Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

The first full-field event of the 2025 PGA Tour season tees off with the Sony Open of Hawaii at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu on Thursday.

It begins the race for many critical milestones for the players, beginning with the AON Swing 5 that provides entry into early signature events, and the race for the reduced 100 PGA Tour cards that will be allotted for next season.

Our golf experts preview the Sony Open and provide their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.

SONY OPEN
Location: Honolulu, Jan. 9-12
Course: Waialae Country Club (Par 70, 7,044 Yards)
Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)
Defending Champion: Grayson Murray
FedEx Cup leader: Matsuyama

HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 7-10:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 4-6 p.m. (NBC/Peacock), 6-8 p.m. (GC)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday: 12-10:30 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday: 1-8 p.m.
X: @SonyOpenHawaii

PROP PICKS
–Billy Horschel to Beat Matt Kuchar (-110 at DraftKings): On the surface, this would seem to be a safe play. Horschel enters the week ranked 15th in the world, while Kuchar is languishing at 124th while failing to crack the top 30 in his past three starts. Horschel isn’t exactly in top form with a pair of missed cuts to go with a 47th and 51st since winning the BMW PGA Championship in September. Both are straight drivers of the ball, which typical plays well around tree-lined Waialae.

–Ben An Top 20 (+110 at BetRivers): An lost to Murray in last year’s playoff following a T12 in Honolulu the previous year. He closed out 2024 with a T18 at the BMW PGA Championship and a win at the Genesis Championship before kicking off 2025 with a T32 at The Sentry.

–Nico Echavarria Top South American (+160 at DraftKings): Echavarria is a career-best 66th in the world thanks to a scorching close to 2024 that saw him win the Zozo in Japan, finish T6 in Mexico and then T2 at The RSM Classic before posting a T32 last week. The others in this prop are Emiliano Grillo (+190), Alejandro Tosti (+500), Cristobal Del Solar (+750) and Camilo Villegas (+900).

BEST BETS
–Hideki Matsuyama (+900 at DraftKings) finished T30 and T48 the past two years here, but the 2022 Sony Open winner is coming off a record-setting victory at Kapalua following a T2 in Japan to close out 2024. He’s also the top-ranked player in the field at No. 5. DraftKings reported the Japanese star leads the field with 11 percent of all money and 9 percent of the total bets backing him to win.

–Corey Conners (+1400) also started the year strong with a T5 on Maui for his third consecutive finish or T7 or better worldwide.

–Tom Kim (+2000) has a pair of runner-ups in his past three starts, including at the Hero World Challenge in his most recent event. He’s third at DraftKings with 8 percent of the total money backing Kim to win this week.

–Russell Henley (+2000) has an excellent track record at Waialae that includes a win in 2013, a runner-up in 2022 and a T4 last year. His history in Honolulu has led the public to back Henley with 11 percent of the money to win.

–Ben An (+2800) finished T2 last year while carding four rounds of 68 or better.

–Luke Clanton (+3000) isn’t just the world’s top-ranked amateur, he’s ranked 87th in the world overall. He has a pair of top-5 in his past three PGA Tour starts, and is fourth in the field with 6 percent of the money backing Clanton to claim his maiden tour victory this week.

–Austin Eckroat (+3500) is already a two-time winner on tour and coming off a solid T15 at Kapalua.

NOTES
–This is the first full-field event of the 2025 season, with 35 players in the 144-player field having competed in The Sentry last week.

–Murray died last May by suicide following a lengthy battle with mental health and addiction. His parents this week announced the formation of the Grayson Murray foundation. Murray beat An and Keegan Bradley in a playoff last year for his second career PGA Tour victory, following his maiden title at the 2017 Barbasol Championship.

–Ricky Castillo is one of 25 new PGA Tour members in the field. The former University of Florida star is of Filipino decent, and his grandparents immigrated to Hawaii. Other tour rookies include three Japanese players: Rikuya Hoshino, Kaito Onishi and Takumi Kanaya.

–Nick Dunlap, who in 2024 became the first player in tour history to win as an amateur and a professional in the same season, will make his event debut.

–Justin Thomas shot a course-record 59 in the first round in 2017 en route to winning the event with a 72-hole record score of 253.

–Field Level Media