Everything you need to know for Saturday’s third round in Hawaii.
The PGA Tour is kicking off the 2023 calendar year in paradise.
A 38-player field loaded with winners (and 10 more who made the 2022 FedEx Cup final) continues play Saturday at Kapalua’s Plantation Course for the third round of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first of the Tour’s new schedule of designated events.
After opening the tournament with a 9-under 64, Collin Morikawa fired a Friday 7-under 66 to carry a two-shot lead into the weekend over J.J. Spaun and Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler, who with a win would overtake Rory McIlroy as the No. 1 player in the world, also signed for a 7-under 66 and sits in a tie for second.
Check out the tee times and TV info for the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time.
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This is good news for golf fans grumbling about too many ads on TV.
It’s a common refrain for golf fans watching their favorite sport on TV: too many commercials during critical times of the weekend coverage.
Well, thanks to a deal with Callaway, the final hour of Sunday’s coverage of the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Golf Channel will be commercial free.
The Sentry Tournament of Champions can be seen on streaming services ESPN+ and Peacock and on TV on Golf Channel all four days and on NBC on Saturday and Sunday.
The typical handoff from cable to network TV is in reverse this week though. Usually it’s Golf Channel with the first chunk of coverage before turning things over to the over-the-air coverage on NBC or CBS.
For the Sentry, NBC has the first two hours of the weekend TV coverage from 4 to 6 p.m. ET while Golf Channel brings it home from 6 to 8 p.m. The final hour will be commercial free on TV and on the Peacock stream.
Sports Business Journal reports there may be more commercial-free coverage of the PGA Tour on Sundays down the line, with lead NBC producer Tommy Roy telling the publication: “Whenever we can have commercial-free golf, we do it. To get it here on the first designated event, to get it on Sunday, we’re really happy.”
Everything you need to know for Friday’s second round in Hawaii.
The PGA Tour is kicking off the 2023 calendar year in paradise.
A 39-player field loaded with winners (and 10 more who made the 2022 FedEx Cup final) continues play Friday at Kapalua’s Plantation Course for the second round of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first of the Tour’s new schedule of designated events.
Jon Rahm, who shot 33 under last year but finished runner-up, picked up where he left off, shooting a 9-under 64 to tie the lead after 18 holes. Collin Morikawa and J.J. Spaun also shot 9 under on Thursday. Tom Kim shot 8 under, and there’s a huge pack at 7 under, including Scottie Scheffler.
Check out the tee times and TV info for the second round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for the Hawaiian host of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Kapalua’s Plantation Course, site of this week’s 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour, was built in 1991 – the first course designed by the now-famous architecture duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
The Plantation maxes out at 7,596 yards and a par of 73, with only one par 3 on the back nine. With several downhill tee shots and the possibility of drives rolling out past 400 yards, the course usually plays significantly shorter than the yardage might indicate.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
“I think the Masters Champions Dinner’s going to be a little tense compared to how it’s been in the past.”
Each year Jon Rahm sets some ambitious goals for the upcoming season, and a second major championship is at the top of his lofty list of things to accomplish in 2023.
One of Rahm’s best chances may come at the Masters, where he’s finished inside the top 10 in four of his six appearances, and the 2021 U.S Open champion can’t help but think of Augusta National as he looks to the year ahead.
“One thing I keep going back to, and it’s probably only funny to me, but I think the Masters Champions Dinner’s going to be a little tense compared to how it’s been in the past,” said Rahm with a laugh during his press conference ahead of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions. “So I keep thinking about it because I wish I could be there and just be able to see how things work out. Too bad the U.S. Open doesn’t have one of those.”
Rahm and the rest of the players are curious how the year will play out after LIV Golf stormed onto the scene in 2022. The upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund took some of the Tour’s best players and characters in its debut season, and Rahm thinks there’s more to come.
“Yeah, I mean, I think we all know where we stand. There’s still going to be players that choose to transition to LIV is my guess,” said Rahm. “But for a lot of us, I think we see the direction the PGA Tour is going towards, right? I mean, they’re making the necessary changes to adapt to the new age and I think it’s better for everybody.”
One of those adaptations is this week’s event in Hawaii. The Sentry Tournament of Champions is the first of the Tour’s newly-announced “elevated events” that feature smaller fields and larger payouts. This week’s field at Kapalua features 39 players playing for $15 million. Normally a tournament reserved for winners from the previous year, starting this year the TOC field also includes those who qualified for the previous season’s Tour Championship.
