2022 Sony Open: Two Australian victories in Hawaii?

The 2022 Sony Open welcomes the first full-field PGA event of the New Year as the Tour makes one last stop in Hawaii before heading back to the mainland.

Australian Cameron Smith will look to complete the ‘Hawaii Slam’ to start 2022 after his record-breaking performance last week at the Tournament Of Champions. Smith who won the Sony Open in 2020 will look to repeat the feat this week at Waialae Country Club and opens up as the clear favorite to do so at +1000 over on WynnBET.

Cameron is joined this week in Honolulu by 143 others for the Tour’s first full-field event since the RSM Classic back in November last year. Fellow countryman Marc Leishman is also in the field this week and he is just one of a total of 23 players that will be teeing it up at the Sony Open this week after participating in the 2022 opener at the TOC last week. Meanwhile, Webb Simpson and Corey Conners are just a couple of other names that will be making their 2022 debut this week in Honolulu.

Waialae C.C. site of the Sony Open

Waialae Country Club has been hosting PGA Tour events since 1965 marking it as one of the oldest tournament hosts on the PGA calendar. The PAR 70, 7,044 yard Seth Raynor design could not be more different from what players saw last week at the TOC. Waialae’s flat tree-lined layout with narrow fairways is a stark contrast from the Plantation’s steep elevation changes and vast fairways that the world’s best had little trouble in finding last week.

Scoring conditions at the Sony Open could once again be favorable with little to no wind in the current forecast. Should that hold scoring this week could easily creep into the low 20’s, something that has been commonplace at this event over the years.

Previous Champions of the Sony Open

2021: Kevin Na (-21)

2020: Cameron Smith (-11)

2019: Matt Kuchar (-22)

2018: Patton Kizzire (-17)

2017: Justin Thomas (-27)

2016: Fabian Gomez (-20)

Picks to win The 2022 Sony Open

Odds provided in this article are taken from WynnBet and are current at the time of publication. Head on over to WynnBET to see up to the date odds and make your own picks for the Sony Open. 

Marc Leishman (+2000)

There is not much recent form to look at with the 2022 Sony Open being only the second event played in 2022 and the first full-field event since last November. There is however an interesting little fact that suggests that looking at those that competed last week at the Tournament Of Champions may hold some value when trying to identify potential winners for this week. In fact,16 of the last 23 winners of the Sony Open had played the previous week at Kapalua, a bucket that Marc Leishman falls into this week after his 10th place finish at the TOC a week ago.

The Australian will come into the 2022 Sony Open no doubt inspired after watching his fellow countryman and friend Cameron Smith win in such incredible fashion last week. Leishman has a very nice track record at Waialae C.C., this includes a 4th place finish in his previous visit just last year.

Marc played well throughout most of the PGA’s unofficial ‘swing-season’ leading into last week, which included finishes of 4th, 3rd, 38th, 19th, and 10th in his last five starts. Leishman gained over two strokes with his irons last week all the while uncharacteristically losing strokes around the greens, a facet of his game that is normally very solid.

He seems to have a nice blend of performance in recent events and history at the Sony Open as he heads into the 2022 edition. The fact that he played last week is also a bonus when taking into consideration who has won this event previously, and if he can see the return of his usually reliable short game this week he is well-positioned to go one step further than his 4th place finish here last year.

Talor Gooch (+3000)

Gooch doesn’t have the best history at the Sony Open with two missed cuts in his previous four starts at Waialae, but he did record a finish of 18th on his debut at this event back in 2018. A very convincing argument could be made that Talor is a very different golfer heading into the Sony Open than he has been in the past though. This has been on full display as he has gone on a terrific run since the official beginning of the PGA’s 2021-22 season with three top 15 finishes, two top 5 finishes, and a win in his last six starts.

The 30-year-old secured his first PGA Tour victory back in November at the RSM Classic at an event that has drawn significant comparisons to what players will see at Waialae this week. Despite his lack of success at this event thus far in his career, it does seem like a track that should set up well for his game.

Like Leishman before him, Gooch took part in the TOC last week and was dialed in with every aspect of his game apart from the putter, if he can find his touch on the greens this week he should find himself in contention.

Maverick McNealy (+5000)

Maverick is someone that I have high hopes for heading into 2022 and he came incredibly close once again to win for the first time on the PGA Tour at the first event on the 2021-22 schedule the Fortinet Championship in California where he finished 2nd to begin the new season.

Although McNealy was unable to take part in the TOC last week he has recorded two top 20 finishes in his last two PGA starts. He was 11th at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba on a course that also has drawn some comparisons to Waialae. Some of Maverick’s best finishes have come on comparable tracks and even though he will be making his Sony Open debut this week it’s a course that should set up well for him.

First-timers have not had much success in their debut at this event before, in fact, Russell Henley was the only player to win on their debut at the Sony Open since it began in 1965. Someone will break this trend eventually and Maverick certainly has the talent to do so this week.

Brendan Steele (+7500)

We seem to be getting a pretty generous number on a player that has nearly won this event in both of his last two starts at the Sony Open. Steele narrowly missed out on winning this event in 2020 when Cameron Smith would go on to claim the victory, then last year Steele held the lead going into Sunday before a scorching Kevin Na claimed the win during the final round.

Brendan hasn’t exactly been playing great golf in previous starts but he has made the cut in both of his last two starts and the two previous times he has gone into the Sony Open he wasn’t in the best of form either. Steele did secure a 2nd place finish at the ZOZO back in October of last year, however, after coming so close to winning the Sony Open the past two year’s he is well worth taking the chance with at this number.