Every week, DraftKings Sportsbook offers a wide variety of ways to get in on the action as the PGA TOUR tees it up. In addition to picking the winner, the finishing position or individual scores for each player, there is also a variety of Tournament Trios offered in the matchup section of the tournament page. These “tournament 3-balls” are a nice balance between getting strong odds and getting a small enough matchup to break down and analyze. The tournament 3-balls match three players head-to-head for the entire tournament. Since there are three players in the mix, the odds are usually plus odds for each option, and they can be a fun way to play head-to-head matchups. Check out my favorite 3-ball picks for the week analyzed below.
Last week, I hit on two of my three picks for The Sentry with Sungjae Im and Taylor Pendrith bringing home wins while Sahith Theegala failed to come through. It was really Hideki Matsuyama ($11,000), who dominated the week, though, and claimed the first PGA TOUR title of 2025. The Opening Drive continues this week, as the pros finish their two-week stop in the islands by visiting Oahu and teeing it up at Waialae Golf Club just outside Honolulu.
For more info on the course, format and field, check out Geoff Ulrich’s Cheat Sheet.
There are five tournament 3-balls available for this week’s tournament, and these are my three favorite plays:
Maverick McNealy (+170)
McNealy is slightly favored in his Tournament Trio over Taylor Pendrith (+175) and Si Woo Kim (+175). All three played last week at The Sentry, and McNealy had the best finish with a T8 compared to a T13 for Pendrith and a T32 for Kim. However, Kim has the advantage over McNealy in course history which makes this an intriguing matchup.
Kim won at this event in 2023 and finished in the top-five back in 2016 as well. Pendrith also has some solid course history after missing the cut in his first Sony Open in 2022 but finishing in the top-ten last year. McNealy also has a career top-ten from two years ago when he finished T7 behind Si Woo and finished T57 last year. He has made the cut in all three of his appearances at Waialae.
The main reason I’m backing McNealy is his recent form. Not only did he have the best finish last week, but he pushed to the finish last year with four top-20s in his last five events. His only not top-20 finish during that run was an early withdrawal at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP due to illness, and his best finish in that span was his first PGA TOUR win, which came at The RSM Classic, which in some ways is a similar setup to the Sony.
This should be one of the best 3-ball matchups to track all week, but I think McNealy will do enough to walk away with the win here, even though it could come down to the wire.
Keegan Bradley (+180)
Bradley is pitted against Tom Kim (+170) and Byeong Hun An (+175), but he has the longest odds of the three. I love the Ryder Cup Captain in this spot, though, after he started the New Year with a strong showing (and a new look) in Maui.
Bradley opened last week with a 69-64 before fading to a T15 at Kapalua. Kim did not play last week while An finished T32.
Keegan picked up where he left off after a strong 2024 that included his seventh career PGA TOUR victory at the BMW Championship in August. He added a fifth-place finish at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in his only tournament since the TOUR Championship and finished the season with three top-tens and nine top-25s in his 22 events.
Bradley has historically fared well at this track with three top-12s in his seven appearances, including a playoff loss last season. Tom Kim missed the cut in his only appearance at the Sony, but An comes close to matching Bradley’s history with a T12 and a T2 last year when he and Bradley were both beaten in a playoff by Grayson Murray.
An’s the bigger threat, but since his recent form has been a little shaky, Bradley is my preferred play here, especially given his momentum from last week and slightly longer odds.
Robert MacIntyre (+160)
Last year, MacIntyre broke through for two PGA TOUR wins, memorably taking down the RBC Canadian Open with his father as his caddy and following that up with a win at the Genesis Scottish Open in his native country. He’ll be going up against Sahith Theegala (+170) and Kurt Kitayama (+190) in this 3-ball this week, and I think the lefty can pull out a win.
MacIntyre played this Fall in Europe, posting three top-25s at the BMW PGA Championship, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the DP World Tour Championship, where he finished T7. He finished T15 last week, finishing with three straight rounds under 70. If the wind kicks up, it should play right into his hands since he has always been a player who can thrive in windy weather.
I backed Theegala last week, and I’m high on him overall, but the 27-year-old looked out of form last week, opening with a 76 and stumbling to a T36. He missed the cut last year at The Sony Open and finished T48 in his only earlier career appearance back in 2022.
Kitayama is actually the wild card in this trio. He hasn’t played since the ZOZO Championship but finished fifth there after a strong T9 at the Shriners Children’s Open. He has made the cut in two of his three trips to Waialae and finished T24 last year, which would have given him the win over Bobby Bac, who finished T52.
Based on Theegala’s shaky form and Kitayama seeing his first action in a while, I’ll take MacIntyre to claim the win in this Tournament Trio, and if things get windy, it wouldn’t surprise me to see McIntyre in contention on Sunday.
Find all this week’s Tournament Trios on DraftKings Sportsbook in the matchup section of the tournament page.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is z.thompson) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
