PGA Preview: 2012 Sony Open

Tonight in prime time, the first full field PGA Tour event of the season gets underway.  The Sony Open is contested at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii.  The full field consists of 144 players, 24 of them part of the PGA Tour freshman class. Three freshmen to keep an eye on this week Nationwide Tour player of the year J.J. Killeen is in the field.  Can he carry his good play on the NTW to his first event as a full fledged PGA Tour member? Danny Lee had a win, a 2nd, a 3rd and nine top 10 finishes last year on the Nationwide Tour.  Lee has some experience in a few PGA Tour events and has made some cuts.  We will find out if that experience is an advantage very soon. Bud Cauley is one of the rare players like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who made the jump straight from college to the PGA Tour.  Bud is small in stature but has a big game.  Many golf media members anticipate a huge career on the PGA Tour for Cauley. Vets Some big name vets are in the field.  Vijay Singh comes into the tournament with the most major victories under his belt, three. The rest of the major winners in the field all have one, like Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson etc. Last week's winner Steve Stricker is in the field and with the cortisone shot in the neck his game is looking as good as ever. International International players to watch include a former winner of the Sony Open, K.J. Choi (Korea).  Starting his 2nd year on the Tour is Venezuelan Jhonny Vegas. A large contingent of Japanese players has a good chance at a win, including players like Ryo Ishikawa and Ryuji Imada. Course and Conditions Waialae CC is tight off the tee.  Expect a lot of missed fairways.  Don't expect the missed fairways to cost the players much in the way of strokes though.  The rough is cut down outside of the fairways and around the greens.  Players shouldn't have much of a problem hitting from the rough or chipping around the greens. Speaking of chipping, there will likely be quite a bit, because the old school greens at WCC are small. Despite the narrow fairways and small greens, scoring will still be low because of the short rough and mild conditions expected.