The forecast for this week at Waialae calls for some spotty wind conditions that the players will need to navigate properly. This shouldn’t come as a surprise at all due to the tournament being hosted on the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii.

In the Rabbit Hole, a sneaky filter they have in the database is strokes gained on “island” golf courses. Here are the best players over the last 5 years on “island” golf courses:

Daniel Berger is firmly on my radar as a player in store for a big 2025, and Waialae is the perfect venue for the four-time PGA Tour winner to get back on track. We already saw some encouraging flashes during the Fall swing, and Berger ended his 2024 campaign with a runner-up finish at the RSM Classic, a very similar golf course to what he will see this week at Waialae.

While Berger has not played this event since 2021, he has recorded three top-15 finishes in six appearances at Waialae and experienced a tremendous amount of success at other short, par 70 golf courses such as Colonial, Sea Island, Harbor Town, and TPC River Highlands, just to name a few.

The biggest bugaboo with Berger last year was his putter, and more difficult conditions and a re-positioned emphasis on tee-to-green play in windy conditions at Waialae should play even more into the Florida’s native’s hands.

Listen to this clip from Andy’s Sunday Pod about Daniel Berger and other guys he likes:

For most OAD leagues, this is the first tournament on the schedule. Personally, I am not someone who maps out the entire year. However, I am also someone who tries not to get cute early in the year, regardless of how big the pool size is.

I was debating writing about either Corey Conners or Russell Henley, but I went with the Russ Bus. He won the Sony Open in 2013 and was the runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in 2022. He averages 1.13 strokes per round at Waialae(34 total rounds).

The best courses for Henley are short courses, where driving distance isn’t that important and middle iron player is emphasized. Additionally, if conditions do get tougher, he has an elite around-the-green to get up and down for par.

Let’s start the 2025 OAD year with a good finish from our darling Henley, who was great to us last year if you followed any of Andy’s content.

3 Thoughts on TGL’s Opening Night

Thought #1: Pace of Play

The 40 second shot clock is even more impressive than I expected. If you get distracted scrolling on your phone for a couple of minutes, you will miss half a hole. The shot clock really makes players play “ready golf” and quickly strategize their next shot. The pace of play demands viewers to stay highly engaged throughout the entire match.

Thought #2: Difficulty Around-The-Green

Early on in the match, New York Golf Club was tested around the greens. This seemed to be a big advantage for The Bay Golf Club as Lowry, Clark, and especially Aberg were dialed all night with their ball striking. The bunkers really exposed Rickie’s TGL sand game, and Xander struggled with the grain of the turf around the greens, because funny enough, Xander has one of the best short games on tour. With more familiarity with the conditions and surfaces, players will get used to the short game.

Thought #3: Player Commentary

The TV production did a great job in covering player commentary. The players were mic’d up the entire night so you could hear their reaction to their own shots and interactions with their teammates. Over the course of the night, players felt more comfortable being mic’d up and embraced their role as entertainers. This is something that the TGL is relying on to make the product more marketable and relatable to the casual golf fan. 

Bonus: Golf Twitter Wins

Here are some of my favorite tweets from last night:

After Hideki Matsuyama’s dominating victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, his 11th win on the PGA Tour, my friend Kyle Porter texted me about where Hideki sat on my all-time Golf Pyramid. I am a golf history nerd. Shocker, I know. Being a data nerd and an architecture nerd wasn’t enough. I am also obsessed with keeping a constant record of how the best current players stack up against the historical greats.

This idea is nothing new, and for readers wondering if I was inspired by Bill Simmons, that question probably answered itself years ago. Yes, I’m a big Simmons guy. He was the first podcast I ever listened to, and while he has almost entirely lost his fastball, I still never miss an episode. Even a washed-up Simmons -- who has become a bit of a caricature of himself -- will always hold a place in my heart. I credit him as inspiring my entire podcasting style, my entire writing style (although he chooses not to write anymore, his columns will always have a spot on my sports writing Mount Rushmore) and there is really no way that Inside Sports Network would exist if not for my love of Bill Simmons and The Ringer. 

My hope for Inside Sports Network is that it can turn into something much more than golf. Simmons’ most rousing quality is his irrational confidence, and how that supports his expansive bible of cultural references. He understood that the most compelling way to talk about basketball was to talk about life, and the most compelling way to talk about life was to talk about basketball. I believe I have a lot more to talk about than just golf, and I hope I get an opportunity to do so more in the future. Maybe this newsletter is the start.

For what it’s worth, Kyle does too, and outside of him being crazy enough to indulge me in conversations about what Hideki Matsuyama needs to do to pass Sergio Garcia as the 42nd-greatest golfer of all time, he also has a lot of great things to say about golf, and some better things to say about life. I would encourage you to check out his newsletter and support him. The Simmons style of writing is dying in sports media, and I appreciate Kyle fighting for its survival, too. 

