2025 Sony Open Round 1 Tee Times, History, Course Preview, How to Watch

Following the season-opening Sentry at Kapalua in Maui, the PGA Tour hosts its full-field tournament of 2025: the Sony Open in Honolulu.

Sentry champion Hideki Matsuyama highlights the Sony Open field. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Another week in paradise.

Following the season-opening Sentry at Kapalua in Maui, the PGA Tour will host its full-field tournament: the Sony Open in Honolulu.

One hundred forty-four players will compete at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu for an $8.7 million purse, with the winner collecting $1.566 million. However, with the first cut of the season, some will walk away empty-handed.

From the field, course and history, here’s what you need to know for the Sony Open.

The field

The first full field of the season features stars, rookies and everything in between.

Thirty-five players who played last week's Sentry at Kapalua are in the Sony field, highlighted bylast week's champion Hideki Matsuyama, who broke the PGA Tour scoring record in relation to par at 35 under.

Ranked fifth in the world, Matsuyama, the 2022 Sony winner, is the highest-ranked player in the field. Twenty of the world's top 50 players are competing at Waialae.

Including Matsuyama, seven past champions will play this week: Zach Johnson (2009), Ryan Palmer (2010), Russell Henley (2013), Patton Kizzire (2018), Matt Kuchar (2019) and Si Woo Kim (2023).

The field also boasts 25 of the 35 first-year Tour members, who will have a chance to play their way into the remaining seven signature events with a win if not already exempt.

There, however, is one notable absence: Grayson Murray.

Murray won the 2024 Sony with a 40-foot birdie putt in a playoff against Keegan Bradley and Byeong Hun An.

Four months later, on May 25, Murray, who had been open about his mental health struggles,died by suicide at age 30.

On the one-year anniversary of his win, his parents, Eric and Terry, launched the Grayson Murray Foundation to raise awareness and support for mental health and addiction.

The course: Waialae Country Club

Many players enjoy starting their season in Honolulu.

“I’ve always enjoyed this golf course,” Justin Rose said ahead of the 2024 Sony. “It offers a good test, especially early in the season. Depending—all these golf courses are very weather dependent, but if you get a good strong breeze, there's a lot of cross winds, you have to keep the ball in play. I’ve always felt like it's been a good benchmark early in the season.”

A stop on the PGA Tour since 1965, the course was initially designed by Seth Raynor in the 1920s, but has restored over the years by Robert Trent Jones, Desmond Muirhead, Rick Smith and most recently Tom Doak.

The Sony Open's layout is a par-70, measuring 7,044 yards. It features Bermuda grass, 83 bunkers, four water hazards and an average green size of 7,100 square feet.

In 2024, Waialae was the 27th toughest course on Tour (out of 50), with a scoring average of 68.82. Its hardest hole was the 480-yard par-4 1st, ranking 80th on Tour (out of 900) with an average score of 4.211.

It's also a much easier walk than Kapalua. The season-opening course in Maui reaches as high as 510 feet above sea level. Waialae, though, is a mere 10 feet.

History in Hawaii 

The Sony Open has no shortage of indelible moments.

Twenty-five years ago, Paul Azinger had an emotional victory at Waialae, claiming his first (and last) win since being diagnosed with cancer in 1993.

There's also a 14-year-old Michelle Wie teeing it up in 2004 and shooting 72-68; Justin Thomas recording 59 and winning in 2017; and John Huston in 1998 breaking Ben Hogan's 53-year-old PGA Tour scoring record with a score of 28 under.

And 41 years ago, Jack Renner got the ultimate revenge after a heartbreaking defeat.

In 1983, Isao Aoki had one of golf's great moments, holing out from 128 yards for a walk-off eagle to become the first Japanese winner in Tour history after he and Renner appeared destined for a playoff.

“I don’t believe it, it’s impossible—what a finish,” Vin Scully said on the broadcast.

In 1983, Isao Aoki holed a walk-off eagle @SonyOpenHawaii to defeat Jack Renner and become the first-ever Japanese TOUR winner.

The pair reflect on the impact of that finish, and the friendship it forged. pic.twitter.com/jDZx5jt2wF

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 9, 2024

However, Renner turned the tables a year later, winning on the second playoff hole after Wayne Levi missed a 4-footer for the victory in regulation.

