Draws & Fades: Harris English, Andrew Putnam can putt their way up Sony Open leaderboard

The winds of change. Yes, changes in wind speed at the Sony Open in Hawaii from Thursday to Friday saw a change in the scores, and in turn, changes on the leaderboard at Waialae Country Club.

Winds blew in the 20-25 mph range to kick things off Thursday, and more than half the field shot even par or worse. On Friday, the winds decreased to 15-20 mph and play improved. Only 29 players shot over par rounds on Friday (20% of the field), and we now have quite the log jam at the top.

Byeong Hun An, Austin Eckroat and Carl Yuan lead the way at 9-under par. Ten players sit one shot back at 8-under, while six players are tied at 7-under. In total, 34 players are tucked into the top 26 on the leaderboard and none are more than four shots off the pace with two rounds left to play.

For a while it looked like the cut would fall at 3-under, but it fell at 2-under thanks in large part to Joel Dahmen, who missed a 5-foot birdie putt on his final hole to keep 17 of his fellow competitors around for the weekend.

The forecast is calling for continued change in the winds, which are expected to decrease in the players’ favor. On Saturday the wind is expected to blow around 10-15 mph and less than 10 mph on Sunday.

Yuan has been tremendous through two rounds, firing a 66 on Thursday in high winds and following it up with 65 on Friday. He's getting it done by being long and straight off the tee and with a stellar approach game, ranking sixth in the field through two rounds for Strokes Gained: Approach.

An has been riding a hot short game for the first two days, ranking fourth for SG: Around the Green, 19th in SG: Putting, and third in Scrambling. Eckroat has been doing just about everything well. He's fourth for SG: Off the Tee, 10th in SG: Putting, seventh in Scrambling, and second in Greens in Regulation. Still riding a wave of momentum, last week’s winner Chris Kirk (8-under) has been steady but especially good off the tee and on approach. He is now 37-under par through his first six rounds of golf in 2024.

So where do we go from here? Fifty-one players are within five shots of the lead heading into the weekend, and with the wind on the decline, we could be in for a bit of a birdie-fest. Last week at Kapalua, we saw a Georgia Bulldog (Kirk) and a Pepperdine Wave (Sahith Theegala) duel down the stretch. We could be in for more of the same Sunday at Waialae.

Draws

Harris English (+1800)

Representing his beloved Georgia Bulldogs, English will try to follow in Kirk’s footsteps. English, too, has won The Sentry and has three top-10 finishes here at the Sony Open. We have also made note of the correlation between Waialae and Colonial Country Club, where English has twice finished top five. Mayakoba was another course I looked at this week for crossover success, and English has a win there in 2013 and two top-five finishes since then. He's played very steadily this week so far with rounds of 66 and 67, and it is reflected in the stats as he is gaining strokes everywhere except SG: Around the Green, where he’s only a tick into the negative. Experience seems to matter here on Oahu, too, as the list of past winners is made up primarily of skilled veterans and that is a category in which English certainly fits the bill. Of the six players tied at 7-under, English is trading at the shortest price by a significant margin. For me, not only is that telling, but I agree.

Andrew Putnam (+2500)

Representing Pepperdine, we turn to Andrew Putnam, hoping he can close the deal unlike his fellow alum, Theegala last week. Putnam finished runner-up here in 2019 and was fourth last season. He is yet to make a bogey this week, and like English, he also has some excellent history at the correlated courses. Putnam has a third-place finish at Colonial and was fifth at Mayakoba in 2023. Putnam is known for his terrific short game, and that is holding up so far this week. He is losing nearly a stroke to the field on approach, but I expect that to improve over the weekend for the player that ranked 27th on TOUR in SG: Approach last season.

Fade

Carl Yuan (+2200)

Yuan has been excellent through the first two days, but I'm not sure how long that will last. He is currently ranked 185th in the OWGR. Last season on TOUR, Yuan was 142nd in SG: Approach, 132nd in SG: Putting, and 172nd in Scrambling. He has yet to record a win on TOUR and with this number of players stalking him at the top, that is going to be an incredible amount of pressure to endure. There really aren't any red flags in his game so far this week, but I’m not confident that will hold up enough to produce a win. The fact that he is tied for the lead and is priced higher than seven other golfers nipping at his heels is something to make note of as well.

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