Tag: Plantation Course in Kapalua

Harris English, Ryan Palmer share 54-hole lead in Hawaii

Harris English hasn’t won in 7 years and Ryan Palmer hasn’t won in 10 years in a solo event but those streaks may end soon.

Harris English held a two-stroke leader entering the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, fired a 7-under 66 at the Plantation Course and guess what? He needed to sink a 9-foot par putt at the last hole just to maintain a share of the 54-hole lead with Ryan Palmer, who shot the low round of the day. But English said he expected Saturday’s birdie barrage and is right where he wants to be.

“This is one of my first leads I’ve had going into a Saturday in a while, I think, and I knew I had to keep the foot on the pedal,” he said. “The wind was not up today, I knew the scores were going to be low and I knew I had to come out and execute and play well.”

Neither English, 31, and Palmer, 44, managed to win last season and are only in the traditional winners-only event because of a special exemption afforded to the top 30 on the final FedEx Cup Playoff standings as a result of several tournaments being canceled due to the global pandemic.

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English has only recorded one bogey in his first 54 holes this week, and continued his dominance of the par 5s at Kapalua, making two more birdies to improve to 11 under for the week. But it was a hard-working par at 18 that kept him in a tie for the lead with Palmer. English misfired from 272 yards with a 4-iron, pulling his ball into the penalty area and was fortunate that a marshal was able to find his ball.

“I don’t like the lottery much, but pretty lucky there,” he said.

Palmer, who began the tournament 3 over after his first four holes, has been on a tear ever since. He birdied six of the last seven holes to shoot 9-under 64. After the round, he was absolved of a potential rules violation.

“Everything was on point today,” Palmer said. “Drove it well, iron play was there, like I want it to, short game was right there as well. I had a lot of great up-and-downs. And then the putting is feeling so good. I went to a line with my alignment on the greens and I’m getting over putts now and when James, James and I both agree that the line’s there, now it’s a matter of just letting go and hitting it. It’s some of the best putting I’m doing right now and the most confident.”

Palmer, in his 18th season on Tour, is seeking his fifth Tour title and his first individual title since the 2010 Sony Open in Hawaii. (He teamed with Jon Rahm to win the 2019 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.) English hasn’t won since 2013. (He did win the QBE Shootout, an unofficial team event with Matt Kuchar last month.) English hit rock bottom in 2018-19, failing to record a top-10 finish and plummeting to No. 369 in the world. But since committing to working with Sea Island teaching pro Justin Parsons, he has racked up 10 top 10s, including four top 4s and entered the week ranked No. 29 in the world. All that’s been missing is a victory.

Defending champion Justin Thomas is tied for fifth after a rollercoaster round of 68, and trails by four strokes as he attempts to defend his title. After the round, he apologized for making a homophobic slur.

Hot on the heels of the leaders is Collin Morikawa, who shot his second straight 65 to improve to 20 under and trail by one stroke. The 23-year-old Morikawa, who has family that lived in Hawaii, has been no stranger to the winner’s circle and is seeking his fourth win in just his 38th career start. What his game plan for Sunday’s shootout?

“Make a lot of birdies,” he said. “That’s what it’s going to come down to, who is going to make the most amount of birdies tomorrow, because guys are just shooting low.”

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Jon Rahm getting ‘dialed in’ with new Callaway clubs

Jon Rahm is breaking in 13 new Callaway golf clubs as well as a Callaway ball. He’s also sporting TravisMathew apparel at Kapalua.

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Jon Rahm kicked off his new year by announcing a switch to Callaway.

At the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua this week, Rahm is using 13 new Callaway clubs as well as a Callaway ball. He’s also sporting TravisMathew apparel.

Rahm says when he played his first round with his new gear at Silverleaf Golf Club in Scottsdale, he shot a course-record 59. This is his first week using the new gear in competition.

“What people might not know is I basically got fitted and did a lot of work quite earlier than they thought, than people would think,” he said after his second-round 66. He is T-10 at 10 under, four shots back of tournament leader Harris English.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
The golf bag of Jon Rahm during the first round of the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua Plantation Course on January 07, 2021 in Kapalua, Hawaii. Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

“So I already had a valuable set of clubs for after Augusta. And then as soon as Augusta was done I didn’t take any time off. I went straight to San Diego and spent three days, a lot of hours in the Callaway center hitting a lot of shots, just making sure everything’s dialed in.”

According to Callaway, Rahm was planning to use prototype woods and irons, Callaway JAWS Forged wedges and a Callaway Chrome Soft X golf ball. While he is not expected to start 2021 using an Odyssey putter, he has been testing different models and is expected to add one to his bag in the coming weeks.

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“When I went home I was really confident with everything. The only thing for me was going to be what clubs I put into play, and I did not expect that the only one not being Callaway was going to be the putter. But I’m still adjusting to it. I think the biggest thing to get used to is the golf ball. One thing is hitting shots at home and the other one is hitting shots here.

