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Fantasy Golf: Sony Open in Hawaii DraftKings value picks

By Brandon Raper

HONOLULU, HI - JANUARY 09: Peter Malnati of the United States lines up a putt during practice rounds prior to the Sony Open In Hawaii at Waialae Country Club on January 9, 2018 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
HONOLULU, HI - JANUARY 09: Peter Malnati of the United States lines up a putt during practice rounds prior to the Sony Open In Hawaii at Waialae Country Club on January 9, 2018 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) /
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Peter Uihlein Sony Open DraftKings
ANTALYA, TURKEY – NOVEMBER 04: Peter Uihlein of the United States hits his second shot on the 1st hole during the third round of the Turkish Airlines Open at the Regnum Carya Golf /

The old adage is that these Hawaiian courses, deceptively simple on paper, require a surprising degree of experience to truly succeed. Learning the subtle curvatures of the greens, testing the trade winds, and doing it while coming off a long winter break adds a degree of difficulty to the first full-field tournament of 2018.

Why, then, do I have such confidence in Peter Uihlein, making his Sony Open debut this week? Well, experience at Waialae may be an issue, but Uihlein is a special case. The son of former Titleist/Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein, the 28-year-old has lived, eaten, breathed and slept golf for his entire life. He’s played sparingly on thw PGA TOUR throughout his professional career, but he’s ready to come home after several years in Europe.

Now ranked No. 52 in the world, Uihlein enjoyed some early success on this side of the Atlantic last season. He scored top-25 finishes at the Puerto Rico Open (T5), the Shell Houston Open (T23), and the Memorial Tournament (T25).

The 2017-18 season is off to an even better start, as Uihlein bounced back from a missed cut at the Safeway Open to post back-to-back top-tens at the CIMB Classic and the WGC-HSBC Champions. It’s been ten weeks, but if he maintained any semblance of that form over the winter break, he’ll be just fine.

At $7,700, Uihlein is a bit of a risk-reward pick, but in tournament format, he could be the difference maker with otherwise low ownership numbers.

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