The Course Report
Waialae Country Club
About Waialae
The Hawaii swing continues as a full field tackles Waialae Country Club. Once again, the players look at a very easy course with its only defense are potential high winds in the area. The classic course design doesn’t let players overpower it, and approach play is a must for success here.
The course benefits the shorter players who rely on pinpoint accuracy and control of their wedge game. Scrolling down leads you to our new approach shot distribution panel, and you can see that a majority of our approach shots are sent from an average distance of 150-175 yards. This being the case, most pros are going to be utilizing high irons and wedges to attack these average sized greens.
Most players will dial back their club selection off the tee. Distance has never really shown an advantage here, but fairway accuracy leads to scoring. Yet, the wind and the weather can force any tee shot to be difficult as driving accuracy does tend to be below the tour average. While being off the fairway isn’t incredibly penal from an approach standpoint, I’d still rather have my golfers in the fairway if the weather gets nasty.
Most players enjoy Hawaii, and it shows with the low scores historically. In addition, is a missed cut really that bad? You’re in Hawaii. Many of the players in the field are coming off a holiday break where they simply took a mental break from the game. Even those players who were casually playing at their local CC were not pushing themselves for tournament preparation. This is going to come with time, grinding, and the potential tournaments in the future.
Waialae plays a lot differently than what we saw last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. It is a less than driver course and tighter fairways, but they share some aspects as well. The golfers who played last week will see Bermuda greens, an easy course, and a course that can be dominated if the wind never shows up. Course records are always at risk when the weather plays into the hands of the best golfers in the world.
Plantation Course
Architect: Seth Raynor
Greens: Bermuda Greens
Green Size: 6,500 sq. feet – Average Greens
Stimpmeter: 10-11.5 – Slower
Length: 7,044- Par 70
Water Hazards: 2 come into play
Bunkers: 83 Bunkers
Weather Forecast
Nuggets and Tidbits
- Past winners here have had two key stat correlations for the tournament. Looking at the past 7 years Na, Kuchar, Thomas, Gomez, and Jimmy Walker all dominated from tee-to-green. The only exceptions are in 2020 and 2018 when Smith and Kizzire dominated with the putter.
- 19 of the last 22 winners at the Sony Open have been in their 30’s or 40’s.
- 16 of the past 23 winners played at the Sentry Touranment of Champions the week before.
- The last 11 winners had a top-15 in one of their 3 prior starts before their victory at the Sony.
- 6 of the past 9 winners have posted a 72-hole score total of 260 or less. Nice and easy once again.
- For some of these players we are coming in blind, but really pay attention to the weather forecast. It is easy to make mistakes thinking weather will come into play. For plenty of the field, this is their first time participating in competititve golf for quite a long time.
- Do not ignore the fact that their are a plethora of golfers who played at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Kevin Na played terrible in that event the year he won this tournament. Playing in the Sentry is further suported in that of the 10 players that finished in the top-7 last year, 6 of them played the week prior.
- The second highest correlation to course history and future success. The first being Augusta National. I should probably stress this…Course history has had a massively high correlation of success. This won’t be a secret going into the weekend, but be mindful of your lineups, weather, and any other edge that you can find this weekend to get different from the field.
Approach Shot Distribution
Past Winners
The defending Masters champion came back from 5-shots down to force a playoff with 54-hole leader Russell henley.
On the very first playoff hole, Matsuyama was able to stripe his 3-wood just a few feet fromt he hole to tap in an Eagle, and earning him his 8th victory on the PGA Tour.
6 holes to play and three shots behind? Not a problem for Kevin Na. The top was full of super stars, but Na did just enough in those final six holes to come away with his 5th PGA Tour victory.
Na finished 21-under with a total tournament score of 259. He struggled the week prior at Kapalua, but taking 500 yards off the length seemed to be the key to his success.
Technically this was Smith’s first solo win on the PGA Tour, as he and Jonas Blixt had won the Zurich Classic of New Orlenas in 2017. Smith was a magician with the putter.
He was two shot back of Brendan Steele, but after the rain soaked surface caused too many issues for the leader, Smith was able to play mistake free golf and win in the playoff.
Kuchar started Sunday with three bogeys in five holes after making just one through the first three rounds.
Yet, his experience came through after the rough start. He putted for birdie on the last 13 holes and finished 4-under with a 66.
It took 6 playoff holes, but Kizzire was able to outlast Hame Hahn to win the Sony Open.
This was one of the more exciting finishes for the year, as both players battled in extra holes with excepitonal recoveries and putts. In the end, Kizz did just enough to earn his 2nd win on the PGA Tour.
It took a 3-man playoff, but Johnson beat Louis Ossthuizen and Marc Leishman by shooting a 15, 1 under in a four hole playoff.
Johnson was a surprise win as just the week before his prep came in Illinois at the John Deere Classic. This was Johnson’s second major win, and his first Claret Jug.
Entering with a six-stroke lead over the field, McIIroy went from dominant to just hanging on. Still, no golfer ever got withing two strokes the entire day, and he held his composure despite struggles off the tee and on the greens.
In winning, McIIroy became the seventh wire-to-wire winner in Open Championship history.
After winning the Scottish Open the week prior, Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes and became the Open Champion.
To this point, Phil had come close to winning, but had often doubted his abilites on links style courses.
Els began Sunday 6 shots back, but still clinched the vicotry after Adam Scott imploded.
Els’ 68 was a comeback of epic proportions when you consider the fact that Scott was still winning by 4 strokes on the 15th tee.