“I live in Arizona, not much air density, everything looks pretty straight. Come here to Hawaii, humid and windy. I have to get used to how the ball reacts in the wind and I think that’s what a lot of yesterday was and it’s still going to take a little bit of getting used to. But based on today and how I’m playing, I would say I’m pretty close.”

Sentry Tournament of Champions
The Callaway golf ball played by Jon Rahm at the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Hawaii. Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

He added that the Callaway ball is similar to what he was using before.

“The thing to remember is it’s a new golf ball. It’s a little bit different to the one I had before even though it’s as close as it can probably possibly be. … the TaylorMade golf ball, it’s a ball that will launch a little bit higher with less spin. You could almost say it’s almost a little bit more of a one-dimensional ball, right? Even if you’re into the wind, you can hit it pretty much a stock shot and it’s going to go through the wind, which is great in some situations.

“The new Callaway one, it’s pretty much the same, but inside the 8-iron it launches a little bit lower with a touch more spin, which gives me a lot more to play with in short irons. And I would say in some of those shots into the wind, in cross-wind, I need to get used to controlling the spin, but I’ve been doing a good job so far. Obviously, I hit some bad ones like everybody else. But I’ve hit some beautiful shots the last two days on 10 into the wind, a couple good wedge shots, the one on 9, 16 yesterday was a great shot as well. I mean, I’ve hit some good ones. So even though I’m still learning, I’m still trying to get better and it’s just all in a really good spot.”

Golfweek’s David Dusk contributed to this article.

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After nearly ten years in the bag, Scottie Scheffler says goodbye to his 3 wood

Scottie Scheffler said at the Sentry Tournament of Champions that he had to retire one of his favorite golf clubs last week.

They had a heck of a run together.

Scottie Scheffler admitted on Friday that he had to retire one of his favorite golf clubs after using it for nearly ten years.

“My trusty 3-wood cracked on Saturday on the range at Royal Oaks, and right now I got a Callaway one in there. We’ll see how it goes,” he said after his second round 66 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua. He shot 70 in the first round.

“It was a Nike VR Pro. I think it came out in, like, 2011.”

He says he remembers not using it during his college days at Texas “but I’ve used it the whole time I turned pro, most of my senior year, and pretty much all of high school. I only wasn’t using it for two or three years in there.”

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Despite all the advancements in golf club technology, Scheffler kept sticking by his 3 wood.

“I would say the way that the club setup it was really square, it was really clean, not a lot of loft so I was able to flight it down pretty easily and it was softer than the new 3-woods and for me that’s important. And when I wanted to hit it far, I just teed it up a little higher, hit it higher on the face. I got to know the club really well and for me I knew exactly what I needed to do with it each time.”

Once he realized he needed a new 3 wood, he says his wife dug out some clubs from their house and brought them to the range.

Nike stopped making golf equipment about 4 ½ years ago. However, if he were so inclined, Scheffler could go to ebay, where there’s a Nike VR Pro selling for about $100.

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Justin Thomas sets lofty goals for 2021 beginning with Sentry Tournament of Champions

Justin Thomas is coming off his most consistent year yet, but says he has lofty goals for this year beginning in Hawaii.

When Justin and Mike Thomas arrived for Christmas Eve dinner at Tiger Woods’s house, he and his dad, fresh off their victory at the PNC Championship a week earlier, sported their red victory belts around their waist like a pair of WWF tag-team champions.

“We would expect them to do the same thing,” Justin Thomas said. “Charlie (Woods) just kind of laughed when he saw us and Tiger (Woods) just said, ‘Well done, well played.’ And you know, it was all in good fun. But they fully expected it, I think.”

No word on whether Thomas anticipated his favorite gift from the holiday season.

“My parents got me a popcorn machine, which is really cool,” he said. “I have a pretty sweet man cave at my house upstairs and they got me, like, one of the old school kind of rolling popcorn machines. So, we’ll be making our own popcorn now.”

As the calendar flipped and the PGA Tour resumes this week in Maui, Hawaii, it’s easy to expect Thomas to pick up right where he left off, which has been the first page of the leaderboard as of late. He has finished T-12 or better in each of his last six starts, dating back to a T-2 at the 2020 Tour Championship. Add in the fact that the Tour’s two Hawaii events have been among his favorite hunting grounds. The defending champion and two-time winner of the Sentry Tournament of Champions has been a force to be reckoned with at Kapalua’s Plantation Course. Thomas isn’t sure why he doesn’t experience some rust after one of the longer layoffs of his season, but coming to the Hawaiian islands – he’s also been a force at the Sony Open of Hawaii, shooting 59 en route to victory – certainly puts him in a different frame of mind.

