, which is the courses main defence looks like it could play a part with all days showing possible gusts in the forecast of above 30mph.

As I always say though this could all change!

PICKS

I have gone with five players this week as follows;

NICO ECHAVARRIA – 40/1 – 1.5pts E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 8

With not too much to go on this week it probably makes sense to keep things fairly straightforward and on that basis one player that leaps out is Nico Echavarria.

Nico has quietly become a highly accomplished performer on tour and on courses that suit his profile you can rely on him to regularly turn in big performances.

With regards to that profile and basically we are looking at shorter tracks more often than not by the coast.

A look at his record in his three seasons on tour to date show us his maiden win in Puerto Rico in 2023, a sixth at the World Wide Technology and a fourth and second at the RSM. Furthermore with regards to his record here he produced his standout early season effort here in 2023, when finishing 12^th, while he was runner up here 12 months ago.

One of the strongest putters on tour, he ranked fifth in that department last year, the Colombian can take advantage on the greens this week while his record by the coast can stand him in good stead in the forecast breezy conditions. I’ll take Nico then to get his 2026 off to a flyer at one of his favoured haunts.

ADAM SCOTT –  33/1 – 1.5pts E/W - 1/5 odds 1st 10

Next up I will turn to Adam Scott.

While we cannot fall back on the old theory of siding with players who were at the Sentry the week before I am still keen to gravitate where I can to players who have not been completely idle over recent months and Scott very much fits that bill.

Having had a lacklustre 2025 on the PGA Tour, which saw him manage nothing better than 12^th at the US Open, the Aussie arrives in Honolulu having had a productive time back home as he notched finishes of seventh and fifth in the Australian PGA and Open respectively. Hopefully then this will have given him a good boost of confidence and he will have stayed sharp heading in to this week.

A former Players Champion, which as we know correlates well here Adam has an excellent record by the coast in general over the years. Meanwhile while he hasn’t been a regular visitor to Waialae over the years and his record in the event is, its fare to say patchy, he does have a runner up finish here in 2009 on the resume.

2026 is a big year for Adam as, now 45, he looks to stay relevant and the fact that he is here tells me a lot in itself.

Buoyed then by securing his spot in the Open following his top five at the Australian Open I expect Adam to hit the ground running and have a big week.

RYAN GERARD – 60/1 - 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 8

Next up I will turn to another player who has been in action over the past month, Ryan Gerard.

To the American’s huge credit he made a well documented trip to Mauritius the week before Christmas in a bid to produce a top 5 finish and as a result claw his way in to the world’s top 50 for the end of the year to secure his spot in the Masters.

Not only did Ryan achieve that goal but he also very nearly won the event, only in the end losing out in a play off to Jayden Schaper. Disappointing for him I’m sure in the end not to lift the trophy but nevertheless a huge boost of a week as a whole.

Other than the credit he deserves for that effort, with the event being held on a windy coastal layout that very much puts him on the radar for this week. Add in the fact that Ryan first came to our attention when finishing fourth as a Monday qualifier at the Honda in 2023 before backing that up with an 11^th at the Corales the week after and it is clear he is very comfortable by the coast.

Furthermore if we look at his debut here last year he played really nicely for the first three days posting rounds of 68 66 & 66 before slipping down the field on Sunday with a 72 to finish 37^th.

One other fact I like here is that as a North Carolina native Ryan is clearly more comfortable as a whole on the Bermuda greens he will see this week.

A winner on his debut season on tour at the Barracuda Gerard is clearly a player who has ‘something about him’ and I can see a big week ahead for him here.

JOHN PARRY – 100/1 – 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 10

Next up I will take a chance on John Parry.

Most of the DP World Tour graduates who have earned their PGA Cards are on show this week and the one who catches my eye the most is John Parry.

Parry has enjoyed a renaissance over the past couple of years culminating in him bagging his playing privileges stateside. If the 39yr old is to make an impact this is exactly the type of event that he will need to shine in.

A winner in Mauritius in 2024 John has shown us time and again on the DP World Tour that he is comfortable in a breezy coastal challenge.

This is rubber stamped with a look at his results on tour over the years with last year showing a third place at the Dunhill Links and a third place at the Nexo while he also posted an excellent fifth place on defence of his trophy in Mauritius.

Looking at that fifth place just before Christmas and that followed a seventh in the Alfred Dunhill and 18^th in the Nedbank so clearly John was in fine fettle just before Christmas.

Arriving this week then in Hawaii with his tail up I am happy to chance the 39yr old to make an immediate impact on the PGA Tour.

CAMERON DAVIS – 175/1 – 1pt E/W – 1/5 odds 1^st 10

Finally I will take a chance at the odds that Cam Davis can start 2026 with one of his ‘go’ weeks.

Davis is clearly an enigma on tour as in all honesty he mostly flatters to deceive. Equally though on his day he has the ability to compete with the best, something he showed when finishing sixth at the Players and fourth at the PGA Championship in 2023 and 12^th at the Masters the following year. In addition of course his bog break through came back in 2017 when winning the Australian Open in high quality company.

2025 saw the usual mixed bag from the Aussie with his best finish coming when fifth at Pebble Beach, while his second best efforts were both 13^th place finishes at the Sentry and at Hilton Head with the latter being a venue he has finished third at.

Cam had a disappointing time down under at the back end of 2025 and with his last top 20 finish on tour coming back in May we are clearly taking a leap of faith here. Davis is though the type of player who can catch fire at any time when seemingly in no form at all, something he showed when nothing that sixth at the Players in 2023 or when winning the Rocket Mortgage for the second time the following year. There is enough for me then in his correlating course form to risk him here at the odds despite his typically patchy record in the event.