After a PGA scoring record was set in the season opener, we get to stay in the beautiful state of Hawaii for the Sony Open. Taking place at the Wai’alae Country Club in Honolulu where 144 golfers will compete in the first full field event of the season.

Being the second event of the year, this event is not a signature event, but the field will be competing for their share of an 8.7 million dollar purse, and FedEx cup points that will go towards the Aon Swing 5, which will be the path to qualifying for the next signature event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am.

 

 

Sony Open in Hawaii 2025: Daily Fantasy Golf Picks & Projections

Being the first full field event, this 144 player field includes six previous champions, but will notably missing 2024 Champion Grayson Murray, who unfortunately took his own life in 2024. He will likely be remembered and honored heavily throughout the event.

 

 

Wai’alae Country Club: Breakdown This Week

In quite a stark contrast to what we saw at Kapalua, Wai’alae is one of the shorter courses on the schedule this year. Coming in at just 7,044 yards, this course will require much more accuracy than Kapalua, which required much more firepower. We get the same Bermudagrass greens we saw in Kapalua, so keep that in mind.

WCC is far more narrow than Kapalua, with water in play on just 5 of the 18 holes. Similar to Kapalua by being an oceanfront course, the weather and wind will impact scoring heavily. That being said the lowest winning score in the last 20 years of the tournament is -11 which was done twice, most recently in 2020 by Cam Smith. Justin Thomas holds the tournament record with a win in 2017 at -27.

At the time of writing, there is no rain projected during the tournament, but rain is projected Wednesday evening, which could lead to a softer course on Thursday AM. Wind however projects to be a larger factor here than last week, with the average wind projected between 12-18 miles per hour steady on any given day, and gust as high as 25 miles per hour on the weekend.

While some stats from The Sentry carry over to this week, we have seen a larger historical importance in a few key areas. Strokes Gained on Par 4’s plays a much larger role here than at Kapalua, as does Strokes Gained: Approach. We will be focusing on these two heavily, while also looking at Birdie or Better percentage, Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, Bogey avoidance, and we see a stark jump in importance of Proximity in the ranges of 150-175 and 175-200. This course is also historically very predictive (similar in course history predictiveness to Augusta). This will be a solid factor to consider as a result.

 

 

Sony Open in Hawaii 2025 Field: Golf DFS

Being the first full field event of the season, we will see 144 golfers which includes 4 who qualified through open qualifying. Additionally, we have a solid pool of alternates should anyone withdraw, with 7 Korn Ferry Tour and Q-School graduates. 10 of the players in the field are here on sponsor exemptions, and one is in the field via Section Champion status. 

We still have some notable names who are not in this field, such as Scottie Scheffler who is still recovering from his hand injury, and Rory McIlroy. The field is still strong however, with Sentry champion Hideki Matsuyama looking to become just the 3rd golfer in history to win both Hawaii events in the same season, after becoming just the 7th to win both in any season. While some big names are absent, we are still being treated to 20 of the top 50 player in the Official World Golf Rankings

This field also includes multiple previous winners of the Sony Open. Si Woo Kim, Matt Kuchar, Hideki Matsuyama, Patton Kizzire, Russell Henley, Ryan Palmer, and Zach Johnson are all previous winners who will be in the field this week.

 

 

This Week’s PGA DFS Optimizer & Lineup Generator

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PGA Best Bets & Predictions: 2025 The Sentry Tournament of Champions (2-0 Overall, +2.5 Units)

  • Harry Hall: Top European (+550)
  • Luke Clanton: Top 20 (+170) 

 

 

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: Top Tier

Hideki Matsuyama ($12,500 FanDuel/$11,000 DraftKings)

While I do worry Matsuyama will be a very chalky pick here after his performance last week, he has the history and skills to back it up. Being top 25 on tour in 4 of our 5 key stats, he not only line up well in that category, but also has made the cut in 8 of his 11 starts at WCC. The Sony Open winner in 2022, he’s looking to keep this hot streak going and become only the 3rd player ever to win both Hawaii tournaments in the same season. He also started using a new putter this past week, and finished 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained:Putting, which is the highest finish in a field in his career. His game is coming together extremely well to pull off this rare feat.

