Hideki Matsuyama will try to defend his crown this week when the 2023 Sony Open tees off Thursday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Matsuyama aims to become the first golfer to go back-to-back at Waialae since Jimmy Walker (2014-15). Matsuyama stormed back from five strokes down with nine holes to play last year and beat Russell Henley with an eagle on the first playoff hole. Henley and Walker also are in a 144-player Sony Open 2023 field that is headlined by Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth and Tom Kim. The Sony Open has been played at the Honolulu course since 1965 and has followed the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Kapalua since 1999. Nineteen of the 39 golfers are making their way over from Maui.
Caesars Sportsbook lists Sungjae Im as the 10-1 favorite in its latest 2023 Sony Open odds, followed closely by Kim at 11-1. Half a dozen other golfers are shorter than 25-1, with Matsuyama (15-1) and Spieth (16-1) among them. Brian Harman (16-1), Tom Hoge (20-1), Corey Conners (20-1) and Henley (22-1) are the others, and Walker is priced at a whopping 500-1 in the Sony Open 2023 field. Before you lock in any 2023 Sony Open picks, be sure you check out the PGA Tour predictions and best bets from SportsLine golf insider Patrick McDonald.
After spending time at FanSided and NBC Sports EDGE, McDonald joined CBS Sports as a golf writer in the spring of 2022. Now covering the sport from a broader perspective, McDonald still likes to dip his toes into the betting pools on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour.
McDonald takes a measured approach to his outright selections and is having a profitable 2022-23 season in every category. He nailed the Houston Open, backing Tony Finau to win at 25-1, and is up almost 10 units on his plays overall. That’s a profit of almost $1,000 for $100 bettors. The expert also has been on the money on his matchup plays and cashed in huge on Brendan Steele (80-1) as the first-round leader at the Zozo Championship.
The expert finished the 2021-22 season up 42 units on his outright plays, having hit Cameron Smith (22-1) at the Tournament of Champions, Hudson Swafford (250-1) at The American Express, Joaquin Niemann (70-1) at the Genesis Invitational and Justin Thomas (66-1) live at the PGA Championship. Last week he listed Jon Rahm among his top picks, and the 28-year-old shot 10 under on Sunday to capture the win. Anyone who follows McDonald’s advice has been cashing in.
Now, McDonald has studied the 2023 Sony Open field and is locking in his best bets, top sleepers and favorites to avoid. You can head to SportsLine now to see all his PGA picks and predictions.
Top 2023 Sony Open expert picks
McDonald knows Spieth is one of the top names in this field and among the favorites, but the expert is fading the three-time major champion. The former world No. 1 has 13 tour victories, one in each of the past two years, but hasn’t played Waialae since 2019. He missed the cut that year, shooting 73 in the first round. The course seems to be a bad fit, as he lacks accuracy off the tee. He hit 56% of fairways last season (150th on tour) and was 62nd in greens in regulation and 155th in strokes gained putting. McDonald calls Spieth “an easy pass” for this week.
On the other hand, Kim is the highest-ranked golfer in the field, and McDonald sees why he is among the expected contenders. The 20-year-old’s accuracy is tough to match, and that should be what wins at Waialae. The tight layout demands precision, and Kim is sixth on tour in driving accuracy (72.8%), greens in regulation (76.4%) and scoring average (69.3). He hit 89% of his fairways at the CJ Cup in late October. Kim has two tour victories and three other top-10 finishes in 15 career tour outings, and he has 11 wins worldwide, several in smaller Asian tours. You can see who else to back at Waialae Country Club here.
How to make 2023 Sony Open picks
Before this week’s PGA Tour event, McDonald has locked in his best bets for the 2023 Sony Open. His outright plays include five major long shots who come in at more than 40-1. One of these players excels on tight courses where accuracy off the tee matters, and if this player can pull off his breakthrough victory he would bring a massive payday of well over 100-1. You can find out who it is, and see the rest of McDonald’s Sony Open picks, predictions, and best bets at SportsLine.
So which 2023 Sony Open picks should you target? Which player has the off-the-tee game to pull off a victory that would pay off at well over 100-1? Check out the odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Patrick McDonald’s top prop picks for Sony Open 2023, all from the expert who is up almost $1,000 on his PGA Tour picks this season, and find out.
2023 Sony Open odds, field, top contenders
See full Sony Open 2023 picks, best bets, and predictions here.
Sungjae Im +1000
Tom Kim +1100
Jordan Spieth +1400
Hideki Matsuyama +1500
Brian Harman +1600
Russell Henley +1800
Tom Hoge +2200
Corey Conners +2200
Adam Scott +3100
Taylor Montgomery +3100
Billy Horschel +3200
Cameron Davis +3300
Kyoung-Hoon Lee +3400
Keegan Bradley +3400
Keith Mitchell +3700
Si Woo Kim +3700
Maverick Mcnealy +3700
J.J. Spaun +4000
Alex Smalley +4500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +4500
MacKenzie Hughes +5000
Emiliano Grillo +5000
Harris English +5000
J.T. Poston +5000
Denny McCarthy +5000
Matt Kuchar +5000
Webb Simpson +5000
Gary Woodland +5000
Kurt Kitayama +5500
Adam Svensson +5500
Will Gordon +5500
Andrew Putnam +5500
Chris Kirk +6000
Brendan Steele +6500
Hayden Buckley +6500
Brendon Todd +7500
Nick Hardy +8000
Aaron Rai +8500
Davis Thompson +9000
Chun-an Yu +9000
Russell Knox +9500
Greyson Sigg +9500
Patton Kizzire +9500
Ryan Palmer +10000
Robby Shelton +10000
Stephan Jaeger +10000
Justin Suh +11000
Ryan Armour +11000
Troy Merritt +11000
Brandon Wu +11000
Ben Griffin +11000
David Lipsky +12000
Chez Reavie +12000
David Lingmerth +13000
Kevin Streelman +13000
Sam Ryder +13000
Kazuki Higa +14000
Michael Thompson +14000
Lucas Glover +14000
James Hahn +14000
Mark Hubbard +14000
Stewart Cink +14000
Taiga Semikawa +14000
Seonghyeon Kim +14000
Joseph Bramlett +15000
Carl Yuan +15000
Nick Taylor +16000
Brian Stuard +16000
Harry Higgs +16000
Adam Long +16000
Keita Nakajima +16000
Tyson Alexander +16000
MJ Daffue +16000
John Huh +16000
Adam Schenk +17000
Scott Piercy +17000
Cole Hammer +17000
Zac Blair +19000
Ben Taylor +19000
Austin Eckroat +21000
Danny Lee +21000
Peter Malnati +21000
Byeong Hun An +21000
Yuto Katsuragawa +21000