Waialae – Golfing Agency

Sony Open 2023 Fantasy golf picks, advice, rankings: Top golf expert says fade Hideki Matsuyama at Waialae CC

detlef32 — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 04:31:10 +0000

Just four days after the PGA Tour’s stars wrapped up a thrilling event in Maui, a slightly less-impressive full field will tee off at the 2023 Sony Open on Thursday. The 144-player Sony Open 2023 field includes seven of the world’s top 25, including Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim. They will face a much different test on the shorter Waialae Country Club course in Honolulu, but scoring low hasn’t been a problem there. It should be another picture-perfect week in the Hawaiian islands, so a score of 20 under or more is in the cards. Matsuyama won last year, tying Russell Henley at 23 under with a furious comeback before making eagle on the first playoff hole.

Kim (10-1) and Sungjae Im (12-1) are the favorites in Caesars Sportsbook’s latest 2023 Sony Open odds. They are followed by Matsuyama (15-1), Spieth (16-1) and Brian Harman (16-1). Henley (22-1) also is among the eight players shorter than 30-1 in the Sony Open 2023 field. Kim is priced at $10,500 in the DraftKings Fantasy rankings, and Im, Matsuyama and Spieth are all at least $10,000.

Spieth is one of the biggest names in the field, but is he worth his $10,000 price tag to anchor your 2023 Sony Open Fantasy golf picks? Would a player like Corey Conners ($9,600) or Keegan Bradley ($9,300) give you similar results and more flexibility to set your team up to win? Before you make any Fantasy golf rankings or place any bets on the 2023 Sony Open, you need to see the Fantasy golf projections and lineup advice from SportsLine fantasy expert Jim Holliman.

Holliman has been a writer and editor for nearly 25 years and has been playing and following the game closely for more than three decades. The Florida-based writer knows what it takes to win on the PGA Tour and how the players’ games fit the courses.

The golf expert nailed the Tour Championship, saying Rory McIlroy was the only player capable of making up a six-stroke deficit to get past Scottie Scheffler. “He has a lot of ground to make up,” Holliman said, “but he is the most well-rounded player in this field, so if anyone can do it, he can.” The Northern Irishman was actually down by 10 through two holes Sunday but stormed back to claim the title.

Holliman also had Patrick Cantlay (14-1) among his best bets at the BMW Championship, was behind Will Zalatoris (28-1) at the St. Jude and nailed the Wyndham Championship, with Kim (35-1) among his selections. “It’s a matter of when (not if) he gets his first on the PGA Tour,” Holliman said of Kim. It turned out to be at Sedgefield, where Kim won by five strokes.

The expert also has had a knack for finding the longshots. At the St. Jude, as many top stars went home early, 200-1 longshot Chez Reavie made the weekend. At the 3M Open, the expert tabbed Emiliano Grillo (50-1) as a contender before the Argentinian finished T-2. And before the PGA, he touted Cameron Young (65-1) before his T-3 finish. Anyone who has followed Holliman’s predictions is way up on their golf picks.

Now, Holliman has ranked his top golfers for the 2023 Sony Open, and you’ll really want to see what he has to say. You can only see his Fantasy golf rankings and Sony Open picks at SportsLine.

2023 Sony Open Fantasy golf expert picks

One thing Holliman is certain about this week is that Kim will put up a good result. “There’s good reason for the high price,” the expert says, “but he’ll be worth it.” Two victories in his first 15 PGA Tour events is just a continuation of a dominant career that includes 11 in various tours around the world. “The kid knows how to win,” Holliman says, and he is one of the most accurate ball-strikers on tour. Kim ranks sixth on tour in both driving accuracy and greens in regulation. Waialae rewards precision and ball placement, so it should be a perfect match.

On the flip side, Holliman doesn’t see much chance that Matsuyama repeats his feat, so he is fading the defending champ. The Japanese star had by far his best putting week of the season – and his third-best in driving accuracy – but still needed a huge comeback to win. It was his first top-10 finish in nine tries at Waialae. He generally doesn’t hit it straight consistently enough to regularly contend on a course like this. The 2021 Masters champ is 142nd in strokes gained off the tee and 110th on approach this season, and his putting has never been a strength. You can see who else to back this week at SportsLine.

How to set your 2023 Sony Open Fantasy golf rankings

For the 2023 Sony Open, Holliman is touting a sleeper for fantasy rosters who is priced at less than $7,500 at DraftKings and has odds higher than 70-1 to win at Caesars. This golfer hasn’t missed a cut all season and is due for a breakthrough victory that could come this week. You can find out who it is and see the rest of Holliman’s Sony Open fantasy golf picks at SportsLine.

Who wins the 2023 Sony Open, and who are the top players to target for your Fantasy picks? Which overlooked players can help you win your league this week? Visit SportsLine now to get Jim Holliman’s Fantasy golf rankings for the 2023 Sony Open, all from the fantasy expert who has been on fire with his picks, and find out.

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2023 Sony Open predictions, expert picks, odds, field rankings, golf best bets at Waialae Country Club

detlef32 — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 23:11:25 +0000

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The PGA Tour makes its way to the capital of the Aloha State for the 2023 Sony Open this week. Taking place at Waialae Country Club, players will be faced with a much different task compared to last week’s Plantation Course at Kapalua. Measuring just over 7,000 yards and playing to a par 70, this Seth Raynor design puts an emphasis on keeping the ball in the fairway and playing positional golf.

Despite the contrasted natures of the two Hawaii golf courses, 19 of the 39 players from the Tournament of Champions will be making the short trip from Maui to Honolulu. Led by South Korean phenom Tom Kim, historically those who competed in the first part of the Aloha swing have found success in the second leg; 17 of the last 24 Sony Open winners were participants the week prior.

