Stricker a Shaky Favourite at the Sony Open in Hawaii

Steve Stricker faltered in the final round last week at Kapalua and heads to Honolulu with hopes of reaching the winner’s circle at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Stricker made par on all of Kapalua’s par-5’s on Sunday which dropped him out of contention and he missed a playoff by three shots. 

His performance on Sunday simply wasn’t indicative of top form and if he wants any hope of correcting his missed opportunity Stricker is going to have to get his driver in order and take advantage of the par-5’s.   If he fails to do that, he’ll be on the outside looking in once again.

With the evidence from last week’s performance, it’s more than a bit puzzling that the bookmakers have him teeing off as the tournament favourite at (9-1) ahead of players like Ernie Els and Jim Furyk.

Jim Furyk did finish 9th at the Hyundai, six shots back of Stricker, but he’s a closer. 

When he has a good chance at victory, he wins, as we saw during his Player of the Year season in 2010 where he won three times against very strong fields.  This compared to Stricker who won twice, but one of those victories was at the John Deere Classic, a comparatively weak field.

It would seem more logical that Furyk be the favourite and the books don’t have him too far off Stricker at (12-1).

Third on the bookmakers’ board is soon-to-be Hall of Famer Ernie Els.

The Big Easy was a bit raggedy last week at the Tournament of Champions going 3-over par on the weekend to finish 17th.

It could just be a slow start for a 41-year old who took much time off towards the end of 2010 and in no way would it make sense to think the three time major winner is slowing down.

One should expect Els to be as good as ever and he could also be considered to be a better pick than Stricker because he’s got the job done on the biggest stages for almost two decades.

It was a rough night last night. I'm glad I went late today   - John Daly