Golfbet Insider: Will Zalatoris, Gary Woodland headline returnees at Sony Open in Hawaii

If The Sentry was a power play — and it was, given what’s required to qualify for the limited field on Maui, Hawaii — then we’re back to full strength at this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii.

A full cast of 144 is assembled at Waialae Country Club east of Honolulu. Nasty weather that suspended Monday’s open qualifier is long gone but potentially gusty winds are expected to challenge through Saturday’s third round. Residual moisture felt in the grass will have the chance to evaporate faster, so the course itself is ready but omnipresent breezes only boost the value of those with experience on the old-school flat track.

If you’re going to consider first-timers, ease into all. I’m fond of Jacob Bridgeman for a top 40 — he’s one of my five Sleepers — but I’m more keen to be attached to apply emotion for future possibilities. Even sharks in DFS likely are willing to stick with returning participants. That said, I’ve selected an eclectic array of possibilities in TAP-INS below.

As the PGA TOUR returns to its calendar-year scheduling with the season-opening Opening Drive, be sure to scroll for eight golfers RETURNING TO COMPEITION. That all decided to make the trip to the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a plus by default.

Note: Top 10 finishers at the Sony Open will be exempt into The American Express next week, even though there isn’t an open qualifier.

PULL QUOTE

Chan Kim (+260 = Top 40 at BetMGM Sportsbook) … Proving that you can go home again, he’s debuting as a PGA TOUR member a short bike ride from where he honed his skills as a kid.

Born in South Korea and currently a resident of Gilbert, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, the 33-year-old grew up in Hawaii and dug it out of the dirt at Ala Wai Golf Course two miles west of Waialae. He won the state’s high school championship in 2006. So, for most intents and purposes, the Sony Open is a home game as it concerns his purest of feels. No doubt it’s somewhat surreal to possess a PGA TOUR card in this corner of the world.

He scaled to the TOUR this season as a Korn Ferry Tour graduate. He made his hay last August with consecutive victories, but he’s been battle-tested across the globe for over a decade. After eight starts on PGA TOUR Canada through 2012, he went on to win eight times on the Japan Golf Tour and led the circuit’s Order of Merit in 2020-21.

This is his second appearance at Waialae. He missed the cut by four strokes in 2022. Naturally, he’s formidably equipped with a rooting section in his return.

“Yeah, I've still got quite a lot of family, friends out here,” he said on Tuesday. “My first golf coach, second and third, they're all here, so I know they'll come out and watch the tournament and watch me play, which is very special. … Hoping to change my luck on the greens this year and see what I can do in front of the hometown crowd.”

My take: On one hand, he’s already a winner for achieving the right to compete this week, but to splash with his freshly minted card on Oahu is the kind of stuff that lays the foundation for a movie script.

His unquantifiable comfort level is the primary reason why I’ll accept this prop as the endorsement. He’s experienced, mature and ready for this.

As an aside, although he’s a first-time PGA TOUR member, Kim is not a rookie by definition because he made nine starts in 2021-22.

POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD

Hideki Matsuyama (+200 = Top 20) … It’s an inviting value as he shouldn’t be this long for it. He prevailed at Waialae in 2022 to make it three straight top 20s in the tournament. Also sat T25 after three rounds last year before settling for a T48 due to a 71 in the finale.

A third-round 76 last week at Kapalua bit him as well, so the nod speaks more about his permanent class than the idle pitfalls. I’m also respecting the impact of opening the season on Maui. It matters.

TAP-INS

NOTE: Not everything needs a setup. For a variety of reasons, these lines are too enticing to ignore.

• PARLAY: Cam Davis, Hideki Matsuyama and Andrew Putnam (+200 = All to Make the Cut)
• Will Gordon (+160 = Top 40)
• Kensei Hirata (+450 = Top 40)
• Ryo Hisatsune (+375 = Top 20)
• Takumi Kanaya (+450 = Top 20)
• Matti Schmid (+1100 = Top Continental European)
• Taiga Semikawa (+225 = Top 40)
• Alejandro Tosti (+250 = Top 40)
• Vince Whaley (+375 = Top 20)
• Carson Young (+320 = Top 40)

RETURNING TO COMPETITION

Will Zalatoris … This is a relative perspective based on the golfer, especially as it concerns the first two notables of this section. Zalatoris shed the competitive rust with a last-place finish at the Hero World Challenge in early December. His game was predictably inconsistent but the benefit is that we’ve already seen him compete across four rounds. A better sense of who he will become will generate over time but we must continue to respect his process. Now having been removed from his microdiscectomy for nine months, his confidence to perform is exponentially stronger than ours for this week’s first official start since the Masters, but we’re in lockstep with him in having a feel for how he’s responded to the surgery in the context of his results. That he’s evolved into a long putter as well is good news.

Gary Woodland … Meanwhile, the promise of a return has been anything but for the 39-year-old. It was only three-and-a-half months ago when he had a craniotomy for a lesion on his brain. On Tuesday he was candid about the harrowing events that led to the decision to operate. The secondary narrative to his need to have surgery was that his golf game wasn’t too bad in the four months after he started testing for his symptoms. In the interim, he was optimistic about getting back inside the ropes this month, and here he is, so he’s already connected on his first target. His experience will be a new perspective on being able to return to the sport that he loves no doubt in part to the positive reactions he’ll have received all week from fellow members and fans on Oahu.