“I think people made a lot more out of (1983) than I did,” Renner told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin decades later. “It’s funny because most people don’t remember the next year I went back and won the tournament.”

How to watch

The first two rounds will air on Golf Channel from 7 to 10:30 p.m. ET. The final two days will begin at 4 p.m. on NBC and Peacock and then move to Golf Channel from 6-8 p.m.

ESPN+ will have coverage from noon to 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, with the last two rounds from 1-8 p.m.

Round 1 tee times (ET)

12:10 PM: Henrik Norlander, Rico Hoey, David Skinns

12:10 PM: Harris English, Keith Mitchell, Adam Hadwin

12:20 PM: Andrew Putnam, Doug Ghim, Carson Young

12:20 PM: James Hahn, Andrew Novak, Sam Stevens

12:30 PM: Thomas Detry, Ben Griffin, Patrick Fishburn

12:30 PM: Kevin Streelman, Patrick Rodgers, Mark Hubbard

12:40 PM: Taylor Moore, Mackenzie Hughes, Webb Simpson

12:40 PM: Austin Eckroat, Nick Dunlap, Robert MacIntyre

12:50 PM: Harry Hall, Seamus Power, Brandt Snedeker

12:50 PM: Keegan Bradley, Tom Kim, Brian Harman

1:00 PM: Stephan Jaeger, Luke List, Adam Schenk

1:00 PM: Taylor Pendrith, Chris Kirk, Byeong Hun An

1:10 PM: Chris Gotterup, Peter Malnati, Camilo Villegas

1:10 PM: Nico Echavarria, J.T. Poston, Si Woo Kim

1:20 PM: Erik van Rooyen, Vincent Norrman, Nick Hardy

1:20 PM: Bud Cauley, Eric Cole, Jacob Bridgeman

1:30 PM: J.J. Spaun, Daniel Berger, Ryo Hisatsune

1:30 PM: Charley Hoffman, Denny McCarthy, Alex Smalley

1:40 PM: Brian Campbell, Taylor Dickson, Jeremy Paul

1:40 PM: Max McGreevy, Quade Cummins, Thomas Rosenmueller

1:50 PM: Michael Thorbjornsen, Rikuya Hoshino, Jackson Suber

1:50 PM: Alejandro Tosti, Braden Thornberry, Mason Andersen

2:00 PM: Kris Ventura, Paul Peterson, Ben Polland

2:00 PM: Ryan Gerard, Danny Walker, Kelly Welsh

4:50 PM: Nate Lashley, David Lipsky, Mac Meissner

4:50 PM: C.T. Pan, Justin Lower, Vince Whaley

5:00 PM: K.H. Lee, Joel Dahmen, Ben Martin

5:00 PM: Sam Ryder, Harry Higgs, Greyson Sigg

5:10 PM: Ben Kohles, Will Gordon, Chandler Phillips

5:10 PM: Brendon Todd, Aaron Baddeley, Chan Kim

5:20 PM: Maverick McNealy, Matt McCarty, Billy Horschel

5:20 PM: Rafael Campos, Lucas Glover, Gary Woodland

5:30 PM: Hideki Matsuyama, Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley

5:30 PM: Patton Kizzire, Davis Thompson, Cam Davis

5:40 PM: Nick Taylor, Sepp Straka, Corey Conners

5:40 PM: Emiliano Grillo, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson

5:50 PM: Brice Garnett, Jake Knapp, Tom Hoge

5:50 PM: Lee Hodges, Kurt Kitayama, Adam Svensson

6:00 PM: Michael Kim, Ben Silverman, Joe Highsmith

6:00 PM: Chad Ramey, Ryan Palmer, Matti Schmid

6:10 PM: Taylor Montgomery, Takumi Kanaya, Jesper Svensson

6:10 PM: Frankie Capan III, Aldrich Potgieter, Luke Clanton

6:20 PM: Tim Widing, Kaito Onishi, Yuta Sugiura

6:20 PM: Kevin Roy, Kevin Velo, RJ Manke

6:30 PM: William Mouw, Cristobal Del Solar, Tyler Loree

6:30 PM: Trevor Cone, Ricky Castillo, Gavin Cohen

6:40 PM: Isaiah Salinda, John Pak, Mao Matsuyama

6:40 PM: Noah Goodwin, Steven Fisk, Kensei Hirata