 

Corey Conners ($12,100 FanDuel/$10,200 DraftKings)

Conners is coming off a very strong showing at Kapalua, where he finished T5 and led the field in strokes gained putting. Additionally, his driving accuracy was 7th at the Sentry, and while his distance was well below league average, we’ve already established that distance is not king here. Looking back at his previous years performances, Conners has finished T3, T12 twice and 11th in 4 of his last 5 times playing in this event. Additionally, now that we have to consider the cut line, he has never missed the cut at this event and has an average finish of 22.3.

 

Byeong Hun An ($11,600 FanDuel/$9,400 DraftKings)

An is a curious case. While my model doesn’t particularly love his statistical performance for this course (48th in the field), the very predictive course history leads me into him as an option. In his two starts at WCC, he’s finished T12 and T2 respectively, losing a playoff last year to eventual winner Grayson Murray. He historically plays well in Hawaii as well, with a 4th place finish at The Sentry last season and a T32 this past week. I’m going to trust his history here and believe this isn’t a fluke.

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: MID TIER

Luke Clanton ($10,200 FanDuel/$8,400 DraftKings)

Clanton took the tour by storm last year, competing as an amateur while still finishing out his career at Florida State University. After his debut at the US Open where he finished T41, he finished top 10 in 4 of his 8 events, with multiple runner up finishes as well. Having only one missed cut in his young career, the 21 year old is looking to build on his success from 2024. While he recorded only 29 rounds in 2024, thus not qualifying him for the rankings list, the stats he did record would have but him 2nd in Total Strokes Gained,  1st in Birdie or Better Percentage, 6th in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green, and 3rd in Stroke Gained on Approach. This young man knows how to play golf, and I love his value here as a potentially lesser known name.

Tom Hoge ($9,400 FanDuel/$7,700 DraftKings)

Hoge is coming off a strong finish at the Sentry, where he finished T8. His strengths at Kapalua play very well here at WCC as well, as he finished 4th in Strokes Gained: Approach, and carded just a single birdie across the 72 holes. Hoge missed the cut here much more than I’m personally happy with, but coming off the 2nd best year of his career, I’m willing to take some of that risk here. His previous struggles here have been largely tied to driver and putter, and while the driver was certainly not his friend at Kapalua, his putter more than made up for it as he finished 11th in the field in Shots Gained: Putting. I’m willing to take this bet with his historical above-average par 4 scoring.

Keith Mitchell ($9,000 FanDuel/$7,300 DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is one of golfers that lines up well statistically for this course in this price range, coming in at 6th or better amongst the field in 3 of the 5 major statistical categories. Mitchell has also made the cut in 5 of his 7 starts here, and while his best performances came prior to 2023 (where he missed the cut), the value here is hard to best. In 2024, Mitchell finished 2nd on tour in birdie or better percentage (behind only Scottie Scheffler), as well as 8th in Strokes Gained:Tee-to-Green and 12th in Strokes Gained:Approach-to-Green. This profile lines up very well for success here.

 

GOLF DFS PICKS THIS WEEK: VALUE TIER

Patton Kizzire ($8,100 FanDuel/$6,900 DraftKings)

Kizzire is another golfer here who lines up well statistically and has historic performance at WCC to back it up. Coming in 7th overall in my model, Kizzire ranks top 20 overall and top 12 in the field in 3 of our 5 key stats. A previous winner here, he’s made the cut in 6 of his 8 starts, having not missed the cut since 2020. With an average finish of 25.3, he’s finished high here consistently, including a T13 finish this past year. His putting was the worst part of his game last week at The Sentry where he logged a T40 finish. If we can get back to historic putting numbers, he can offer great value at this price.

Henrik Norlander ($8,000 FanDuel/$6,800 DraftKings)

Norlander’s price here seems criminally low based on my model. Not only is he top 10 in the field in 3 of the major statistics, he’s beat out by only one golfer in my model score. While he has not played here since 2022, he’s coming off a strong season where he missed only 5 cuts and has an average finish inside the top 35. He’s finished as high as T9 in this event, which gives me some belief that he can produce given this great value.

Ryan Palmer ($7,000 FanDuel/$6,000 DraftKings)

It’s no secret that Ryan Palmer is not the player he once was, making only 7 cuts last year in 18 starts. That being said, this is a course he has been historically successful at Having taken the trophy home in 2010, he’s really put together his best string here since 2014. During this stretch of 10 tournaments, he’s made the cut 8 times, and finished in the top 20 5 times, including most recently in 2022. When his approach game is on, he typically finishes well here.  long tee shot ability and bogey avoidance, he’s a great value for this lineup.

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