Hideki Matsuyama will try to defend his crown this week when the 2023 Sony Open tees off Thursday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Matsuyama aims to become the first golfer to go back-to-back at Waialae since Jimmy Walker (2014-15). Matsuyama stormed back from five strokes down with nine holes to play last year and beat Russell Henley with an eagle on the first playoff hole. Henley and Walker also are in a 144-player Sony Open 2023 field that is headlined by Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth and Tom Kim. The Sony Open has been played at the Honolulu course since 1965 and has followed the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Kapalua since 1999. Nineteen of the 39 golfers are making their way over from Maui. Caesars Sportsbook lists Sungjae Im as the 10-1 favorite in its latest 2023 Sony Open odds, followed closely by Kim at 11-1. Half a dozen other golfers are shorter than 25-1, with Matsuyama (15-1) and Spieth (16-1) among them. Brian Harman (16-1), Tom Hoge (20-1), Corey Conners (20-1) and Henley (22-1) are the others, and Walker is priced at a whopping 500-1 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 picksMcDonald knows Spieth is one of the top names in this field and among the favorites, but the expert is fading the three-time major champion. The former world No. 1 has 13 tour victories, one in each of the past two years, but hasn’t played Waialae since 2019. He missed the cut that year, shooting 73 in the first round. The course seems to be a bad fit, as he lacks accuracy off the tee. He hit 56% of fairways last season (150th on tour) and was 62nd in greens in regulation and 155th in strokes gained putting. McDonald calls Spieth “an easy pass” for this week.
On the other hand, Kim is the highest-ranked golfer in the field, and McDonald sees why he is among the expected contenders. The 20-year-old’s accuracy is tough to match, and that should be what wins at Waialae. The tight layout demands precision, and Kim is sixth on tour in driving accuracy (72.8%), greens in regulation (76.4%) and scoring average (69.3). He hit 89% of his fairways at the CJ Cup in late October. Kim has two tour victories and three other top-10 finishes in 15 career tour outings, and he has 11 wins worldwide, several in smaller Asian tours. You can see who else to back at Waialae Country Club here. How to make 2023 Sony Open picksBefore 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 contendersSee full Sony Open 2023 picks, best bets, and predictions here.Sungjae Im +1000Tom Kim +1100Jordan Spieth +1400Hideki Matsuyama +1500Brian Harman +1600Russell Henley +1800Tom Hoge +2200Corey Conners +2200Adam Scott +3100Taylor Montgomery +3100Billy Horschel +3200Cameron Davis +3300Kyoung-Hoon Lee +3400Keegan Bradley +3400Keith Mitchell +3700Si Woo Kim +3700Maverick Mcnealy +3700J.J. Spaun +4000Alex Smalley +4500Christiaan Bezuidenhout +4500MacKenzie Hughes +5000Emiliano Grillo +5000Harris English +5000J.T. Poston +5000Denny McCarthy +5000Matt Kuchar +5000Webb Simpson +5000Gary Woodland +5000Kurt Kitayama +5500Adam Svensson +5500Will Gordon +5500Andrew Putnam +5500Chris Kirk +6000Brendan Steele +6500Hayden Buckley +6500Brendon Todd +7500Nick Hardy +8000Aaron Rai +8500Davis Thompson +9000Chun-an Yu +9000Russell Knox +9500Greyson Sigg +9500Patton Kizzire +9500Ryan Palmer +10000Robby Shelton +10000Stephan Jaeger +10000Justin Suh +11000Ryan Armour +11000Troy Merritt +11000Brandon Wu +11000Ben Griffin +11000David Lipsky +12000Chez Reavie +12000David Lingmerth +13000Kevin Streelman +13000Sam Ryder +13000Kazuki Higa +14000Michael Thompson +14000Lucas Glover +14000James Hahn +14000Mark Hubbard +14000Stewart Cink +14000Taiga Semikawa +14000Seonghyeon Kim +14000Joseph Bramlett +15000Carl Yuan +15000Nick Taylor +16000Brian Stuard +16000Harry Higgs +16000Adam Long +16000Keita Nakajima +16000Tyson Alexander +16000MJ Daffue +16000John Huh +16000Adam Schenk +17000Scott Piercy +17000Cole Hammer +17000Zac Blair +19000Ben Taylor +19000Austin Eckroat +21000Danny Lee +21000Peter Malnati +21000Byeong Hun An +21000Yuto Katsuragawa +21000
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