Tournament Notes and Quotes:

Last weekend’s winner Harris English will attempt to join Ernie Els (2003) and Justin Thomas (2017) as the only players to win the Tournament of Champions and Sony Open in Hawaii in the same season.

English on his win last week and carry-over to this event: “It's been awesome. Just kind of, you never realized how much support you have from people back home and some friends that are watching that are pulling for you. It's awesome to finally feel that and people saying I made their night, made their week. It's cool to hear that. But it's been -- I feel like I've kind of got the celebrating behind me and I've got a week off next week. So I'll get a chance to kind of soak it all in,” said English in his pre-tournament interview.

“I feel like I've got a good chance here at Waialae. I love this place. This is a tournament on the schedule that I kind of circle every year that this is one of my favorite events. I love the golf course. I feel like each and every year I tee it up here, I can have a chance to win and obviously feel good about my game right now. So I'm looking forward to getting the week started,” he said.

This week, 30 of the 42 players in the Sentry Tournament of Champions field are scheduled to play, including playoff participants English and Joaquin Niemann.

Eight of the 2020-21 PGA Tour Season winners are entered in the SONY Open: Stewart Cink (Safeway Open), Hudson Swafford (Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship), Sergio Garcia (Sanderson Farms Championship), Jason Kokrak (THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK), Brian Gay (Bermuda Championship), Carlos Ortiz (Vivint Houston Open), Robert Streb (The RSM Classic), Harris English (Sentry Tournament of Champions).

Leading up to his tee-off today, Charles Howell III has ten Top-10 finishes and has not missed a cut in 19 starts at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He is the all-time earnings leader at the event despite not having won the tournament ($2,948,281).

Vaughn Taylor, Kyle Stanley and Erik van Rooyen will be the first group to tee-it-up on No. 1 at 7:10am (local)/12:10pm (ET). Bo Hoag, Harry Higgs and Russell Henley will tee-off at the same time on No. 10 at Waialae Country Club. That’s only 10 minutes from our missive arriving in your inbox!

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THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: SONY Open

COURSE: Waialae Country Club, Hawaii

ARCHITECT: Seth Raynor

YARDS/PAR: 7,044 yards/Par 70

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $6,600,000/$1,1880,000

DEFENDING Champion: Cameron Smith (2020 Leaderboard link)

PAST CHAMPIONS of Event: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points/Winner Share for points: 2,989/500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedEXCup @SonyOpenHawaii #SonyOpenHawaii

TV COVERAGE: (All on GOLF CHANNEL) Thursday, Jan. 14-to-Saturday, Jan. 16th: 7pm-10:30pm ET) and Sundayday, January 17th (6pm-10:00pm ET)

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Thu-Fri-Sat - 5:00pm-10:30pm (ET); and Sunday final (5:00pm-10:00pm ET)

THE BASICS:

The Field at the 2021 SONY Open in Hawaii (link)

*Last week’s Sentry TofC Leaderboard (link)

2021 Sony Open Leaderboard (link)

2021 SONY Open in Hawaii Odds: (via William Hill)

Collin Morikawa 14-1
Webb Simpson 14-1
Harris English 16-1
Daniel Berger 20-1
Hideki Matsuyama 22-1
Sungjae Im 22-1
Joaquin Niemann 25-1
Cameron Smith 28-1
Ryan Palmer 30-1
Kevin Kisner 30-1
Abraham Ancer 30-1
Russell Henley 33-1
Adam Scott 33-1
Billy Horschel 35-1
Matt Kuchar 35-1
Zach Johnson 40-1
Sergio Garcia 40-1
Lanto Griffin 45-1
Brendon Todd 45-1
Sebastian Munoz 50-1
Emiliano Grillo 50-1
Marc Leishman 50-1
Jason Kokrak 50-1
Charles Howell 50-1
Erk Van Rooyen 50-1
Brian Harman 50-1
Patton Kizzire 66-1
Keegan Bradley 66-1
Kevin Na 66-1
Talor Gooch 66-1
Si-Woo Kim 70-1
Chez Reavie 70-1
Carlos Ortiz 70-1
Matthew NeSmith 80-1
Mackenzie Hughes 80-1
Russell Knox 80-1
J.T. Poston 90-1
Brandt Snedeker 90-1
Stewart Cink 100-1
Scott Piercy 100-1
Takumi Kanaya 100-1
Rory Sabbatini 100-1
Tom Hoge 100-1
Cameron Davis 100-1
Branden Grace 100-1

Pick a Foursome? - This week, we like: Sungjae Im, Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak and Webb Simpson. Longshot? How about Cameron Davis.

Yesterday’s T’s Wedge Edge: We like Sungjae Im at 22-1 this week at the SONY. He finished T-5 last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and didn’t putt very well. He had all four rounds in the upper 60s, with a pair of 67s for (-21), four strokes off the lead. 

What They’re Saying:

Jhonattan Vegas Tests+ and Withdraws from SONY (Associated Press)

Sergio Garcia Turns from Joaquin Niemann Rival to Cheerleader (PGA Tour com)

Cameron Smith Making Name for Himself (PGA Tour com)

Official Sony Open Waialae Country Club site (link)

#SportsBiz and the Golf Industry:

Phoenix Open to Limit to 5,000 Fans (ESPN com)

*Suggestion from Grayson Murray (Yahoo Sports)

*Then, This Happened (Golf Week/USA Today)

Charles Howell III is Ultimate “Gear Junkie” (PGA Tour com)

On This Day in Golf:

January 14, 2007 - After being winless in 11 years and his previous 256 tournaments, Paul Goydos made three birdies in his final four holes to win the SONY Open in Hawaii by one shot over Charles Howell III and Luke Donald. “I never felt like I was going to win,” said the then-42 year old Goydos of his play down the stretch. Goydos’ previous win on tour was the 1996 Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando. (Courtesy Randy Walker, Author of On This Day in Golf History, available via Amazon.com and by clicking HERE.)

Parting Putt

Tadd Fujikawa in 2007:

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