“I mean, it’s a very, very, very extensive bonus to be able to – exactly, only have to beat 38 players compared to any other event, right? And it’s earned by having an amazing year,” said Rahm. “I think it’s great that they’re allowing the people that make it to the Tour Championship to be here as well. Maybe change the name of the tournament since they haven’t won a tournament. But I don’t think the name matters too much. I think it’s right to have the best players of the year here, and making it to East Lake should be an accomplishment.”
Defending champion Cameron Smith won’t be back to defend his title after he took his talents to LIV Golf following a breakout 2022 season that included wins at the Players and Open Championship. The majors will be the only times that LIV players will cross paths with those still on the Tour, and despite his joke about the Champions Dinner, Rahm doesn’t think it will be that much different going forward.
“I think it’s going to be the same. I mean, I didn’t feel a difference in any of the majors last year. If somebody has a problem with LIV players, they’re just not going to deal with them and that’s about it,” Rahm explained. “In my mind, like I’ve said it before, I respect their choice and the ones I was friends with before I’m still going to be friends with, right? It doesn’t change the way I’m going to operate with them.
“So I think a lot of, let’s say, animosity, if there’s any, might be created more by (the media) than anything else. I don’t think there’s that much of a problem between players, at least in person, because if there is, they can avoid each other.”
Everything you need to know for Thursday’s first round in Hawaii.
The PGA Tour is back in action this week and kicks off the 2023 calendar year in paradise.
A 39-player field loaded with winners tees it up on Thursday at Kapalua’s Plantation Course for the first round of the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first of the PGA Tour’s new schedule of elevated events. Marquee pairings to watch include Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris, Patrick Cantlay and Hideki Matsuyama, Jordan Spieth and Tom Kim, Tony Finau and Collin Morikawa and Matt Fitzpatrick and Jon Rahm.
Check out the tee times and TV info for the opening round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. All times are listed in Eastern Standard Time.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Kapalua is host of the PGA Tour’s first-ever designated event of 2023, the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
The field missed out of Rory McIlroy, who chose to sit it out, and saw Xander Schauffele bow out along the way due to a lingering back issue, but that still left 38 of the best players in the world gathered in Maui.
The Plantation Course at Kapalua is a par-73 track measuring 7,596 yards and is a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design.
Check out some of the best photos from one of the most stunning venues we’ll see all year long.
PGA Tour members had a 5 p.m. deadline Friday to commit to the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
It’s almost 2023, which means it’s almost time for tournament winners—plus non-winners who made the Tour Championship—to tee it up in Kapalua at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
But as the 5 p.m. deadline for Tour members to enter came and went Friday, one name not on the entry list belongs to Rory McIlroy.
But it’s all good.
PGA Tour members are allowed to opt out of one of the 13 elevated events, and this just happens to be the one the reigning FedEx Cup champion wants to skip.
McIlroy qualified by winning the 2022 RBC Canadian Open. His lone appearance in the Sentry came in 2019 when he tied for fourth.
McIlroy didn’t play his first event of the 2022 calendar year until the Genesis Invitational in mid-February.
As of 5:02 p.m. on Friday, the PGA Tour has 39 names listed in the field for the Sentry.
After a tight battle, there’s a new No. 1 among Hawaii’s public-access layouts.
It’s a tight race for the title of best public-access golf course in Hawaii, with the Four Seasons Resort’s Manele Course in Lanai having jumped ahead of Kapalua’s Plantation Course for the No. 1 spot on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list in 2022.
Built by Jack Nicklaus atop lava outcroppings and opened in 1991, the Manele Course features three holes atop cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. Besides being No. 1 among Hawaii’s public-access layouts, it ties for No. 32 among all modern courses built since 1960 in the U.S.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with the list of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960 (c): Classic course, built before 1960
Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. Several of the private courses listed below do not qualify for those premium lists because they haven’t seen enough rater play in the past 10 years, but they are still eligible for the state-by-state lists.
Calling it “one of the smartest decisions we’ve ever made,” Sentry Insurance extends Tournament of Champions sponsorship deal with PGA Tour to 2035.
STEVENS POINT, Wisc. – Pete McPartland calls Sentry Insurance’s decision to align itself with the PGA Tour “one of the smartest decisions we’ve ever made.”