Back to golf. Yes, I keep a top-50 pyramid of the greatest golfers of all-time, which is really more like 75, because I am always tweaking it and monitoring the bubble. Hideki wasn’t even really on the bubble yet for me, but I don’t think it’s too early to start looking at his career with more historical context. There are only two players in my Top 50 that have only won one major: Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott. Garcia and Scott are undeniably the most accomplished one-major golfers of all time, and both would immediately enter the top 40 if either were to snag one more at the tail-end of their career. I’m still holding out a glimmer of hope. 

Sergio Garcia: 24 prime years, 26 wins, 1 major, 99 major starts, 4 runner-ups, 23 major top-10s. Not to mention a tremendous amount of Ryder Cup success. 

Adam Scott: 24 prime years, 23 wins, 1 major, 93 major starts, 2 runner-ups, 19 major top-10s. 

The only other two players with a realistic argument for the top 50 are Jim Furyk and Fred Couples. (For clarification, a prime year means a player must have recorded 15+ starts on DP World Tour/PGA Tour, and/or played in at least 3 of the 4 majors.)

Jim Furyk: 25 prime years, 17 wins, 1 major, 94 major starts, 4 runner-ups, 23 major top-10s. 

Fred Couples: 25 prime years, 17 wins, 1 major, 105 major starts, 2 runner-ups, 26 major top-10s. 

Currently, at 32 years old, Hideki Matsuyama sits at: 

12 prime years, 11 wins, 1 major, 47 major starts, 1 runner-up, 10 major top-10s. *This does not include 6 victories on the Japan Tour. 

It is worth noting that Sergio, Adam Scott, Furyk, and Couples have all won a Players Championship, and although Hideki has found a ton of success at TPC Sawgrass already, this is a gaping hole in his qualification for the best one-major golfer ever. With that being said, Hideki is right on pace. 

At 32 years old, let’s conservatively give him 12 more prime years. Couples’ prime ended at 45. Furyk’s ended at 47. Sergio and Adam Scott are both 44 and beginning to slow down. 

In the next 12 years, Hideki would need to win 12 more times, and average 0.75 major top-10s per year to have a realistic case to pass Adam Scott as one of the 50 best golfers of all time, which is certainly not out of the realm of possibility given the pace he has sustained for the first half of his career. Essentially, Hideki’s next 12 years would need to be a near mirror image of his first 12 years to go down as one of the 50 most accomplished golfers of all-time. I’m not sure I would bet on this as a certainty, but I also wouldn’t bet against him winning another major to get to two, but that’s a conversation for a different day.

One of the terrible habits I’ve developed over the years is falling asleep to screens, and amongst my 2025 goals is to spend more time reading books. I figured there was no reason to wait, and with some downtime in December, I purchased my first book in as long as I can remember.

I felt incredibly inspired by my recent trip to the Southeast to see some excellent and innovative new golf courses, and I have already set-up a return trip to the same area to see more in 2025.

I thought a strong comparison piece for my next Southeastern adventure would be Tom Doak’s Confidential Guide to Golf Courses Volume 2 (Winter Destinations). I had read Volume 1 years ago, and after ripping through Volume 2, I already ordered Volume 1 to re-reas, as well as Volumes 3 through 5.

Doak’s candidness cannot be understated. His lack of hesitancy to analyze not only his own work, but take an unapologetically critical eye towards his peers is surprisingly refreshing (especially in the GCA ecosystem, which can often be consumed with posturing in order to not burn any bridges - or future invites.)

Tom Doak is the pre-eminent scholar of golf course architecture of the modern era, and I’m not sure that’s particularly debatable. A simple scan through any of his Confidential Guides should leave readers (at minimum) inspired to see more golf courses.

In my view, this is as much an exercise in growing the game than anything accomplished by professional golf in 2024. Published in 2018 in the wake of Doak’s completion of Streamsong, I hope he considers an updated version of his reviews of some of the newer Southeastern designs such as Tree Farm, Congaree, Old Barnwell, Fall Line, as well as the not yet opened Childress Hall, which Doak has already hinted may be his masterpiece, amongst others.

Unfortunately, Doak has suggested that he is done writing Confidential Guides, while Ran Morrisset, Masa Nishijima, and Darius Olivers, Doak’s co-authors and collaborators, would all be worthy stewards. If you share an extreme passion for golf travel, Doak’s writing is as fulfilling as it gets.

For a second straight week, ISN’s own Kyle Hewett wins this award due to an impressive DFS showdown win! Kyle took home $5,226.57 from this showdown lineup from the Bengals Steelers Week 18 matchup: