Happiness rules at Sentry Tournament of Champions

KAPALUA, Maui – Collin Morikawa shot a second-round 66 and is two ahead of Scottie Scheffler (66) and J.J. Spaun (68) halfway through the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The story behind the score is that Morikawa ranks first in Strokes Gained: Putting, which owes at least partly to his putting coach, Stephen Sweeney, a new addition to the team since November.

“Before when I was putting it was like guess work,” said Morikawa, who didn’t win last season, when he ranked a distant 131st in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Guess work? Not this week, and Morikawa has been all smiles.

He’s had company. At the no-cut Sentry (38 players after Xander Schauffele withdrew with a bad back), stress dies of natural causes and Strokes Gained: Happiness rules. True, there’s been almost no wind, and birdies have been plentiful. Also, the purse jumped from $8 million last year to $15 million this year, with $2.7 million going to the winner.

But those smiles also owe to the soft breeze, lapping waves, and a clean slate for ’23.

After an opening-round 67, Scott Stallings (72, 7 under) happily told of discovering a new set of his favorite irons, Titleist T100s (a line that has been discontinued), in the dark recesses of his garage in the off-season. He had his best year ever in 2022, but had worn the grooves right off his old T100s.

Luke List, a Sentry newbie, had an early tee time Friday, shot 65 (10 under, six back) and looked forward to joining his family by the hotel pool.

Will Zalatoris is elated just to be playing anywhere, shooting 69-69 in his first two rounds since returning from a season-ending back injury last fall.

All parties have won just by being here.

“It’s a massive bonus,” said Jon Rahm, a runner-up here in 2018 and ’22.

Rahm, one of three players to break the PGA TOUR’s 72-hole scoring record at last year’s Sentry, struggled Friday. After a bogey-bogey start, he rallied but then finished bogey, par. His 71 snapped a streak of six straight rounds of 67 or better at Kapalua’s Plantation Course, and left him five back.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. Rahm and family – he and wife Kelley have two young boys – came to Maui early to avail themselves of the fun stuff. Between the whale-watching, zip-lining and, yes, the pool, every day is Christmas, which is especially appropriate at this Sentry, given . You know, the one in which new Dallas resident Tom Kim spent Christmas Day at the home of Mr. Dallas Golf, Jordan Spieth.

Hey, family is where you find it.

Spieth, a 13-time PGA TOUR winner who won the 2016 Sentry, shot a second-round 66 and is just three behind. Kim, who carded a 69 Friday, is four back. Figures. The two had never met before last fall, but now are inseparable. They share a swing coach in Cameron McCormick, played Kapalua together Thursday, and enjoy a sort of big brother, little brother dynamic.

Speaking of family, Tony Finau (69, six back) hosted a low-key tournament here earlier this week for members of his team. Participants included his coach, Boyd Summerhays, and his coach’s accomplished golfing kids, one of whom, Preston, plays for Arizona State. Preston won the “family invitational” at Kapalua’s Bay Course with a 65. Finau shot 66.

“We’ve played the Bay Course a lot, like the years that I've been here,” said Finau, who already has one win this season, at the Cadence Bank Houston Open, and won in back-to-back starts last summer. “I just wanted to make something more official. I felt like there was just way too much talent in our family and in our group to not at least have something a little more official since we're all down here and they like coming out here and watching me play this week.

“So, I put together a little purse,” he added, “and we had a good time.”

Scheffler would return to world No. 1 with a two-way tie for third or better. What’s happier than that? But perhaps the ultimate measure of Kapalua’s happy vibe is that it can take the sting out of even the pros’ least favorite subject: bad golf. Spaun is contending at the Sentry but made light of his struggles at the unofficial QBE Shootout last month, when he was tweaking his swing and, according to him, let down his partner, Keith Mitchell.

Someone asked Spaun: Are you still friends? “I don’t know,” Spaun said. “He hasn’t texted me since then. Not even a merry Christmas or Happy New Year.”

Not to worry, Spaun was just joking (we think), and Happy New Year can ring hollow, anyway. In Maui, where Spaun has rediscovered his game, Morikawa is draining putts, Zalatoris is competing, and Rahm and Spieth are lurking once again, those three little words actually come to life.