2022 Sony Open Betting Card Preview

Jan 11, 2022

Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

The second week of the 2022 season keeps us in Hawaii, this time at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu for the season's first official full-field event, the Sony Open. As you've likely heard, playing on Maui in the Tournament of Champions the week before the Sony Open has been a strong predictor of success. Course experience matters here, with Russell Henley's 2013 win being the lone debutant winner in the past 16 stops at Waialae.

Waialae is a second-shot course, with small, flat Bermuda greens. The fairways here are significantly more narrow than the airport runways featured at Kapalua, but hitting the fairways at Waialae isn't the skeleton key it was in years past, and you'll see players club down often if the wind becomes an issue. Having the ideal angle for your second shot is paramount, even more so than finding the fairway off the tee. As they were last week at Kapalua, the green complexes remain Bermuda this week, but that's where the parallels end. These greens are firmer and much smaller, and flatter than what the field saw last week.

Looking at past winners of the event, you can see this can turn into a birdie-fest if the wind holds off. Kevin Na (-21) is the defending champion, and last week's winner at the Tournament of Champions, Cameron Smith (-11), won 2020's lift-clean-and-place iteration, a windy and rain-soaked mess of a weekend.

Handicapping early-season events when we have less relevant form data than we do in the spring and summer is a bit more of a feel thing than I'd like it to be. I'd prefer to lean on as much data as possible, but we're all in the same boat so let's work with what we have. For more course-specific data and event trends, please check out Ron Klos's tournament preview. It's the most comprehensive preview you'll find anywhere.

Past Winners at 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)

Corollary Course:

Harbour Town
Sedgefield CC
El Camaleon

I want to change up the format this year. There are so many ways to bet on this beautiful game, and I want to touch on all of them. Picking outright winners is fun, but must be done responsibly. Unit sizing is key, and I've shared my approach with our subscribers in the Discord chat. In this space, I want to touch on the players I'm targeting this week and share my opinion on the best way to bet them at this event.

Please take advantage of the Discord feature and community. It's the best way to get up-to-the-minute lines and advice, and if you need help getting started, please reach out. That's where my full card will be posted, along with any live in-tournament bets.

Betting markets are fluid, but I'll note the best number available at the time of this writing.

*Betting lines accurate at the time of publication.