Waialae Country Club is the longtime host of the Sony Open in Hawaii and it returns to host this week’s edition.
The classical design offers a unique test, a bit of a curveball compared to a lot of the week-to-week stops on the PGA Tour schedule.
This short, coastal course offers plenty of scoring chances via wedges and short irons, and comfort on Bermudagrass is certainly a positive as we’ve seen in the past at the Sony.
The course-fit angle I’m going to explore today, though, looks at club selection on the tee box.
Give the Driver a Break
As we often see with classical courses, pulling driver is not always the right answer on the tee box. The architect’s use of tight corridors and doglegs often leads to long irons or 3-woods when navigating Waialae CC.
Brandt Snedeker had this to say in 2019: “You got to really think your way. It’s not just step up and bash it. You can hit any club you want to off every tee. You can hit driver if you want, you can hit 4-iron off the tee, and there is really no right or wrong way to do it.”
That same year, Jordan Spieth added these comments: “Here you have to kind of work irons off the tees a certain direction on one hole and hit a 3-wood the next hole that works the other way. You’ve got to pick smaller, more specific targets here.”
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Source: www.golfchannel.com
