Sony Open in Hawaii payouts and points: Si Woo Kim earns $1.4 million and 500 FedExCup points

For as easy as the scoring can be on Waialae Country Club, the course forever is discriminating for the Sony Open in Hawaii.

In my Power Rankings on the Monday prior to the tournament, I detailed how the two biggest trends were extended yet again in 2022. To wit, when Hideki Matsuyama prevailed in a playoff over Russell Henley, the Japanese star became the eighth winner of the last nine stagings who played the previous week at Kapalua. The longer and more telling pattern is that Henley was the only golfer who connected for victory in his tournament debut (in 2013) since Gay Brewer took down the first field in 1965, when everyone was competing for the first time, of course. The moral of the matter is that non-winners who didn’t open 2023 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions were poised for trouble in paradise.

On Tuesday of tournament week, 11 of the top 12 shortest odds to win at BetMGM were attached to golfers who pegged it on Maui the previous week. Tom Kim (+1100), Sungjae Im (+1200) and Jordan Spieth (+1600) were the shortest overall, but true to its test, Waialae won each battle. All three missed the cut. Adding insult to misery was that Spieth was one of three first-round leaders with a 64. He’s the first R1 leader to miss a cut since Matt Every at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard in 2020.

So, while the algorithms of BetMGM’s betting boards are designed to keep the house in business, the Sony is a terrific opportunity to shop where the crowds are thinner.

Si Woo Kim wasn’t necessarily standing on a corner spinning a board to attract buyers, in part due to the fact that he hasn’t played competitively since Houston two months ago, but at +5000, and with experience and success at Waialae, notably a solo fourth in his debut in 2016, the 27-year-old deserved a few nibbles. Lo and behold, he paid off the faithful with a one-stroke victory.

Kim’s closing 64 was tied for the lowest round in the field in the finale. This is his fourth PGA TOUR title and first since The American Express in 2021. (As of Sunday night, he’s committed to this week’s edition of the same tournament.)

Hayden Buckley (+6600), a 26-year-old PGA TOUR sophomore who debuted at Waialae with a T12 a year ago, was poised to join Adam Svensson (The RSM Classic) as the only first-time winners this season. In his return, Buckley slept alone on the 54-hole lead, but Kim was too strong on Sunday. Buckley shot 68 in surrendering the lead.

Chris Kirk co-led after R1 and held the lead outright at the midpoint. After a third-round 68, he sat T2 and two swings back of Buckley before closing with another 68 to slip into solo third. He teased investors who latched on at +8000.

Matsuyama (+2000) finished in a six-way T48 in his title defense.

Among the 18 golfers at Waialae who played Kapalua the previous week, Corey Conners (+2500) and J.J. Spaun (+4000) paced with T12s. None of the 11 inside the top 10 at the Sony were first-timers at Waialae.