It is a crowded leaderboard heading into the weekend at the 2024 Sony Open at Waialae Country Club with a trio of unassuming players sharing the top spot. Carl Yuan, Austin Eckroat and Byeong Hun An all stand at 9 under at the halfway point and in search for their first career victories on the PGA Tour. Last week's Sentry winner, Chris Kirk, missed out on a chance to join the lead late in his second round but remains in prime position at 8 under to kick off his new year with consecutive triumphs in Hawaii.
If Kirk raises the trophy come Sunday, he would become the first player since Justin Thomas in 2017 to win the "Hawaii Double." The world No. 21 would not only join Thomas but also Cameron Smith, Zach Johnson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk as the only men to win both The Sentry and the Sony Open in their careers. After rounds of 66 and 65, Kirk looks well on his way to doing so.
Kirk and the rest of the leaders will have plenty of pursuers with which to contend; every player who made the cut is within seven strokes of the lead entering the weekend. Among them are players such as Ben Griffin and Kurt Kitayama, who signed for the low Friday rounds with 8-under 62s, and Cam Davis who signed for the same score on Thursday. PGA Tour winners Keegan Bradley, Akshay Bhatia and Harris English sit at 7 under with eyes on contending over the weekend.
The leaders
T1. Carl Yuan, Austin Eckroat, Byeong Hun An (-9)
Each of these players have dealt with their fair share of adversity over the last few months. Yuan was the infamous player to move from No. 126 to No. 125 in the FedEx Cup standings when Jon Rahm was suspended by the PGA Tour. With this move, Yuan received full-time status on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, An was absent from the FedEx Cup Fall while serving a three-month suspension from the PGA Tour for violating the anti-doping policy. He has shaken off the competitive rust with a top-five finish last week at The Sentry and quality golf to begin his Sony Open.
Eckroat is the youngest of the bunch at 24 years old and flashed during the 2023 season with a runner-up at the Byron Nelson and top-10 finish at the U.S. Open. His game fell off a cliff to end the summer, but it looks to be back to normal. He may be the most talented of the three, but the most inexperienced.
"For me, I couldn't wait to get out here again," said An. "Four months is a pretty long time, but at the same time, it was great because I got to spend a long time with my family. If I took a day off it wouldn't hurt because I can go play with my son and go to the theme park for a day. You know you have two months, three months to go. Those little things help. I really like the four month off. It really gave me a lot of time to work on my golf so it was great overall."
Other contenders
T4. Chris Kirk, Ben Griffin, Stewart Cink, Cam Davis, Keith Mitchell, Taylor Montgomery, Kurt Kitayama, Grayson Murray, Stephan Jaeger, Matthieu Pavon (-8)
T14. Keegan Bradley, Harris English, Akshay Bhatia, Patton Kizzire, Andrew Putnam, Taiga Semikawa (-7)
Considering what he did in the initial portion of the season, arguably no player had a quieter back half of 2023 than Mitchell. Contending at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and battling Rahm and Max Homa in the final round at the Genesis Invitational, Mitchell endured a somewhat forgettable summer outside a nice finish at the 3M Open. A player of immense talent and a top-five driver of the golf ball in the game, Mitchell has always been labeled as player capable of entering that upper echelon of the game. Since besting Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler at the 2019 Honda Classic, the 32-year-old has gone winless on the PGA Tour, a dry spell he is motivated yet level headed about entering this weekend.
"I would always like to prove to myself that I can win again," said Mitchell. "Whether it's this week, this year, next five years, doesn't really matter. That's always what I want to do for me. I won early, and when you win early in your career you feel like you're going to win often, and I haven't won even. I won only the that one time. That's a personal goal of mine, but it's not going to come by trying, trying to win. You know, I feel like I got a lot out of my game the last two days. If I can continue to get a lot out of my game it might be this week, and might not. It's just managing expectations and doing the best I can."
Zalatoris continues to shake off rust
Will Zalatoris' return to competitive golf has been met with a fair share of adversity. Coming back from a back injury that sidelined him for eight months, the 27-year-old looked out of sorts in his first PGA Tour start since the 2023 WGC-Dell Match Play. Signing for rounds of 76-69, Zalatoris was rusty throughout the bag and ranked outside the top 120 in both strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained putting. He will tee it up next week at The American Express, where another injury-riddled PGA Tour winner, Daniel Berger, will be making a return of his own.
Which tree are you hitting? 😅 pic.twitter.com/dcf3AOpT1l
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 12, 2024
2024 Sony Open updated odds and picks
- Byeong Hun An: 6-1
- Chris Kirk: 8-1
- Austin Eckroat: 12-1
- Cam Davis: 14-1
- Stephan Jaeger: 14-1
- Taylor Montgomery: 16-1
- Kurt Kitayama: 18-1
- Harris English: 18-1
- Keith Mitchell: 18-1
- Carl Yuan: 22-1
- Ludvig Aberg: 22-1
- Ben Griffin: 22-1
- Keegan Bradley: 23-1
There was interest in Bradley at the beginning of the week, and there is still some juice to squeeze out of his price at 23-1. The six-time PGA Tour winner hasn't had the entirety of his game for a full round through 36 holes. On Thursday, he struck his irons well en route to a 3-under 67; his short game carried the load on Friday for a second-round 66. If he is able to piece it together, Bradley should be in the thick of it come Sunday for his third win in a little over a year.
