The First Look: Sentry Tournament of Champions

The calendar has changed but the PGA TOUR will start the new year in a familiar place.

The Sentry Tournament of Champions will celebrate its 25th year on Maui by boasting a stout field that features 17 of the top 20 players in the world ranking.

FIELD NOTES: In addition to tournament winners from 2022, this year’s 39-man field also will feature the top 30 from last season’s final FedExCup points list… Will Zalatoris is set to make his first start since withdrawing from the BMW Championship with herniated discs in his back. The BMW came one week after he earned his first TOUR win in a playoff at the FedEx St. Jude Championship… PGA TOUR Player of the Year Scottie Scheffler is the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 2 in the world ranking… Nine of the top 10 players in this season’s FedExCup standings are in the field, including leader Seamus Power. Power won his second PGA TOUR title at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship… Jon Rahm, who shot 33 under at the Sentry a year ago but fell one shot short of winning, hopes to continue his strong finish to 2022. Rahm ended the year with five consecutive top-10s, including wins at the Spanish Open and DP World Tour Championship… Justin Thomas, who, like Rahm, shot a course-record 61 at Kapalua a year ago, is back in action. Thomas won the Sentry in 2017 and 2020… World No. 4 Patrick Cantlay is playing for the first time since his runner-up to Tom Kim at the Shriners Children’s Open. Along with his successful title defense at the BMW Championship, he had a win and runner-up in his final three starts of the year… Speaking of Kim, he’s making his Sentry debut thanks to two wins in a span of four starts (Wyndham Championship, Shriners). Kim is fourth in this season’s FedExCup standings… Kim is one of several debutants at Kapalua in 2023. That list also includes: U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Cameron Young, Zalatoris, Sahith Theegala, Ryan Brehm, Luke List, Trey Mullinax, Chad Ramey, J.J. Spaun, Sepp Straka and Adam Svensson. This Sentry Tournament of Champions debut for Luke List, 37, will be a special one after he earned his inaugural TOUR win at the Farmers Insurance Open after 206 TOUR starts.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 FedExCup points.

COURSE: Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, par 73, 7,596 yards. It’s the 25th year that the Sentry has been played on this unique layout on Maui. The course, which opened in 1991, was the debut design from the iconic duo of Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw. The pair also took on a renovation in 2019 for the TOUR’s only par-73 layout. Golfers are treated to dramatic ocean views thanks to the course’s massive elevation changes. As we saw in 2022, however, the big defense at the Plantation Course is the wind and when it doesn’t blow we get the record-setting scores we saw a year ago.

STORYLINES: The top 30 in the FedExCup were first invited to the Sentry in 2021 in response to the COVID-interrupted 2020 campaign. That path to the Sentry was discontinued last year but now is back in perpetuity as the Sentry becomes the first of the year’s 17 designated events that will promise participation from the game’s top players and elevated purses. The other designated events are the four majors and THE PLAYERS, the three FedExCup Playoffs events, the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, three player-hosted invitationals (Tiger Woods’ Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament presented by Workday) and the Waste Management Phoenix Open, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and Travelers Championship… Two of the last three Sentrys were decided in a playoff. Jon Rahm nearly made it three in a row last year, but his eagle try on the 72nd hole just missed… It was a busy end of 2022 for a few guys set to tee it up in Hawaii. This is the first official TOUR event for Max Homa since becoming a father in late October. Mackenzie Hughes and his wife, Jenna, also welcomed a child in early December (their third), while Justin Thomas, Will Zalatoris, Collin Morikawa and Sungjae Im tied the knot… A handful of guys will come into the Sentry Tournament of Champions with some bonus-event momentum. Viktor Hovland successfully defended his title at the Hero World Challenge, while Sahith Theegala and Tom Hoge won the QBE Shootout and Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas defeated Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy at the latest edition of The Match.

72-HOLE RECORD: 258, Cameron Smith (2022)

18-HOLE RECORD: 61, Jon Rahm (3rd round, 2022), Justin Thomas (3rd round, 2022), Matt Jones (4th round, 2022)

LAST TIME: Cameron Smith finished more under par than anyone in PGA TOUR history, winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions to kick off 2022 in record-breaking fashion. With scoring conditions at Kapalua the best they’ve ever been, Smith finished at 34-under 258 for the week – and won by just a single shot. A deserving shout-out to Jon Rahm who finished runner up at 33 under after making 32 birdies for the week – tying the PGA TOUR record for a 72-hole event. Matt Jones, who tied the Plantation Course record with a final-round 61, ended the week at 32 under and was in third. Patrick Cantlay finished fourth, while Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, and Daniel Berger rounded out the top five.

HOW TO FOLLOW:

Television: Thursday-Friday, 6-10 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 4-6 p.m. (NBC), 6-8 p.m. (Golf Channel).

PGA TOUR Live:

PGA TOUR Live is available exclusively on ESPN+

• Main Feed: primary tournament-coverage featuring the best action from across the course
• Marquee Group: new “marquee group” showcasing every shot from each player in the group
• Featured Groups: traditional PGA TOUR LIVE coverage of two concurrent featured groups
• Featured Holes: a combination of par-3s and iconic or pivotal holes

Radio: Thursday-Friday, 4:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m. – 8 p.m. ET (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio)

Note: The weekend TV windows could change based on NFL windows.