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.
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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.
Can Cameron Young finally break through in Hawaii?
Golf. It’s back.
After a month of hit and giggles and zero action, the PGA Tour returns in a big way on the island of Hawaii this week for the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the Tour’s first elevated event of 2023.
Due to its higher status, the field is jam-packed with the best golfers in the world — other than the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking. Players are allowed to miss one elevated event per season and Rory McIlroy is cashing his in early and will not tee it up in Kapalua.
Jon Rahm, last year’s runner-up, enters as the betting favorite at +650, followed by Scottie Scheffler at +900.
Cam Smith, the defending champion, is not in the field for obvious reasons.
Golf course
Plantation Course at Kapalua | Par 73 | 7,596 yards | Coore/Crenshaw design
Patrick Cantlay hits his tee shot on the 18th hole during the third round of the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua’s Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii. (Photo: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
Data Golf Information
Course Fit (compares golf courses based on the degree to which different golfer attributes — such as driving distance — to predict who performs well at each course – DataGolf): 1. Riviera Country Club, 2. Monterey Peninsula Country Club, 3. Augusta National
Trending (the players’ last three starts): 1. Jon Rahm (T-4, 1, T-8), 2. Scottie Scheffler (T-3, T-9, 2), 3. Xander Schauffele (4, T-9, 4)
Percent chance to win (based on course history, fit, trending, etc.): 1. Jon Rahm (11.2 percent), 2. Scottie Scheffler (10.9 percent), 3. Xander Schauffele (8.7 percent)
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Listen to Riley Hamel and Andy Nesbitt on this week’s episode of Twilight 9! The boys discuss Scott Stallings and his Masters invite, the Sentry TOC, picks for the week, a preview of 2023 and much more!
The Tournament of Champions dates back to 1953, when it was first played in Las Vegas.
The Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first PGA Tour event of 2023, celebrates its 25th season at Kapalua this week.
The tournament dates back to 1953, however, when it was first played in Las Vegas. It was held at the Desert Inn and the field consisted of 20 golfers, all winners from the previous year.
The winner’s check in 2023 will be $2,700,000 (out of an elevated-event purse of $15 million) but 71 years ago, Al Besselink, winner of the first Tournament of Champions, barely earned five figures.
How he was paid—and what he did with some of the money—are just some of the many interesting things about him.
The defending champion won’t be back in Kapalua in 2023.
The Sentry Tournament of Champions isn’t just for champions anymore. And that’s OK.
The first event on the PGA Tour in 2023 will have a field of 40 golfers, with 30 of them winners from 2022. There were 38 golfers in the field a year ago with all of them being tournament winners. There is an additional 10 golfers in the field this time around due a change in qualifications.
The tournament is set for Jan. 5-8 with coverage on NBC, Golf Channel, ESPN+ and Peacock.
Three of the four major winners from 2022 are set to tee it up, with Scottie Scheffler (Masters), Justin Thomas (PGA Championship) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (U.S. Open) in the fold. The only ’22 major winner who won’t be there is also the tournament’s defending champion.
Check out this list of things to know about the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
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.
Will Zalatoris has been nursing a bad back since the FedEx Cup playoffs, but is expected to return soon.
Will Zalatoris has been nursing a bad back since the FedEx Cup playoffs, but he found an important way to fill his schedule between starts — by tying the knot.
The former Wake Forest star and 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur champion announced his engagement to girlfriend Caitlin Sellers, also a Demon Deacon, with a series of pictures on Instagram back in April of 2021. The post included the caption, “Best day of my life. I love you.”
On Tuesday, also via Instagram, Zalatoris posted a photo of the happy couple with the caption, “Can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I love you.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmIXmNhN9hK/
Zalatoris entered August’s BMW Championship in the advantageous No. 1 spot in the FedEx Cup standings after capturing his first PGA Tour win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
But during the third round at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, Zalatoris suffered a back injury on the third hole. Zalatoris and his playing partner, Emiliano Grillo, let the group of Sam Burns and Adam Hadwin through as they waited for the PGA Tour physio.
After a short visit and numerous stretches, Zalatoris decided to withdraw from the event.
However, the Sentry Tournament of Champions recently announced that Zalatoris is expected in the field for the event in early January.
Will Zalatoris walks back to the crowd with his arm around his fiancé after winning his first PGA tournament during the last day of the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn., Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022.
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.
We put together a summary from the pros as they reflect on a little quality time in this Pacific paradise.
The courses, while picturesque, are now tame by PGA Tour standards, as evidenced by consecutive weeks with scores so low they’ve been breaking records.
And the travel is intense, with players often making a journey of 4,000 miles or more, needing to build substantial cushions into their schedule to account for a massive plane ride over nothing but Pacific Ocean blue waters.
So do trips to Kapalua’s Plantation Course in Maui, site of last week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour, and Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, site of this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, still resonate with PGA Tour pros who frequently enjoy the game to the world’s most scenic backdrops?
Absolutely.
Kapalua was designed by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and is the top-ranked public-access layout in Hawaii. Waialae is near the state’s only major metropolis and offers plenty of nightlife and cultural opportunities on top of the amazing views.
Still, we put together a summary from the pros as they reflect on a little quality time in this Pacific paradise.
Cameron Smith went toe-to-toe with World No. 1 Jon Rahm, traded blows, and came out on top. It was an unbelievable performance and maybe one that catapults Smith toward a few more wins this season.
This week is the Sony Open, or otherwise known as the Charles Howell III invitational. The boys preview the event including a course overview, key stats, Data Golf information, and players to watch for the week.
Download this week’s episode here: Apple | Spotify
