The PGA Tour stays on the islands for the second consecutive week as the Sony Open, the first full-field event of 2019, takes place at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Topping 🐼the market this week is 2017 event c🌟hampion Justin Thomas, who is off a third-place finish last week in Kapalua, at 13/2. Bryson DeChambeau is the second choice at 10/1 followed by Gary Woodland, last week’s 54-hole leader and eventual runner-up, at 14/1. Jordan Spieth and Marc Leishman round out the top-five market favorites at 15/1 and 18/1, respectively.
Worth a wager
Marc Leishman (18/1): Finished T-4 at Kapalua last week along with Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy. He’s played nine of the last 10 years here so he has plenty of course expe൩rience. Currently on a very good form run with a win in Malaysia, 18th in South Korea, b🐼ack to back runners-up going back home to Australia before last week’s top five.
Cameron Smith (28/1): The Aussie who partnered with Leishman at the World Cup of Golf for a second-place finish then defeated him the next week at the Australia🦩n PGA Championship. He’s been off the last five weeks but is off a win last time out💃 so he’s certainly worth a stab at this price.
Bubba Watson/Adam Scott (40/1): A couple boom-or-bust candidates. Watson struggled on the greens last week at Kapalua but historically is fairly good on Bermuda grass and did shoot h🅷is best round of the week on Sunday. Scott shut down his season early last year but returns to a c𝓡ourse he likes and did show some signs of returning to form in the latter half of the season with three top 10s in his last seven starts.
Andrew Putnam (75/1): Finished 14th last week but was second in strokes gained putting. Gained his first career tour win last year at the Reno-Tahoe Open but still needs to qualify for three of the four majors. He historically plays well in tropical climates.
Jimmy Walker (75/1): It’s tough to turn down a two-time winner here at this price. Walker co🐓ntracted Lyme Disease in April 2017 but 🔥is a horse for the course here.
Sung-Jae Im (75/1): Last year’s regular-season money leader on the Web.com Tour. Finished first and se👍cond in the two events to start the season on that tour last year, so he has a great recent history🙈 in tropical climates.
Chris Kirk (80/1): Has three top 10s in his last six starts here and got to Hawaii a week early i𓄧n spite of not being in last week’s field.
Ollie Schniederjans (13/2, field): Finished seventh🃏 here last year. Ollie picks up a new caddie this season in Damon Green, who worked the last 15 years with Zach Johnson. This could pay dividends here ౠas Johnson has win on this course. Green’s knowledge should help a talented, young player still looking for his breakthrough on the PGA Tour.