Waialae Key Fantasy Stats

Sony Open in Hawaii

January 11th – 14th, 2018

Waialae C.C.

Honolulu, HI

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,044

Purse: $6.2 million

with $1,080,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Justin Thomas

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most important stats for Waialae, based on data from last years Sony Open in Hawaii, and using data from all the players in the field averaging the rank from 2017 and 2018.
The scoring average of the field at Waialae in 2017 was 68.31, so with par being 70 that means the average score was just over a shot and a half under per round, making Waialae the 8th easiest course to score on in 2017 and the 3rd easiest course for full-field events in 2017. It’s also important to see how the weather will play a factor; it was perfect each day in 2017 with winds at 5 to 10 mph. In looking at the long-range forecast it’s going to be the same, perfect, dry days with winds between 4 – 9 mph. With that low score will happen again.

In looking at the stats for Waialae last year, driving accuracy hits you. Last year, Waialae had the 14th hardest fairways to hit on the PGA Tour, with the lack of rain the usual high rough is again sparse so you can see how Justin Gomez won even though he ranked T-66th in driving accuracy. But in strokes gained tee-to-green he was 1st along with being 4th in strokes gained approach-the-green. There hasn’t been more than a trace of rain in the last week so with the dryness of the fairways and the lack of wind, look for really low scoring. That is because hitting it into the fairways isn’t that important since the rough is not as severe as past years. Last, of the players that finished in the top-ten, only two finished in the top-ten in driving accuracy, so you can see that driving accuracy just isn’t cutting it anymore. Our first stat is Strokes gained Tee-to-Green since even though accuracy isn’t a key anymore, you do have to get it on the greens whether you hit it in the fairway or not.
In looking at the winners at Waialae, greens hit seem to be something that all the winners have in common. Since 2002, 15 of the 16 were in the top-12 while six of the 13 were in the top-three. Last year Justin Thomas hit 56 of 72 greens and ranked 12th. So our second category is Greens in Regulation.
Next is Par Breakers since Waialae had the sixth most birdies on the PGA Tour in 2017 with 1,759 and the 5th most eagles on tour with 59. So with the lack of wind and dry fairways you can see you better make a lot of birdies and eagles.
Last is par 5 scoring average. Typically a course with just two par-5s wouldn’t be on our list. But since the 18th hole is a par 5 and in 2017 was the 10th easiest of the 900 holes last year with a 4.404 average and the par 5, 9th hole is the easiest par 5 last year on the PGA Tour with a 4.214 average. Think of it this way; there were 64 par 4s on Tour in 2017 that had a higher average than Waialae’s 9th hole. Last year in the four rounds, Justin Thomas played the par 5s in 10 under as he had six birdies and two eagles.

So here are our four choices for the most critical stats from players to do well at Waialae:

*Strokes Gained tee-to-green: You need to hit it long and straight along with hitting lots of greens. So this is important to find a player that will do this

*Greens in Regulation: This is a stat that shows who it’s the most greens in regulation. Last year Waialae ranked T-31st in greens hit

*ParBreakers: Combination of birdies and eagles made

*Par 5 scoring average: Shows which course has the easiest par 5s to score on.

128 of the 144 Players from this year’s field with stats from this year:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.