Aloha! The PGA TOUR tees off the 2026 season with a full-field, always-exciting tournament from the Rainbow State with the 2026 Sony Open in Hawaii. A strong field will take on this well-known par-70 that demands precision, accuracy and plenty of birdies to contend. Once again this season, DraftKings Sportsbook has a wide variety of options to consider as you fill out your golf betting card for the week. One way I try to find the “sweet spot” that balances risk and reward in my golf best bets each week is by digging up some winners in the “3-ball” tournament matchups each week.
The format of 3-ball picks is simple to understand—three golfers are placed in a group and you select the top finisher from those three players for the tournament. This week, there are six groups available in the “Tournament Trios” on the tournament groups section of the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Last year, I had a lot of success with these picks, and I love including 3-balls in my golf best bets because they typically offer plus-money odds even though they don’t require picking the top option out of a large group.
Looking at the tournament trios on the board this week, here are my top three 3-ball plays from this exciting market:
Keegan Bradley (+160)
Captain Keegan has a good track record in the 50th state, and he is going up against Maverick McNealy (+175) and Harry Hall (+185) in this trio.
Bradley won The Skins Game in November and finished T-13 at the Hero World Challenge in his fall activities after a very successful 2025 as a player, even though he ultimately did not choose himself for the Ryder Cup. Bradley won the Travelers Championship for his eighth PGA TOUR career win along the way to a top-10 finish at the TOUR Championship in the playoff finale. He started his resurgent season with a T-6 finish at this event, where he dropped four rounds in the 60s.
In his career, Keegan has made the cut in 9-of-13 appearances at the Sony Open, with four top-15 finishes in the last six years, including a playoff loss in 2024 to Grayson Murray. Bradley will look to post another high finish at the event to start off his 2026 where he left off last year.
McNealy also had a solid season last year with seven top-10 finishes, although he wasn’t able to get his second career win. He has made the cut in all four of his appearances at Waialae, with a T-7 in 2023 his best finish followed by underwhelming T-57 and T-45 finishes the last two years. McNealy definitely has the overall quality of game to contend this week, but he missed the cut at the Bank of Utah Championship in his most recent event, and he doesn’t have the course history to match up with Bradley.
Hall is an interesting play in this group since he looks ready for a breakthrough season. Like McNealy, he did get his first PGA TOUR win in 2024 and had a solid 2025 even though he didn’t return to the winner’s circle. Hall did make it to the TOUR Championship, but he did not play in any FedExCup Fall events. Instead, he teed it up for three DP World Tour events, where he finished T-13, and missed the cut twice. Hall finished T-10 last year at the Sony Open and is 3-for-3 making the cut at this event. His strong course history makes him interesting, but his uncertain recent form makes him too high-risk to take over Bradley.
Nick Taylor (+165)
Taylor and Adam Scott (+165) are co-favorites in this trio ahead of Taylor’s fellow-Canadian Taylor Pendrith (+185). The three international players have all had success in Hawaii in the past, but Taylor stands out as my favorite play as he tries to defend his 2025 title this week.
Taylor became the first Canadian to win this event when he defeated Nico Echavarria on the second hole of a playoff last season. Taylor made an eagle on the final hole of regulation and birdied No. 18 twice to secure the win, which was the fifth of his PGA TOUR career. He has had lots of success at this event, finishing T-11, T-7 and T-7 in his three appearances leading up to his win last year. He has been under 70 in 11 straight rounds on this course and in 15 of his last 16 rounds over the last four years.
The rest of Taylor’s season was slightly less spectacular, although he made 19 of 24 cuts and added 11 more top-25 finishes to advance to the final tournament in the FedExCup Playoffs. His recent form is unknown since he only played one FedExFall event, and he missed the cut.
Scott didn’t make the playoffs at all and only had five top-25 finishes without any top-10 finishes last season. He did finish T-27 at the Baycurrent Classic and T-30 on the DP World Tour in his two October appearances, but his form over the last year hasn’t been nearly as strong as Taylor’s. Scott did post five top-25 finishes at the Sony Open in his 10 career appearances. He finished T-21 in 2023, but before that he hadn’t finished in the top-25 on this track since 2014. Since his success here is so dated, I much prefer Taylor’s recent results.
A little like Hall in the first group, Pendrith is the real wild card in this group. He brings a wide range of outcomes. He hasn’t played any significant tournaments since the BMW Championship in August, when he was eliminated from the FedExCup Playoffs after the second of the three tournaments. He had four top-10 finishes last season, but only one of those came after March. He also had a top-10 finish in his three visits to this course, finishing T-10 in 2024 and T-49 last year. He may need some time to knock some rust off, and his course history isn’t nearly in Taylor’s ballpark, so I’m confident backing the defending champ in this trio.
Rico Hoey (+170)
Hoey is another player who is the co-favorite in his trio and brings lots of upside this week. He’s matched up with Brian Harman (+170) and Jordan Spieth (+180), but I think he has what it takes to take down both of those major champions.
I highlighted Hoey as one of my top cash plays for the week, and I think he’s primed for a big year after switching to a broomstick putter and catching fire in the fall. He has been one of the top shot-makers on the PGA TOUR for the last few years, and if his putter shapes up, he’s a true breakout candidate. He leads the entire field in Strokes Gained: Approach over his last 36 rounds, and he ranks second in Total Strokes Gained.
Hoey made the cut in 10 of his last 11 PGA TOUR events in 2025, posting five top-10 finishes during that run, including at the Baycurrent Classic, Bank of Utah Championship and The RSM Classic.
Harman has had an underrated career and usually thrives at shorter, tactical venues like Waialae. The veteran lefty has made the cut in 12 of 14 appearances at this tournament with six top-25 finishes, including each of the last two years. The big thing against the veteran lefty this week, though, is that Hoey has much better recent form. Harman missed the cut at The RSM Classic and finished 16 at the unofficial Hero World Challenge, where only 20 players teed it up.
One of the few players Harman finished ahead of was Spieth, who tied for last at T-19. That was his first PGA TOUR appearance since August, when he exited the FedExCup Playoffs after the first tournament. When he’s on the top of his game, Spieth can be the best of this trio, but he hasn’t looked sharp any time recently. He does have two top-20 finishes at this event, but he missed the cut in 2019 and 2023 in his last visits. He’s always got a puncher’s chance with his high-risk creative style, but overall, I’m sticking with Hoey’s form over Harman and Spieth in this tournament trio as one of my best bets on DraftKings Sportsbook.