It has been a match made in golf paradise – Maui, Hawaii – and that partnership is going to last well into the future.
The PGA Tour and Sentry announced Tuesday that the Stevens Point-based insurance company, which has been title sponsor of the Sentry Tournament of Champions since 2018, has extended the sponsorship through 2035.
The Sentry Tournament of Champions annually kicks off the calendar year on the PGA Tour and next year’s event will mark Maui’s 25th year hosting on The Plantation Course at Kapalua. Since the event moved to Maui in 1999, the Sentry Tournament of Champions has generated more than $8 million for local community charities.
The 2023 tournament is Jan. 5 to 8 and will feature a purse of $15 million, up from $8.2 million in 2022.
“We thought we were doing the right thing from a branding standpoint, but we didn’t know for sure how right that decision would prove to be,” McPartland, Sentry’s chairman of the board, president and CEO, said of partnering with the PGA Tour to sponsor the event. “But statistically, if you look at all the measurables in terms of measuring brand success, it’s been off-the-charts success for us.”
The original agreement in 2018 was the first foray into major sports sponsorship for Sentry, which has been involved with golf since 1982 when it built SentryWorld — Wisconsin’s first destination golf facility — at its headquarters in Stevens Point.
More than just sponsoring a golf tournament, Sentry has embraced the Maui community and extended community outreach beyond tournament week. It includes creating a scholarship program for graduates of Maui public schools, providing support to the Maui United Way for COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts and helping to address childhood hunger in Maui County.
“It means a tremendous amount to us and the relationship we have on Maui, with the people of Maui, transcends what one would have expected and even we would have expected through a golf tournament sponsorship,” McPartland said. “We have become at one with the island of Maui. We view Maui as important to us as any city we have offices in or have people in, and we commit to it no differently.”
McPartland said the relationship Sentry has built with PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and his management team since they first started talking about a partnership in 2017 made the extension logical for both sides, even as professional golf is in flux because the emergence of LIV Golf.
Cameron Smith hits his tee shot on the 11th hole during the final round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions golf tournament at Kapalua Resort – The Plantation Course. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
“We kind of know each other well and just have a lot of confidence in them and a lot of trust in them and we enjoy working with them,” McPartland said. “The trust and quality relationship with the PGA Tour leadership helps make this extension an even easier decision than it otherwise would have.”
Starting in 2024, when the PGA Tour moves away from a wrap-around season and returns to a calendar-year season, the Sentry Tournament of Champions will be the first event of each new golf season. McPartland said Sentry will benefit from that added exposure.
“You just think about opening day of baseball, the first day of the college football season or the NFL season. Opening day of the PGA golf season coming during the holidays and with the aesthetics of Maui and pent-up demand that will come with having a lack of golf on TV the last couple months of the year and that being the first tournament of the season, really elevates this tournament to a level that it had never perceived would happen,” he said. “We are very confident that the PGA Tour will thrive with this lineup and we want to be in that position as the first tournament of the season as far in the future as the eye can see.”
In announcing the extension, Monahan praised Sentry for elevating the status of the Tournament of Champions.
“Kicking off the PGA Tour season at the Sentry Tournament of Champions starting in 2024 will further elevate the event as the world of golf will be squarely focused on Maui that week. Our thanks to Pete McPartland and his team at Sentry for their partnership, loyalty and trust in the PGA Tour,” Monahan said.
As for the golf landscape in Wisconsin, McPartland said Sentry is committed to bringing more competitive tournaments to central Wisconsin. SentryWorld hosted the 2019 U.S. Girls Junior Championship and will be the site of the U.S. Senior Open in 2023.
SentryWorld has undergone extensive renovation in recent years to not only prepare for hosting the U.S. Senior Open but to also, in McPartland’s words, maximize the golf course’s potential.
“We want to be second to none,” McPartland said. “We’re doing incredible things with the maintenance of the golf course and (general manager) Mike James has a mission to look at competitive golf opportunities for us. We’re currently in the process of considering the kind of things we might want to pursue. I wouldn’t use the words ‘the sky is the limit.’ There’s a limit to what kinds of things SentryWorld can rationally aspire to, but maximizing and continuing to have the best competitive events we can at this course is very much a goal.”
Contact Mike Sherry at msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
