Sony Open
Another eventful week on the PGA Tour. Last week Harris English captured his third PGA win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He tied Joaquin Niemann at 25 under and later defeated him on the first hole of their sudden death playoff. English has been hanging around the top 5 in many of his events last year just falling short. Throughout the entire week English played solid and steady. Congrats to Harris we can’t wait to see what the rest of your season has in store. The PGA Tour now moves to the second and final leg of the Hawaii swing. This week the Sony Open will be played at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now typically this event has a completely loaded field, however with there being so many events this year players are more strategically planning their schedules. Nevertheless, the field is still very strong. This week fans will be able to tune in on Collin Morikowa, Daniel Berger, Joaquin Niemann, Harrish English and Kevin Kisner. Big names that we will be missing this week are Dustin Johnson, John Rahm, Bryson Dechambeau, and Justin Thomas, just to name a few. Although these names are off the field list, this opens the door wide open, giving every single player in the field the perfect opportunity to take home the trophy. Gear up golf fans for another incredible week.
Now i’ve heard a lot of crazy and strange golf stories throughout my years but this story is one of the strangest yet. This past week stories about some of Bryson Dechambeau’s off season workouts with Kyle Berkshire, World Long Drive Champion surfaced. Now many of you must be thinking “well he probably just lifted a ton of weights and ate a lot of food.” Now normally you’d be correct however this time Bryson would workout out so hard and push his bodies to such serious limits that he often blacked or passed out. Bryson believes that if he pushes his body to these limits his body will receive extra endorphins from his brain allowing him to bring his swing, ball speed and distance to the next level. Now it’s no secret that Bryson is drastically improving his numbers, now whether his methodology is sound, that isn’t up to us to decide. Prepare yourself to see Bryson push himself to limits that we’ve never seen before. Nevertheless, Bryson Dechambeau leads the PGA Tour in driving distance coming in at 329.2 yards. The next closest player is Rory McIlrory at 322.7 yards. For even more perspective the entire tour driving distance average is 294.9 yards. So whatever Bryson is doing seems to be paying off, but for how long is the real question. (Mike)
Once again we are back to my favorite part of the blog, picks of the week!
Pick’s of the Week:
Mike: This weeks standard tournament rules are being played so there will be a cut after Friday’s round. Now last week my winning pick was slightly off, I had DJ winning at 20 under, however I didn’t think the course would be playing as easy as it was. Nevertheless this week’s winning pick goes to Webb Simpson at 13 under par. Now Webb has had recent success here. Last year he finished solo third losing by only one stroke. Now Webb had to take some time off due to his contraction of Covid-19 over the holidays, however his solid play last week at the Sentry TOC propelled him to a T-17 finish proves that he can easily slide back into competing at the highest level. Taking Webb Simpson could prove to be a lucrative bet this week.
My next pick is my notable to miss the cut, this week I have Kevin Kisner missing the cut. Although Kisner said that he feels confident that he can score well here I personally believe that he will fall a few shots short of the cut line. Nevertheless in this section we always hope to be proven wrong. Best of luck Kis, THIS AIN’T NO HOBBY FELLAS.
Lastly my underdog pick of the week goes to Harry Higgs. Higgs has already notched himself a top 10 this season in only six events played. Higgs ranks well on the tour in strokes gained off the tee as well as putting. If he can put these two stats lines together this week I believe Higgs has a real shot to capture his maiden victory this week. (Mike)
Tyler: My pick last week played average for the field and finished in 31st at -11. Hoping this week I have some better luck! My pick to win this week is Collin Morikawa at 14-1. It’s simple. He is one of the best iron players on tour already and while the field is decent, it certainly is lacking in star power. With a major already to his name this field should be an advantage to Morikawa. I think he wins this week by 2 or 3. He is going to be a household name for the foreseeable future and I think come Sunday afternoon he will have yet another win under his belt.
My notable to miss the cut is Sergio Garcia. Sergio has been playing some good golf as of late, but after last week and celebrating his birthday with his family in Hawaii and playing in the Sentry I just have a feeling he misses the cut this week.
While I am just as big of a fan of Harry Higgs as Mike is and would love to see Harry win on tour I personally think Erk Van Rooyen at 50-1 has a real shot at winning this week so he is my sleeper pick. Erk has not been able to find a ton of success on the tour, at least not consistently, but I like for him to be right there Sunday afternoon. (Tyler)