The PGA Tour’s brief stay in Hawaii wraps up this week with the 2023 Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. The Sony Open 2023 field features seven of the world’s top 25 players, and 19 of the 39 golfers who competed last week will make their way over from Maui. Hideki Matsuyama is scheduled to be on hand to try to defend his title from 2022, when he trailed by five at turn but shot 31 on the back nine. He and Russell Henley both shot 23 under, and the 2021 Masters champion prevailed in the playoff. Matsuyama and Henley will be joined in the Sony Open 2021 field by Jordan Spieth, Tom Kim and 140 more players in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of 2023. The average winning score over the past decade at Waialae is 20 under par.
Sungjae Im is the 10-1 favorite in the latest 2023 Sony Open odds from Caesars Sportsbook, and Kim is right behind at 11-1. There are only a handful of other golfers with odds shorter than 20-1 – Spieth (14-1), Matsuyama (15-1) and Brian Harman (16-1) – while Henley is priced at 22-1 in the Sony Open 2023 field. Before you lock in any 2023 Sony Open picks, be sure you check out the PGA Tour predictions and best bets from SportsLine golf insider Patrick McDonald.
After spending time at FanSided and NBC Sports EDGE, McDonald joined CBS Sports as a golf writer in the spring of 2022. Now covering the sport from a broader perspective, McDonald still likes to dip his toes into the betting pools on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour.
McDonald takes a measured approach to his outright selections and is having a profitable 2022-23 season in every category. He nailed the Houston Open, backing Tony Finau to win at 25-1, and is up almost 10 units on his plays overall. That’s a profit of almost $1,000 for $100 bettors. The expert also has been on the money on his matchup plays and cashed in huge on Brendan Steele (80-1) as the first-round leader at the Zozo Championship.
The expert finished the 2021-22 season up 42 units on his outright plays, having hit Cameron Smith (22-1) at the Tournament of Champions, Hudson Swafford (250-1) at The American Express, Joaquin Niemann (70-1) at the Genesis Invitational and Justin Thomas (66-1) live at the PGA Championship. Last week he listed Jon Rahm among his top picks, and the 28-year-old shot 10 under on Sunday to capture the win. Anyone who follows McDonald’s advice has been cashing in.
Now, McDonald has studied the 2023 Sony Open field and is locking in his best bets, top sleepers and favorites to avoid. You can head to SportsLine now to see all his PGA picks and predictions.
Top 2023 Sony Open expert picks
Shockingly, McDonald is fading Spieth, the most accomplished player in the field and a three-time major champion. The former world No. 1 has 16 professional victories, including one on a similar course at the RBC Heritage last April. But McDonald thinks that was a fluke, as Spieth is rarely accurate enough off the tee to succeed on courses like Waialae. He hit just 56% of fairways last season (150th on tour) and was 155th in strokes gained putting. His lack of accuracy makes Spieth “an easy pass compared to some of the other favorites,” McDonald says.
On the flip side, McDonald knows Kim is worthy of his status near the top of the odds. The expert says Waialae “should be an ideal statistical fit” for the 20-year-old. The two-time tour winner is one of the tour’s most accurate with his driver and irons, and his lack of distance won’t hold him back on this course. Kim has finished 11th or higher in three of his four events this season, including a victory at the Shriners. He is sixth in driving accuracy (72.8%) and greens in regulation (76.4%) and also in the top 10 in scoring average (69.3) and par breakers (28.5%). You can see who else to back at Waialae Country Club here.
How to make 2023 Sony Open picks
Before this week’s PGA Tour event, McDonald has locked in his best bets for the 2023 Sony Open. His outright plays include five major long shots who come in at more than 40-1. One of these players excels on tight courses where accuracy off the tee matters, and if this player can pull off his breakthrough victory he would bring a massive payday of well over 100-1. You can find out who it is, and see the rest of McDonald’s Sony Open picks, predictions, and best bets at SportsLine.
So which 2023 Sony Open picks should you target? Which player has the off-the-tee game to pull off a victory that would pay off at well over 100-1? Check out the odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Patrick McDonald’s top prop picks for Sony Open 2023, all from the expert who is up almost $1,000 on his PGA Tour picks this season, and find out.
2023 Sony Open odds, field, top contenders
See full Sony Open 2023 picks, best bets, and predictions here.
Sungjae Im +1000
Tom Kim +1100
Jordan Spieth +1400
Hideki Matsuyama +1500
Brian Harman +1600
Russell Henley +1800
Tom Hoge +2200
Corey Conners +2200
Adam Scott +3100
Taylor Montgomery +3100
Billy Horschel +3200
Cameron Davis +3300
Kyoung-Hoon Lee +3400
Keegan Bradley +3400
Keith Mitchell +3700
Si Woo Kim +3700
Maverick Mcnealy +3700
J.J. Spaun +4000
Alex Smalley +4500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +4500
MacKenzie Hughes +5000
Emiliano Grillo +5000
Harris English +5000
J.T. Poston +5000
Denny McCarthy +5000
Matt Kuchar +5000
Webb Simpson +5000
Gary Woodland +5000
Kurt Kitayama +5500
Adam Svensson +5500
Will Gordon +5500
Andrew Putnam +5500
Chris Kirk +6000
Brendan Steele +6500
Hayden Buckley +6500
Brendon Todd +7500
Nick Hardy +8000
Aaron Rai +8500
Davis Thompson +9000
Chun-an Yu +9000
Russell Knox +9500
Greyson Sigg +9500
Patton Kizzire +9500
Ryan Palmer +10000
Robby Shelton +10000
Stephan Jaeger +10000
Justin Suh +11000
Ryan Armour +11000
Troy Merritt +11000
Brandon Wu +11000
Ben Griffin +11000
David Lipsky +12000
Chez Reavie +12000
David Lingmerth +13000
Kevin Streelman +13000
Sam Ryder +13000
Kazuki Higa +14000
Michael Thompson +14000
Lucas Glover +14000
James Hahn +14000
Mark Hubbard +14000
Stewart Cink +14000
Taiga Semikawa +14000
Seonghyeon Kim +14000
Joseph Bramlett +15000
Carl Yuan +15000
Nick Taylor +16000
Brian Stuard +16000
Harry Higgs +16000
Adam Long +16000
Keita Nakajima +16000
Tyson Alexander +16000
MJ Daffue +16000
John Huh +16000
Adam Schenk +17000
Scott Piercy +17000
Cole Hammer +17000
Zac Blair +19000
Ben Taylor +19000
Austin Eckroat +21000
Danny Lee +21000
Peter Malnati +21000
Byeong Hun An +21000
Yuto Katsuragawa +21000