Dustin Johnson won’t have much time to savor his seventh career PGA Tour win, what with the second event of the season, the Sony Open, set to start on Thursday -- two days after DJ lapped the field at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
Sony Open: Dustin Johnson goes for two in a row in Hawaii
The PGA Tour moves to Honolulu after a wild week-plus on Maui.
Sam Greenwood
After a wild week at Kapalua, Johnson will take his TofC trophy over to Waialea Country Club on Honolulu and try to become the first tour player to go back-to-back in the first two events of the season since Ernie Els accomplished the feat in 2003.
Here’s one thing Johnson, U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, and 16 other veterans of the week-that-finally-was on the Plantation Course have to look forward to when they tee it up for the Sony: tranquility. If the Weather.com forecast for Honolulu holds through Sunday, the golfers at Waialea can expect sunshine, temperatures in the high 70s/low 80s, and gentle island breezes topping out at 14 mph.
Here’s to seven rounds in six days, 126 holes in seven days.
Sony Open preview:
- Dates: Jan. 10-13
- Course: 7,044-yard, par-70 Waialea CC, designed by Seth Raynor and Charles Banks
- Field: 144 golfers will participate in the first full-field event of the 2013 season
- Defending champion: Johnson Wagner
- Purse: $5.6 million (winner’s share, $990,000)
- FedEx Cup: Winner receives 500 points
- Format: 72 holes, cut after 36
- Marquee players: Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, John Daly
- Quirks: By Sunday night (weather permitting), the 19 weary Kapalua veterans will have completed two tournaments in one week. Organizers gave Michelle Wie, then 14, an exemption into the tournament in 2004. In her first start on the PGA Tour, Wie finished at even par (72-68) and came within a stroke of making the cut. Wie returned to the event in 2005 through 2007 but missed the cut by wide margins each time.
- Television (all times ET, on Golf Channel): Thursday-Saturday, 7p.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7-10 p.m.
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