As per tradition, the new year on the PGA Tour begins with an exceptional and top-level event: the Sentry Tournament of Champions. One of the most awaited tournaments of the year, not only for the splendid location of Maui, in Hawaii, but above all because those who have won at least one tournament on the American circuit in the previous year participate.
Starting this year, the tournament will also include players who, despite not having won any tournaments, finished the previous FedEx Cup in the top thirty positions.
The PGA Tour, schedule
What emerges is obviously a field of absolute exception, from the celestial level.
In fact, there will be eight of the top ten players in the world rankings, nine of the top ten in the FedEx Cup rankings and four past winners of the season competition. The only player who would have been eligible to participate who won’t be there will be world No.
1 Rory McIlroy, who has now made a habit of missing this tournament. So these are the 37 participants: Ryan Brehm (USA), J.T. Poston (USA), Sam Burns (USA), Seamus Power (IRL), Patrick Cantlay (USA), Jon Rahm (ESP), Corey Conners (CAN), Chad Ramey (USA), Tony Finau (USA), Chez Reavie ( USA), Matt Fitzpatrick (ENG), Xander Schauffele (USA), Brian Harman (USA), Scottie Scheffler (USA), Russell Henley (USA), Adam Scott (AUS), Tom Hoge (USA), J.J.
Spaun (USA), Max Homa (USA), Jordan Spieth (USA), Billy Horschel (USA), Scott Stallings (USA) , Viktor Hovland (NOR), Sepp Straka (AUT), Mackenzie Hughes (CAN), Adam Svensson ( CAN), Sungjae Im (KOR), Sahith Theegala (USA), Tom Kim (KOR), Justin Thomas (USA), K.H.
Lee (KOR), Aaron Wise (USA), Luke List (USA), Cameron Young (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (JAP), Will Zalatoris (USA), Collin Morikawa (USA). Difficult to identify a favorite, partly because they are all potential candidates for success, partly because the break was quite long and it is not easy to predict how the various athletes can respond in terms of performance.
Justin Thomas has already won this tournament twice, while Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele are the only other former winners on the list. They, along probably with Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Seamus Power and Jon Rahm will be the men to beat.
Kapalua’s Plantation Course is a 7596-yard par 73 course. The stage of this tournament is absolutely unique of its kind: in addition to being one of the most beautiful and evocative courses of the entire season, it is also the only par 73 on the entire PGA Tour.
There are only three par 3 holes in the whole course, with only one in the back nine. Last year the Australian Cameron Smith won in an historic edition. Suffice it to say that the best three scores out of 72 holes in the history of the PGA Tour were scored in that tournament. Smith won with -34, while -33 and -32 respectively were not enough for Jon Rahm and Matt Jones to win the match.
