Let's hope for some wind this week in Hawaii as the PGA Tour hops over to another island in Hawaii for the Sony Open. Whilst I don't normally enjoy the birdie-fests that the tour throws up from time to time, I did enjoy watching the golf last week at Kapalua as the low scoring has certainly whetted the appetite for the year ahead. Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas & Collin Morikawa look good to set the pace for the others to keep up with.
Talor Gooch leads my staking plan this week following a decent performance last week at the TOC. Gooch has kicked 2022 off more or less where he left 2021, and Waialae CC is a course that will suit his accuracy game from T2G. Gooch gives us some value @30/1 - 8 places given Bryson deChambeau has withdrawn . I had him @33s with BDC, so I'm more than happy to get onboard here especially as the RSM Classic has a strong correlation with this course. Gooch won the RSM Classic in the fall and was also 11th at El Chameleon GC for the World Wide Technology Championship which also, if not, has more correlation with Waialae. Despite his last 3 visits here yielding only one paycheck (a lowly 63rd), Gooch is a much improved player and can contend.
Cameron Young is a player I want to follow with interest this year and although I'm unsure if Waialae will suit, I can't ignore his TOP-30 at Sea Island following his 2nd place finish at the Sanderson's Farm at Jackson CC and from those outings he does look like a player that could be a regular on the leaderboards and with 200/1 - 8 places think he's worth including.
Si Woo Kim tees it up here ahead of defending The American Express next week. We have seen many times that a player can raise his game a week or two ahead of a tournament where they have performed or won at in previous years and it's encouraging to see the South Korean hit form of late, posting 3 TOP-20s in his 6 starts this season including a T-10 at Jackson CC. It's even more encouraging to see him available @ 50/1 - 8 places. He's the same price as course specialist Charles Howell III but I do prefer him over the 42 year old who has only won 3 times on tour to date, although the last win came in 2018 at the RSM Classic, a correlated event for this one.
I was initially keen on Marc Leishman,Brian Harman, Abraham Ancer, Kevin Kisner & Corey Conners but concluded there wasn't much value there so I finalized my staking plan with Englisham, Aaron Rai @ 80/1 - 8 places and Max McGreevy @ 175/1 - 8 places. Rai is in form as he embarks on a PGA Tour career having posted posted a T-16 at RSM Classic, T-19 at Houston, T15 at WWT in his last three starts, which highlight performances at both El Chameleon & Sea Island. Now ranked 100 in the OWGR, 2022 goals & targets are the incentive to kick on and make the lineups at the WGCs and Majors. He'll make his debut here so thats a concern but the price is good for me on the back of recent form and ideal game for Waialae! Max as per previous previews is well capable of a shock result on tour in his rookie season and has already posted 2 TOP20s this season. My namesake obviously is a personal interest but at the prices currently being posted, I'm more than happy to have him included in the blogs P&L this year.
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