Several players are riding the top of the favorites list this week at the 20223 Sony Open. This is the second event on the PGA TOUR Hawaii swing, which kicked off with the Sentry Tournament of Champions. We saw Colin Morikawa have a meltdown on Sunday while Jon Rahm played near-perfect golf. Rahm walked away with the win and over $2 million.
Could this week at the Sony Open finish similarly? Yes! The numbers are tight at the top with only a little light coming between the two favorites to win the Sony Open outright. Tom Kim comes in at +500 with Sungjae Im entering Thursday’s opening round at +560.
It’s also an event where there are plenty of players, aka value picks, down the odds list that can pull off a win with a strong showing.
Here are the favorites to win the 2023 Sony Open outright, including last season’s Sony Open winner Hideki Matsuyama.
Tom Kim +500
Sungjae Im +560
Jordan Spieth +600
Hideki Matsuyama +700
2023 Sony Open Preview
Where: Honolulu, Hawaii
Course: Waialae Country Club
Par: 70
Length: 7,044
When: January 12-15, 2023
Purse: $7.9 million
TV Coverage: Golf Channel/Peacock
The Waialae Country Club is relatively flat compared to last week at the Plantation course, which played on the side of one of the Island’s mountains. The course is a visual stunner with tight fairways, but generous landing areas. The rough, medium cut, runs off into native flora and bunkers. The greens are designed for being able to move the pin around to take advantage of false fronts and plateaus.
Wind could be a factor, if so, look for players to go low as if they were in St Andrews over in Scotland. Wedge play and a hot putter always come in handy at Waialae.
The course has several holes based on famous golf links from around the world such as No. 8 which is patterned after the Redan hole on the North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. The No. 10 also has a Scottish theme, it includes design features of the “Road Hole” at St. Andrews. And No. 13 is patterned after the Biarritz Course in France.
2023 Sony Open Predictions
Jordan Spieth +600
Jordan Spieth sits at the 15th spot on the OWGR list after giving up the 14th spot to Tom Kim. Spieth finished by himself at 15 at the Hero World Challenge and followed that up with a T13 at the Tournament of Champions. He has not missed a cut since the FedEx St Jude Championship in August of 2022. Speith partnered with Justin Thomas to beat Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in the latest version of The Match during the Holiday and Christmas break.
Russell Henley +800
Russell Henley took Hideki Matsuyama to the ropes at this event last season before losing to Matsuyama in a playoff. Henley played better than the T30 he carded last week at the Tournament of Champions. However, his style of play fits the flatter links of Waialae Country Club perfectly. Henley started the new season by winning at Mayakoba and now sits in the 10th spot in FedEx points.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +1200
Christiaan Bezuidenhout would be the player I would look toward if I were seeking value down the odds list. Things are tight this week so that’s a tall ask! Bezuidenhout finished 2022 with some great play as he carded two top-five showings in international play – both on his home turf of South Africa. He seemed to take a liking to Waialae last season when he finished T17 during his debut appearance.
Others: So why am I not leaning on Tom Kim (+500)? One piece of sports trivia is keeping me from doing so. Russell Henley is the first player to win at this event during their tournament debut since 1965. I know, that’s a stretch, but it shows that this course can be tough for newcomers. Harris English (+1200) is a threat every time he tees it up and especially if he’s finally healthy after surgery. This would be a perfect course for English to get back to winning form.
2023 Sony Open Betting Lines
Tom Kim +500
Sungjae Im +560
Jordan Spieth +600
Hideki Matsuyama +700
Russell Henley +800
Corey Conners +800
Brian Harman +800
Tom Hoge +800
Billy Horschel +900
Taylor Montgomery +900
Keegan Bradley +900
Maverick McNealy +900
Adam Scott +900
Cameron Davis +1000
Keith Mitchell +1000
Kyoung-Hoon Lee +1000
JJ Spaun +1000
Si-Woo Kim +1100
Alex Smalley +1100
Gary Woodland +1100
Kurt Kitayama +1200
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +1200
Andrew Putnam +1200
Emiliano Grillo +1200
Matt Kuchar +1200
Harris English +1200
Denny McCarthy +1320
Webb Simpson +1320
JT Poston +1320
Mackenzie Hughes +1320
Will Gordon +1400
Hayden Buckley +1400
Brendan Steele +1400
Nick Hardy +1400
Adam Svensson +1400
Aaron Rai +1600
Chris Kirk +1600
Russell Knox +1600
Brendon Todd +1600
Stephan Jaeger +1600
S.H. Kim +1600
Robby Shelton +1600
Patton Kizzire +1800
Greyson Sigg +1800
Ben Griffin +1800
Justin Suh +1800
Ryan Palmer +1800
Troy Merritt +1800
James Hahn +1800
David Lipsky +1800
Joseph Bramlett +1800
Davis Thompson +2000
Lucas Glover +2000
Mark Hubbard +2000
Kevin Streelman +2000
Adam Long +2000
Ryan Armour +2000
Brandon Wu +2000
Sam Ryder +2000
Adam Schenk +2000
Ben Taylor +2000
Stewart Cink +2000
Keita Nakajima +2000
M-J Daffue +2000
Kevin Yu +2000
Carl Yuan +2000
Chez Reavie +2000
Scott Piercy +2500
Nick Taylor +2500
Harry Higgs +2500
David Lingmerth +2500
Cole Hammer +2500
Matthias Schmid +2500
John Huh +2500
Erik Barnes +2500
Yuto Katsuragawa +2500
Kazuki Higa +2500
Matthias Schwab +2500
Taiga Semikawa +2500
Brian Stuard +2500
Chesson Hadley +2500
Byeong-Hun An +2500
Robert Streb +2500
Ben Martin +2500
Austin Eckroat +2500
Rory Sabbatini +2500
Danny Lee +2500
Michael Kim +2500
Doc Redman +2500
Austin Cook +3000
Michael Thompson +3000
Tyson Alexander +3000
Kramer Hickok +3000
Zach Johnson +3000
Ryan Moore +3000
Ze-Cheng Dou +3000
Harrison Endycott +3000
Eric Cole +3000
Kaito Onishi +3000
Brice Garnett +3000
Aaron Baddeley +3000
Zac Blair +3000
Tyler Duncan +3000
Nate Lashley +3000
Peter Malnati +3000
Vincent Norrman +3000
Austin Smotherman +3000
Paul Haley +3000
Andrew Novak +3000
Sam Stevens +3000
Harry Hall +3000
Kevin Roy +3000
Kevin Tway +3000
Michael Gligic +3000
Kelly Kraft +3000
Chad Ramey +3000
Augusto Nunez +3000
Jerry Kelly +3500
Brent Grant +3500
Kyle Stanley +4000
Scott Harrington +4000
Trevor Cone +4000
Kyle Westmoreland +4000
Max McGreevy +4000
Jim Herman +4000
K J Choi +4000
Nicolas Echavarria +4000
Jimmy Walker +4000
Ryan Brehm +4000
Brandon Matthews +4000
Richy Werenski +5000
Tano Goya +5000
Kohei Okada +5000
Anders Albertson +5000
Carson Young +5000
Trevor Werbylo +5000
Michael Castillo +7000
Parker McLachlin +7000
Blaze Akana +7000
Jesse Mueller +8000







