On the Course in General
Matt Kuchar: This course is tricky, it’s tight, and there are a lot of doglegs. Finding fairways are a tough thing to do and I drove it really well. Certainly, this course is unique. We don’t play many like it. Reminds me a little bit of Hilton Head, a little bit of Colonial. It’s tight, it’s narrow, it’s flat, but, man, it’s tricky.
Kevin Kisner: Well, I like that it’s a shot-maker’s golf course. It’s a shorter, ball-striker’s paradise. You’ve got to play to certain spots. I think it’s Point A to Point B and make some putts. That’s kind of my M.O. on the PGA TOUR. So I appreciate when we get the golf courses that play that manner and it’s not really seeing how far you can hit it. I appreciate when it’s playing firm like this in the fairway. So I think it really brings ball-striking precision into it and a lot of mental game to understand how the ball is going to react when it hits the ground.
Cameron Smith: It just reminds me so much of home to be honest. The grasses are almost the same. You know, very flat and you know just kind of like this golf course — it’s windy. It’s always windy. You always have to control your ball into the greens, which I love doing. I feel as though you can be very creative around the greens here. Yeah, I love it. Great golf course.
Kevin Na: I felt like Waialae is a golf course I really have a chance at, and there’s not too many of these left anymore, so I have to take advantage of it. I don’t feel like I’m at such a disadvantage, and mentally, already there, I’m able to compete. Some weeks, mentally it’s tough because you know going into the week you’re at such a disadvantage. You look at the winners of the Sony Open, you see guys like Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson and me, a guy like me having success here.
Patton Kizzire: The bermudagrass, the style of golf course, I’ve just enjoyed a position-style risk/reward style course with bermuda greens, and this is what we have here. There’s a lot of birdies out there. You just have to make the most. I think it’s going to be a shootout. There’s a lot of opportunities on those par 5s and the par 4s. If you hit good shots, you can make birdies on almost every hole. But if you’re in the rough or out of position, you’re really scrambling for par. So I think there’s a lot of guys that are going to be making birdies.
Zach Johnson: Everything you would want in a golf course where you’ve got to pick it apart and plot your way around I think this golf lends itself to. If there’s any wind here, it’s hard, and it usually is blowing. This is hit the ball in the fairway, however you do it, get the ball in the fairway and then stay below the pin, keep the golf course in front of you and make those four and five-footers. A great test.
Webb Simpson: I love the opportunity to hit wedges and short irons into greens. I feel like that’s always been a strength of mine. Even when I don’t seem to play well, those still seem to be pretty sharp and I have a lot of those opportunities here. I love when fairways matter. This week, the rough isn’t as long as normal but fairways still matter a lot. I love it here.I have great memories here. And it is a golf course that if I put together my top five favorite courses for me and my game, this would be one of them: It’s short, it’s tight, we have doglegs, we have wind, I love bermuda greens.
Vaughn Taylor: Yeah, this is a great golf course for short hitters. It’s a position golf course and evens out the field that way. You just have to be in the fairway and be in the right position and you can get some good looks.
Jimmy Walker: Driving it good here is nice because the rough is up and greens are small and you don’t want to be catching fliers into these greens and then you’ve got tough chip shots. I think it’s kind of get it in the fairway, get it on the green and get some putts to go in.
Kevin Chappell: You’re getting doglegs going one direction and the wind blowing the other direction, especially knowing how thick the rough is out there. You have to get into a fairway bunker and be able to attack from there. Once you do, the greens are so good and you’ve to make a lot of putts.
Off the Tees and on the Fairways
Matt Kuchar: If you drive it well you can play well. You can’t hit driver, you can’t hit 3-wood; you see guys hitting a lot of long irons off the tees, and it’s fun to just try to position your ball to determine if is it more about getting in the fairway or more about trying to attack the hole. There are a lot of similarities between El Camaleon and here. Both courses are very tight, very demanding driving golf courses.
Justin Thomas: And I know this course, if you drive it well, you can play it really well. It’s the hardest fairways to hit on Tour I think. The biggest thing is just getting it in play because I can just hit a lot of 2-irons out here and then I’m having short irons in, and I felt comfortable enough with those that I could hit my numbers. The fairways are huge this week. It’s a lot of position and getting in the fairways.
Kevin Na: It’s not a golf course you need to overpower. Just keep hitting it straight. I’ve seen some bombers take some lines that are incredible, and it’s fun to watch. It’s like, wow, it’s like what a shot there. But on a golf course like this, you still have to hit the fairway, you have to make putts. Yes, those aggressive lines give you an advantage, but if you run it through the fairway and you have a wedge in your hand from like 70 yards, it’s a knuckler out of there. This Bermuda rough is just long enough where it’s difficult to control the spin. So I think on a golf course like this, the fairway is a premium, and a guy that puts it in play and has got — a guy like me has got a good chance.
Brandt Snedeker: “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.
Marc Leishman: Here you can still miss it in certain places. You just have to know where you can miss and where you can’t miss it. Generally, one side of the hole, even if you’re in the rough, is okay. It’s just a matter of, yeah, knowing those places but it’s still the same, same mindset. You’re still trying to hit a good shot at your target and go up, find it, and hit it again. Just making putts is key around this place.