C.T. Pan … Lots of curiosity over his wellness entering 2024. His wild 2023 featured a pair of top-four finishes, a T9 and no other top 60s. He also missed the first three months of the PGA TOUR schedule due to an injured left wrist, which he cited as the reason he called it quits during his first round of The RSM Classic that ended his year. He also battled a sore lower back earlier in the FedExCup Fall. With 13 starts on a Major Medical Extension to find just 56.440 FedExCup points to retain status, he’s a no-brainer in long-term formats, but beware of a continuation of the polarizing results.

Garrick Higgo … The lefty last competed at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in October. After opening with 82, he withdrew with a wrist injury and subsequently decided to rest for the remainder of the year. He’s fully exempt for finishing inside the top 125 of the FedExCup but temper the short-range expectations beginning with his debut at Waialae.

Chad Ramey … He’s not known to have been injured but it was odd that he withdrew early from each of the last three tournaments of the FedExCup Fall. As the winner of the Corales Puntacana Championship in 2022, he’s been fully exempt through 2024 since, so he didn’t have to play in the context of keeping his job, anyway. The 31-year-old had regained some traction in the months leading up to it, too.

Joseph Bramlett … What could have been? After a fantastic first half of the 2022-23 PGA TOUR season, he went 0-for-4 over the summer and shut it down for the remainder of the year. He’d later commit to and withdraw early from four tournaments but he still finished inside the top 125 of the FedExCup. Nothing emerged to explain his time away, so gamers and fans are left wondering if trouble with his back resurfaced. He can be a force and a popular investment, so he’s speculative as a potential game-changer in deeper formats and fractionally in DFS. He’s 4-for-4 at Waialae with a T20 in 2022.

Brandt Snedeker … Now 43 years of age, his fantasy value has stepped aside for what he can contribute in DFS and betting considerations. For the record, he’s equipped with 21 starts on a Major Medical Extension, which caters to deeper salary gamers, but we all need to see him stay healthy before considering even a fraction of a unit in any capacity. He ended his FedExCup Fall early with a rib injury at the World Wide Technology Championship, so there’s residual doubt that he’s back from Manubrium Joint Stabilization a little over 13 months ago, but it’s always a good sign when any guy on a medical makes the trip to Hawaii. Waialae can be the kind of stage on which he can shine.

Tyler McCumber … The 32-year-old hasn’t given it a go in sanctioned action in 18 months due to an injured left shoulder. He has 16 starts on a Major Medical Extension to collect 175.766 FedExCup points and retain position or just 62.178 points for conditional status. Given that he’s ready to play in the first Full-Field event of 2024, he’s suddenly a sleeper to contribute to deep salary formats.

Bud Cauley … In the field at The Bahamas Great Exuma Classicat Sandals Emerald Bay on the Korn Ferry Tour, so this is exciting. The tournament is scheduled to be contested on Jan. 14-17. He’s been sidelined since September of 2020 to recover from injuries, but he got married and became a father in the interim. Now 33, he’s making his first rehab start. When he returns to the PGA TOUR, he’ll have a full season of 27 starts on a Major Medical Extension. The once-wunderkind is worth the plunge in deeper long-term formats in which you can be patient.

Erik Barnes … Also in play in The Bahamas, the 2022-23 PGA TOUR rookie sat out the last eight months of competition after having major surgery on his left knee. (He teed it up at Q-School but withdrew mid-tournament.) The 36-year-old has 17 starts on his medical extension in the Reshuffle category. Because of his position in the overall pecking order, starts will be tougher to get on merit, so there’s more reason to believe that he’ll capitalize on the allowance of five rehab starts before he has to play the PGA TOUR without forfeiting a start on the medical. He connected for a pair of top-15 finishes in his incomplete debut, so he’s lurking as a potential difference-maker later this season.

S.Y. Noh … Like Barnes, Noh also withdrew during Q-School, but the South Korean also had pulled out of The RSM Classic during his second round due to a sore neck. Because he’s on Past Champions status for the 2024 PGA TOUR season, his attention serves more as housekeeping here – he’s committed to the KFT opener in The Bahamas – but he’ll emerge once or twice as a weekly consideration when fields expand in a few months.

NOTABLE WDs

Aaron Baddeley … Officially the first early withdrawal of 2024, the Aussie scaled back into the top 125 via Past Champions status last season. It was fueled in part by a T7 at Waialae last year, so he’ll be missed by the DFS contingent.

MEMBERSHIP NOTES

Since my 2024 PGA TOUR full-membership fantasy ranking was published, Charley Hoffman (No. 170) has elected to burn a top-50 career earnings exemption. He concluded the 2022-23 season at 33rd all-time and had secured conditional status for 2024 before opting in. The 47-year-old will remain eligible for the one-time exemption allowed to all golfers with 300 career cuts made. He’s cashed 337 times. Brian Gay (383) is utilizing that status this season.

Hoffman’s fellow 47-year-old, Ryan Palmer, also finished 2022-23 with conditional status. He’s also eligible for a career earnings exemption (35th all-time) and the separate exemption for 316 career cuts made, but he’s sticking with conditional status. The 2010 Sony Open champion is making his 18th start at Waialae, this one via a sponsor exemption. He’ll remain a popular choice for that conduit this season, when necessary.

If part of your motivation in navigating to this column is to see how my picks fared in the last tournament, please be advised that those results will now be reviewed in the new Golfbet Recap each Sunday. You’ll find this week’s inaugural edition here.

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