Collin Morikawa gets The Sentry, new season off to positive start

KAPALUA, Hawaii – Collin Morikawa was walking to the range when he could hear the sound. As he was preparing to begin his 2024 season, The Sentry’s opening ceremony was underway.

The proceedings began an hour before the tournament’s first tee time, just as the sun was rising over Kapalua’s Plantation Course. It featured blessings and chants that celebrate the new year and signal the start of regrowth, renewal and rebirth.

That theme is especially important this year, as the nearby community of Lahaina heals from last year’s fires.

No player in The Sentry field has a closer connection to Lahaina than Morikawa, whose family once owned a restaurant there.

That connection is one reason Morikawa got emotional as he walked to the driving range Thursday morning. It’s also why he was selected to start not only The Sentry, but also the 2024 PGA TOUR season, by hitting the opening tee shot.

“I know what everyone has gone through, you hear it from these families, and you meet everyone out here on the island that knows someone or has been affected firsthand,” Morikawa said. “Maui's small. Hawaii's very, very small. People know everyone. Just got emotional. Being able to hit that first tee shot, it was an honor just to be able to do that and, it's a great way to kick off the new year.”

His encouraging start to the season continued throughout the day, as only 64 strokes followed that first tee shot. His six birdies and an eagle mean another $32,000 will be donated to Maui relief, as well. Morikawa has pledged $2,000 per birdie and $4,000 per eagle this week (and his clothing sponsor, Adidas, has promised to match his donation).

Optimism abounds on opening day – or in the PGA TOUR’s case, Opening Drive – because a new season presents unbounded opportunity. No one has had to endure a string of missed cuts or struggles with their putting. There is no limit on the number of wins that could await in the new year.

That optimism was evident Thursday. It is success that earns a player the opportunity to play The Sentry, and a good round Thursday offers hope that the good play will continue after the turning of the calendar.

Morikawa won the ZOZO Championship in October to end a two-year winless drought. It came shortly after he changed coaches to Mark Blackburn. They’ve worked on his body rotation, and it’s helped Morikawa regain confidence because he doesn’t see the ball miss left anymore. He feels like he’s back to his old self, becoming more like the player who won five times, including two majors, in his first three seasons.

He missed just one green Thursday.

“You're going to hit bad shots,” Morikawa said, “but if I can have that freedom in my head that I can swing as hard as I want and as cleanly as I want and not worry where the ball's going to go that's all I can ask for.”

He’s finished no worse than seventh in four appearances at The Sentry, including a runner-up last year after taking a six-shot lead into the final round.

Kapalua’s Plantation Course offers a unique challenge, one that isn’t found anywhere else on the PGA TOUR. It was built with wide fairways and large greens because of the strong winds that often buffet this mountainside course, but its defining characteristic are the severe slopes that force players to hit shots they don’t confront anywhere else. And, for Morikawa, Thursday’s opening tee shot also was unlike any other.

“That was as big of an honor as I could have had,” Morikawa said. ”Not because it was the first tournament of the year, but because it was out here in Maui, everything that this week represents for me. It just means that much more.”