“I always get up early with the time change here and I play, go out and play early, and then I pretty much hang by the pool and the beach the rest of the afternoon, and there’s not any other tournaments I do that the rest of the year,” he said.

Thomas is coming off a season that by most any measure was exceptional, but Thomas has set high standards for himself and knows that there is room for improvement, especially at the majors.

“It was my most consistent year I’ve had, but it definitely wasn’t as many wins as I feel like I could have and should have had, especially in some big events,” he said. “I feel like I didn’t play well over the weekend or on Sundays and that’s something that I feel like I’ve been able to assess and figure out a little bit what it was, and hopefully when I get in those situations going forward I’ll handle them a lot better.”

Thomas nearly squandered the title at Kapalua a year ago when he blew a two-stroke lead with three holes to go. He was fortunate to salvage a playoff against the previous two winners of the event, Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele, before prevailing with a birdie on the third playoff hole.

And, so, Thomas will attempt to become the first repeat winner of the event since Geoff Ogilvy turned the trick in 2010. Thomas enters the week rested, armed with a new Titleist driver and golf ball in his arsenal and playing in one of his happy places.

“D.J. and I talked about it yesterday,” Thomas said, “you can put us two on a list of we’ll never turn this place down if we have the opportunity to come here. It’s an unbelievable place to start the year, it’s so relaxing, it’s enjoyable, and it’s a great tournament to have the opportunity to start your year off with a victory.”

World No. 1, Masters champion Dustin Johnson won’t relax: ‘I like being the best’

Dustin Johnson said there are plenty of areas in his game where he can improve. Wait, what?

Dustin Johnson said there are plenty of areas in his game where he can improve.

Wait, what?

He’s the No. 1 player in the world, the reigning Masters champion, the reigning FedEx Cup champion. He won PGA Tour titles 21, 22, 23 and 24 in 2020 and had four runner-up finishes. In his last seven starts of last year, he won twice, finished second three times, tied for third and tied for sixth.

Induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame is in his future, the 2016 U.S. Open trophy on his mantel.

And he thinks he can get better? That’s scary.

“Motivation for me, it’s not that hard. I like being the best,” the easygoing Johnson, 36, said Wednesday after his pro-am round at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “I feel like the more I play, the more I grow as a person and as a golfer, the better I’m getting. So I still feel great. I feel young. I feel like I’m in my 20s, even though I’m not.

Sentry Tournament of Champions
Dustin Johnson plays his shot from the 14th tee during a practice round prior to the Sentry Tournament of Champions on the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf Club on January 05, 2021 in Kapalua, Hawaii. Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

“There’s plenty of areas in my game where I can improve; short game, putting, wedges, I still feel like I can get a lot better with the wedges. I can drive it better, I can definitely hit the long irons a little bit better, so I feel like there’s plenty of areas I can improve and so that’s what I’ll look forward to doing this year.”

Johnson’s 2020 is a tough act to follow but he’s in an ideal spot to start matching or surpassing the campaign – the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. He won the Tournament of Champions here in 2013 and 2018, has eight top-10s in 10 starts here, and has 35 rounds under par, the most of anyone since 1999.

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“This is a place that I love coming every year,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed playing here. I like the golf course. I felt like the game, even the little that I’ve played, practicing a little bit the last couple days, everything feels pretty similar.

“Obviously not quite as sharp as I was probably back at Augusta, but I’m seeing a lot of the same shapes and I feel like I’m doing everything pretty well, even though I haven’t practiced a whole lot here lately.

“It’s OK to be a little bit rusty. The fairways are nice and wide and there’s still some shots, you got to hit some really quality golf shots, but I feel like I’ve had the last week or so to play a little bit. I’m rusty, but not too rusty.”

Johnson hasn’t played since winning the Masters at Augusta National in November, where he broke the 72-hole scoring record by firing 20-under 268.

The green jacket is in a closet at his home. He hasn’t watched a replay of the tournament but has a link to the video on his phone and plans on watching it sometime down the road. He thought about what he’ll serve at the Champions Dinner but hasn’t finalized the menu.

“It’s been really good being the Masters champ,” Johnson said. “Obviously, it’s something that I’ve always had on the list of things I wanted to accomplish. Winning it when I did was kind of nice because I did get to take some time off and enjoy. And obviously, with the holidays, spent a lot of time with the family and so it’s been great. Did a little bit of celebrating, too.

“Haven’t played a whole lot of golf, but that was on purpose.”

But now it’s time to get back to work. Johnson will have his hands full this week as eight of the top 10 in the world are in the field, including defending champion and world No. 3 Justin Thomas and No. 2 Jon Rahm.

But Johnson expects to be in the mix for a third title in Maui – and his first in 2021.

“I don’t have a lot of optimism. I expect to play well always,” he said. “So I’m not hoping to play well, I expect to play well.”

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