Gary Woodland: I want to pull it out [Driver] every hole but it just doesn’t set up. I did that my first couple times here and that didn’t work out for me. I’m very comfortable with where my game is. Driver feels great. I just don’t get many opportunities out here.
Russell Henley: You just have to pick what side of the fairway you want to miss. There’s usually one side out here that’s better than the other.
Charles Howell III: It’s a golf course where it’s really hard to keep the ball in the fairway. So it’s a golf course where you always have to play your angles, and plan your misses. You’ll see a lot of balls, especially if the wind stays up this week, land in the fairway and bounce out into the rough. It’s important to know what sides of the fairway that you can miss and play from.
Russell Knox: “You’ve got to be precise off the tees here and I think that’s just what makes it fun. It’s more placement golf, and I enjoy that.
Johnson Wagner: It’s so hard to hit the fairways out here. The crosswinds are strong, and I play pretty much a draw, so when the winds get hard right to left it’s hard for me to hold a lot of the fairways, so then you’re coming into small, firm greens out of jumpy Bermuda rough. I think driving is probably the most difficult thing at Waialae. And if you don’t drive it well, you’re going to have trouble coming into these greens.
On the Firmness of the Course
Sergio Garcia: The course is much firmer than Kapalua was last week. The ball is really rolling a lot more than it did there.
Billy Horschel: It’s the first time I’ve seen it this fast and this firm and I’ve always wanted to play it this way, and it’s exciting to see it because I think this is a really good golf course. Makes you think off the tees and where you try to land it on the greens. The greens are still very receptive but the greens are fast and running out.
On the Bermuda Rough and the Importance of the Short Game Around the Greens
Daniel Berger: You have that Bermuda rough where you catch those fliers and if you’re not in the fairway you can’t attack the pins and that’s the biggest difference. There’s a lot of Bermuda rough, and I grew up on Bermuda and that’s comforting for me. I think my short game probably lends better than most people here out of Bermuda.
Russell Henley: When you can learn to judge shots out of the rough better, out of the Bermuda versus Kentucky bluegrass or whatever you call it, it’s very helpful and gives you confidence. So I just think it’s a comfort thing, and out here, if these guys are comfortable, they are going to play well. So that’s a big contributor.
Cameron Smith: I think that’s what you kind of lean on in weeks like this. You’re going to miss greens, and with the greens being so small and the fairways being so small, yeah, definitely need a good short game around here.
Adam Scott: I just don’t think anyone can get it around this course consistently without scrambling. It is really tough to keep it in play all day and under holes and not be in this gnarly rough.
Zach Johnson: You have to hit it straight. I mean, if you hit it in the rough, it’s just hard to control shots, and it’s hard to get it close.
Michael Thompson: I think the longer rough is great for the golf course because it’s not overly long. It’s not a bomber’s paradise, so it forces to you have to think about your tee shots and really hit it in play and get it in the short stuff. I think it’s great. It’s frustrating when you hit it in the rough but I think it’s going to keep the scores down a little bit and I think it’s a great change.
Parker McLachlin: I estimate I’ve played a thousand rounds of golf here. Every year this course changes. This year we’ve got really high rough. It is incredibly thick. We had multiple times where we thought we lost a golf ball and we were a foot into the rough. It’s probably half a shot penalty. you’re probably not going to be able to get it to the green and if you are, you’ve got to play to the front edge of the green and there’s always bunkers that are kind of guarding the green. So the rough is probably the thickest and the healthiest I’ve ever seen it.
On the Bermuda Greens and Putting
Kevin Kisner: I love these greens. They were a little less grainy than last week and more like what I grew up on, so I feel very comfortable with them. I must have gotten better since the last few times I played here. I’ve always struggled at this course, coming over, being a little rusty from the East Coast and cold weather and trying to adjust. But this year I got to go to Maui and get kind of the rust off and the game feels good.
Kevin Na: The greens roll great but the only difficult part is the grains are sometimes difficult to judge. You know, we’ve had a couple putts this week and just not — not just myself, even my fellow playing partners, where it looks like it’s going to do one thing and it doesn’t. If you can just read these greens well, you’re going to be really ahead of the field.
Daniel Berger: Statistically, the most important quality would point more to putting. Guys that putt the best out here seem to have the best chance to win. But if you’re not in the fairway, you can’t be aggressive. For me the ball is to put the ball in play first and foremost and if I have a decent putting week, I’ll have a chance to win.
On the Transition Between Playing Kapalua and Waialae
Zach Johnson: Compare Waialae to Kapalua? Completely different. You’re talking about the hardest walk in golf at Maui to potentially and arguably the easiest golf on the PGA TOUR here at Waialae. Vastly different, but also challenging, too, because you’re going for some of the biggest fairways and some of the smallest fairways, and you’re going for some of the biggest greens and some of the smallest greens.
Matt Kuchar: I told people that coming from Kapalua, these greens are much friendlier to putt. I feel like I have really good chances to see the ball go in. I love Kapalua, but the amount of slope and the amount of grain in the greens is challenging. It’s challenging to make putts there. Here these greens are much flatter with much less grain and much less slope, and it seems like it’s a much easier place to make putts now. The biggest difference is you can make putts more easily here, but hitting fairways is a much tougher task here than it is over at Kapalua.