The first full-field PGA Tour event tees off Thursday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu at the $5.3 million Sony Open.
Last year at this tournament, Paul Goydos recorded three birdies in the final four holes to win it, while Luke Donald and Charles Howell III tied for second. It was Goydos' first PGA Tour victory since 1996, but history, both recent and past, don't signal much of a chance for him to repeat this week.
Goydos finished next to last at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and was one of only two players who couldn't shoot even par or better for the tournament. And following Goydos' previous PGA Tour win and his three runner-up finishes, he has never followed those events with a top-20.
"I've always liked Waialae but I'm at an age where I just hope my game shows up," Goydos, 43, said. "I just want to have my game better than it was last week so I can maybe get my year going again."
He will face a field that includes five of the world's top 11 players: Steve Stricker (No. 3), Jim Furyk (No. 4), K.J. Choi (No. 9), Vijay Singh (No. 10) and Rory Sabbatini (No. 11).
Furyk (1996) and Singh (2005) are former winners at Waialae and are WagerWeb.com's two favorites this week - with Furyk at +350 and Singh at +400.
Stricker, who has been one of the hottest players on Tour and who jumped Furyk last week in the world rankings, is the co-second favorite at +400. He was 18 under par over his final 41 holes last weekend in his runner-up finish at the Mercedes. It was the seventh time in 10 starts since July 2007 that Stricker had finished in the top nine of an event."I don't want to just rest on what I did last year," Stricker said. "Coming out this year, I still feel like I have to prove some things. I'd love to win again. So that's kind of my mindset, just trying to get back in that winner's circle."
Daniel Chopra, who won the Mercedes, is +2700 to make it back-to-back victories, while reigning Masters champ Zach Johnson (+2200) and U.S. Open champ Angel Cabrera (+2700) also are in the field. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson again are not.
Meanwhile, local favorite Tadd Fujikwawa should get a lot of air time. Last year, at age 16, the 5-foot-1, 135-pound high school sophomore, became the youngest in 50 years to make a PGA Tour cut and finished 20th at this tournament.
Now 17, Fujikawa turned professional in July but failed to make a cut in eight pro starts. He is playing this week on a sponsor exemption.
"I learned so much about myself and my golf game and what I need to work on," he said. "It's not bad that I missed all those cuts."
One Hawaiian who notably will be missing is Michelle Wie.
Wie isn't in the field after playing the previous four years on sponsor exemptions. Swing coach David Leadbetter has said the 18-year-old from Honolulu likely will ask for exemptions for one or both of the season-opening LPGA Tour events in Hawaii beginning next week.
Bet on golf at WagerWeb.com
No comments:
Post a Comment