Sony Open 2013: 5 Storylines to Watch at Waialae

The first full-field event of the PGA Tour season, the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club, provides golf fans with their first look at most of their favorite players.

The elite players, of course, are not competing, but there will be plenty of talent.

Check out the following list of five storylines to watch for this week in the sun and sand at Waialae.

How Will Players, Especially Dustin Johnson, Fare After Kapalua?

PGA Tour players are creatures of habit, and they had to endure conditions and were subjected to the starting, stopping and re-starting at Kapaula in the first week of the 2013 season.

How will the 20 players who’ll be teeing it up for the second week in a row hold up this week?

An aside to Dustin Johnson—since the Hyundai Tournament of Champions was first played at Kapalua in 1999—only one man has won both tournaments in Hawaii: Ernie Els in 2003.

How Will Graduates from the Web.com Tour Perform in First PGA Tour Event?

The Sony Open has traditionally been the coming-out party for rookies fortunate enough to have earned their PGA Tour playing cards.

Somewhat surprisingly, no rookie has ever won since this event moved to a January date. Jerry Kelly, in 2002, was the last player to make the Sony Open his first PGA Tour victory.

Twenty-six players qualified for their PGA Tour cards this year, 25 coming from the top 25 of the Nationwide Tour (Web.com Tour).

Twenty-four of those will be making their PGA Tour debut this weekend.

This will be the first appearance in a PGA Tour event for nine of these players.

You'll be hearing more and more from names like Luke List, Russell Henley and Robert Streb.

The Mysterious Adventures of Charles Howell III

Charles Howell III has played in 364 PGA Tour events, won twice and has earned $23 million. And he is generally regarded as a guy who has greatly underachieved.

He’s a native of Augusta, Ga. and has always had a goal of playing in the Masters, a goal he’s accomplished eight times.

He’ll be making his 13th straight appearance in the Sony Open this week and is still looking for his first win there.

He tied for second last year and has six top-five finishes.

Will this be the year he gets a win and the automatic berth in the Masters?

What’s the Forecast?

You can be sure that many players in the field, especially the 20 who played at Kapalua, will have their eyes on the skies and will be checking out the local forecasts on a regular basis this week.

After last weekend’s trials and tribulations in the form of rain and ferocious winds at the Plantation Course, the best news the PGA Tour, its players and fans could get is the five-day forecast that is up for Honolulu: A mere 20 percent chance of rain, partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high-70s for the rest of the week.

Fast Start a Big Deal This Year

Have you ever heard a professional golfer who didn’t say how important it was to get off to a quick start to a season? Probably not, because that’s the common mantra.

That will be more than just words in this very strange PGA Tour season, which ends in mid-August and will be followed very quickly by the start of the 2013-14 season with the first of four fall events.

The quick start is important because there will be six fewer tournaments to secure playing privileges for next season.

There are plenty of things to think about coming into this year: when to rest and how many weeks in a row to play, just to name just a couple.

But the biggest thing starting this week? Getting off to a quick start.