Jordan Spieth will be making the trip as well as he plays in the Sony Open for the fifth time in his career and the first time since 2019. In contention at the halfway point at Kapalua, he will hope to string together a full 72 holes at Waialae CC. Sungjae Im, defending champion Hideki Matsuyama and a slew of Georgia Bulldogs such as Brian Harman and Russell Henley round out other big names set for the second event of the new year.

Event Information

Event: 2023 Sony Open | Dates: Jan. 12-15
Location: Waialae Country Club — Honolulu, Hawaii
Par: 70 | Yardage: 7,044 | Purse: $7,900,000

2023 Sony Open field, odds

Odds courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook

Tom Kim (11-1)
Jordan Spieth (14-1): Spieth is the highest-ranked player in this field and will be making his first appearance at Waialae since 2019. Knocking off a standard Tour event from his playing obligations early in 2023, he has decided to stay in Hawaii a week longer than usual. Statistically, this is not a golf course that should fit his game as there is a prerequisite on finding fairways and playing positional golf — something Spieth doesn’t do all too well. Then again, he has found success at golf courses such as Colonial Country Club and Harbour Town Golf Links, both of which possess similar features, so who really knows.
Sungjae Im (14-1)
Hideki Matsuyama (16-1): The man from Japan has remained winless over the past year due to injuries and uncertainties around his game. Hopefully the return to Waialae can get him back to his usual ways as it has been a rough number of months for Matsuyama. Without a top-20 finish in a full-field event since his backdoor top five at the U.S. Open, the former Masters champion will need to rediscover his ball striking if he is to put up a strong defense effort.
Brian Harman (20-1)
Russell Henley (22-1): Henley’s main blunder in 2022 was his inability to find the fairway on the par-5 18th both in regulation and extra holes. Squandering a five-stroke lead over the final nine holes, the 33-year-old was unable to collect his second Sony Open title. Still, there was plenty of good which came of the week as he posted 23 under including a final round 5-under 65. Since breaking through at Mayakoba, perhaps the monkey is off his back and he can redeem himself this year.
Tom Hoge (22-1)
Corey Conners (22-1)
Billy Horschel (28-1)
Taylor Montgomery (30-1): He is the lone player who did not play at Kapalua to check in at or below 30-1 on the odds board. The last we saw of Montgomery, he was making an early claim on PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors. Posting six top-15 finishes in his seven starts during the swing season, the UNLV product consistently leaned on booming drives and ridiculously hot putting. He is currently 12th in the FedEx Cup standings and is presented with a nice opportunity to improve on that this week should he hit enough fairways.
Keegan Bradley (33-1)
K.H. Lee (33-1)
Keith Mitchell (33-1)
Cam Davis (33-1)
Maverick McNealy (33-1): McNealy may very well be the best player on the PGA Tour still without a victory. After missing the cut in his first event of the season, the 27-year-old collected four straight top-20 finishes including a pair of top-10 efforts. He can run as hot as anyone on the greens, but his inaccuracy off the tee and inability to consistently strike his irons have caused problems. Whether he figured out his ball striking during his month off will go a long way not only this week, but also in his fourth year on Tour.
Adam Scott (33-1)

2023 Sony Open expert picks

Who will win the Sony Open, and which longshots will stun the golfing world? Visit SportsLine now to see the projected leaderboard and best bets, all from the model that’s nailed eight golf majors and is up over $9,500 since June 2020.

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2023 Sony Open picks, predictions, odds, field: PGA expert says back Tom Kim, fade Jordan Spieth at Waialae

detlef32 — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 19:47:01 +0000

Almost half the PGA Tour field from last week will make the short hop over to Honolulu for the 2023 Sony Open at Waialae Country Club. Nineteen of the 39 players from the Sentry Tournament of Champions are scheduled to tee off Thursday. The top names are three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, defending Sony Open champion Hideki Matsuyama, and 20-year-old rising star Tom Kim. Matsuyama rallied from five shots down with nine holes to play last year before beating Russell Henley in a playoff. It was the second time in three years the Sony Open went to extra holes. Matsuyama shot back-to-back 63’s to post a winning score of 23 under par, and scores are expected to go low again in 2023. The average winning score the past 10 years is 20 under.

The latest 2023 Sony Open odds from Caesars Sportsbook list Kim as the 12-1 favorite, with Sungjae Im (14-1) and Spieth (16-1) right behind. Others top contenders in the Sony Open 2023 field are Matsuyama (18-1), Henley (22-1), and Tom Hoge (22-1). 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

Shockingly, McDonald is fading Spieth, the biggest name in the field and one of the betting favorites. The 29-year-old won on a similar course at Harbour Town last April, but the expert knows that was an aberration. Spieth is not accurate off the tee – he ranked 150th on tour in hitting 56% of fairways last season – and hasn’t been great on approach or on the greens. He didn’t rank in the top 50 on approach anywhere beyond 100 yards. Spieth has missed the cut twice in four appearances at Waialae, including his last time in 2019, and was in the top 20 in the other two.

The expert also knows Kim is the favorite here for a reason. McDonald says Waialae “should be an ideal statistical fit” for the South Korean, who has two PGA Tour victories. He has 11 worldwide wins since 2018, many in smaller Asian tours, and is the highest-ranked player in this field. He is No. 14, one spot ahead of Spieth, and is one of the most accurate players on tour. Kim ranked sixth last season in both driving accuracy (72.8%) and greens in regulation (76.4%). He also was sixth in scoring average (69.3) and comes in off a tie for fifth last week at Kapalua. 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.

Tom Kim +1200
Sungjae Im +1400
Jordan Spieth +1600
Hideki Matsuyama +1800
Russell Henley +1800
Tom Hoge +2200
Corey Conners +2200
Brian Harman +2600
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

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