Sony Open: What to expect heading into the final round

There is only one round left of the Sony Open. Here are some things to watch as we head into the final round in Hawaii.

We have one round left at the Sony Open. As the tournament winds down and finishes up, there are a number of storylines to watch as they finish up, including the man currently atop the leaderboard, Brendan Steele.

Steele came into the Sony Open ranked 403rd in the world. When it came to odds of winning the tournament, there was a boatload of people ahead of Steele. He’s had a few wins in his career, winning the Valero in 2011, and going back-to-back at the Safeway in 2017 and 2018.

He hasn’t even been playing that great this year. His best finish was at the Shriners, where he finished T-29th. There was no reason to think that a player with +25000 odds was going to win the event.

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Yet, here we are. Steele heads into the final round at the Sony Open with a three-shot lead, currently at -12. He played great on Friday shooting a 66, and then played even better on Saturday, tying for the best round of the day at 64.

He was able to gain a couple of shots on the man that he held a one-shot lead over, Cameron Smith. The Cameron he was tied with, Cameron Davis, wasn’t able to come through Saturday, shooting a 71 to fall back to T-11th, seven shots back.

In the midway piece, it was brought up that with the small difference between first and last after the cut was made, made it so that everyone left in the event still had a chance, as long as they could put together a strong third round. There were two players that were able to do just that.

Ben Martin was right on the cut line at +1. He shot a -5 65, and now sits at -4, T-16th. He didn’t make the largest jump though. That honor belongs to Mark D. Anderson. He was even after two rounds. He tied with Steele Saturday, shooting 64. Due to his great round, he is T-7th, albeit six strokes back of Steele.

The bright news for Anderson is that although Steele is six shots ahead, the man in second, Cameron Smith, is only three shots away. Kevin Kisner sits at -8, all alone in third place. Then there are only three men T-4th. There are not a lot of people ahead of Anderson, and they are all close to him. Another round like Saturday and he has a legit shot to win the Sony Open.

We still have a plethora of people piled around the upper part of the leaderboard. There are seven players T-23rd at -3, so we have a group of 26 players within four shots of each other vying for 4th place.

The tournament is Steele’s to win. He has a three-shot lead, and the weather hasn’t made scoring easy… well, for anyone besides Steele that is. He did have back-to-back bogeys on holes 3 and 4 but made up for it with an eagle on the 9th, and five birdies on the back nine.

The man that he should be most wary of is one who has played great at this tournament throughout his entire career, Webb Simpson. Simpson has yet to win the Sony Open but has played very strong every time he has been here. Check out these finishes, going backward throughout the years.

T-4th, T-13th, T-13th, T-13th, T-20th, T-38th, T-46th, T-77th, T-9th.

Other than years two through four, it makes five straight years of top 20 finishes. Could this be the year that he finally breaks through? He is one of the three golfers sitting at -7, T-4th. He jumped up the leaderboard today, shooting -4. Steele has improved by two shots every round and looks like he is going to be difficult to catch.

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That is going to be the main thing to watch as the Sony Open finishes up. Can anyone catch Brendan Steele? Tune in to the finale of the Sony Open to find out.

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