For various reasons, former Georgia golfers on the PGA Tour are now racking up multiple wins at the same tournament. The Honda Classic boasts 4 different ‘Dawgs on their wall of champions: Chris Kirk, Sepp Straka, Keith Mitchell, and Russell Henley. Bubba Watson famously won the LA Open (by a variety of names) 3 different times, and did the same at the Travelers. Brian Harman and Sepp Straka have both won the John Deere. Hudson Swafford, currently on LIV (maybe?), won the Bob Hope (also by other corporate names) twice. And you saw that Chris Kirk won The Sentry last Sunday, joining Harris English as champion.
Since Russell Henley won the Sony Open in 2013, let’s keep some of those good vibes going this week, as the Tour sticks around the Hawaiian Islands.
Tournament: Sony Open, January 11-14, 2024
Course: Waialae Country Club, par 70, 7,044 yards.
Purse: $8.3 million, with $1.494 million to the winner. There will be almost 3 times as many competitors (first full-field event of the season) as last week, but the total purse is only 40% of last week’s Sentry, and the winner also gets only 41% compared to last week. This is broken and needs to be fixed.
Defending Champ: Si Woo Kim. The South Korean was playing under a bit of pressure, as he was facing mandatory military service in his native country later in 2023. This win helped qualify him for the Asian Games, where he teamed up and won a medal in the golf event and thus became exempt from that requirement. At the Sony, he went low on the weekend to come from behind and snag the title.
Fun Fact: Chris Kirk finished 3rd here last year; Henley was 2nd, Kisner 3rd, and Mitchell 7th in 2022; Kirk was 2nd in 2021; and Kisner was 4th in 2020. Plus, Henley won the whole damn thing in 2013, his PGA Tour debut as a professional. Lots of good finished, lots of good memories for our boys as they tee it up this week.
TV Times: Thursday-Saturday, 7-10:30 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 4-6 p.m. (NBC), 6-8 p.m. (Golf Channel)
‘Dawgs in the Field: 9. Chris Kirk, Russell Henley, Keith Mitchell, Sepp Straka, Brian Harman, Harris English, Brendon Todd, Greyson Sigg, Davis Thompson.
Mitchell, Sigg, and Thompson will all be making their season debuts; the rest all competed last week at Kapalua. More prime time golf for those of us who like it. And there will be plenty of red and black represented on the coverage. Enjoy, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!