RADIO
Hello and welcome to my official course and event preview piece for the Sony Open. The goal each week is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth look at the specs of the golf course to help you best understand historical trends and stat profiles that have proven to be indicators of success at this event in the past. The golf course is the everchanging variable week to week on the PGA Tour and it is pivotal to understand the specs in great detail while researching the tournament.
Waialae Country Club has been a staple on the PGA Tour for many years and we have developed a consistent and reliable set of skills that pair nicely with this unique layout and course design. When you start your research with a proper understanding of the course design, we believe it will help you isolate and key in on individual players that are best suited to have success for the week. This article will provide you with everything you need to know about historic course data, player strategies, and stats with enhanced importance on this particular layout.
I want this to be the place where you all can begin your research and analysis each week so if there is anything you would like to see added or altered, please let me know and we will continue to evolve this article in hopes of becoming the most complete and best course preview article in the industry!
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An Introduction to Waialae Country Club
The Sony Open has been played at Waialae Country Club off the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii since 1965 and has been one of the most consistent tests that we see annually on the PGA Tour to open every season. The course is of course a drastic contrast from what we witnessed last week at Kapalua which featured extreme elevation changes that perpetuate a bombs away mentality without fearing a wayward miss. Waialae on the other examines a much different skill set for players, putting a far greater emphasis on accuracy off the tee, and playing totally flat from the tee to green at just a few yards above sea level throughout.
We have a quintessential Seth Raynor design a layout from the 1920’s that utilizes sharp doglegs and relies on the coastal winds to challenge players. It was one of his final projects, and Raynor unfortunately never got to see the fruits of his labor. He died in 1926, just months before Waialae officially opened for play. We have since seen several renovations take place at the hands of Robert Trent Jones, Desmond Muirhead, Rick Smith, and Tom Doak through the years.
Every year for this tournament they change the course par from 72 to 70 for the pro’s and flip the orientation of the front and back nines. The entire place is tee to green Bermudagrass including the rough, which can at times present uncertainties and require proper decision making from players despite it typically only being 3 inches in height.
The Scorecard
Course Specs
The course typically plays barely above 7,000 yards, nearly 600 yards shorter than we saw last week. That said, when you factor in the non-elevated tees, lack of slope to the fairways, and hardened doglegs that often times ask a player to take less than driver off the tee, you end up getting approach shots from very similar ranges. If you have ever played from coastal Bermuda, particularly during the colder months, you understand the task of trying to determine how the ball will come out and spin is quite perplexing to say the least.
The green surfaces are 7,100 sq. ft on average which is decent in size considering the total length of the golf course being so short. The greens historically will run between 11-12 on the stimpmeter. There are technically 5 holes where water comes into play and Waialae features 83 sand bunkers.
Statistical Considerations
Looking back on my notes year after year, Waialae consistently places added emphasis on wedge play and short game. A quick glance of recent champions that includes Si Woo Kim, Cam Smith, Justin Thomas, Kevin Na, and even Hideki Matsuyama, they also possess phenomenal hands around the greens and the ability to creatively play wedge shots with precision. Given what I mentioned earlier about the trickiness of the Bermuda rough and how it can mess with players' angles, I have also upgraded players who possess greater-than-average accuracy off the tee.
There is an abundance of stops on the PGA Tour schedule where bombers have a distinct advantage and leverage, and while it always helps to hit it further, this is not one of those courses in my opinion. The architectural routing of doglegs with corners that are properly protected by penalizing bunkers and trees often discourages players from taking it over the top and cutting corners. In most cases, the risk is simply not worth the reward.
The greens are flat, not overly fast, and typically roll very true year after year. The head superintendent has been at Waialae for 23 years and he knows exactly how to get his course ready for the professionals. The made putt percentage from 5-10 ft is the highest on tour, so if you can stick your approach shots close, making birdie is easy…unless of course, you are Russell Henley late on a Sunday afternoon. I’m still reeling from that collapse!
I also put less weight on recent form and data from the Fall coming into a new season in January and tend to lean a bit more toward long-term statistical profiles and course history. Waialae has a proven track record of being a sticky course history spot in terms of predictability year after year. Last year Datagolf ranked Waialae 2nd of all courses on the PGA Tour in terms of course history behind only Augusta National.
Approach shot distribution from 2023 Sony Open via Datagolf:
Course Fit Tool Radar Plot via Datagolf:
Players With The Best Adjusted Course Fit At Waialae Country Club
10. Matt Wallace +0.83
9. Matthieu Pavon +0.84
8. Eric Cole +0.87
7. Brian Harman +1.04
6. Rico Hoey +1.05
5. JT Poston +1.16
4. Ryo Hisatsune +1.19
3. Alexander Bjork +1.24
2. Ben Kohles +1.25
1. Ludvig Aberg +1.26
*All data based on last 36 rounds played across all worldwide tours and not adjusted to field strength
Click this link if you are interested in my personal Top 10 Power Rankings for the Sony Open article as well.
