In any other year, we’d be in Hawaii right now.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, however, we have put all our travel plans on hold until it’s safe to fly again. As a consequence, we’ll watch the Sentry Tournament of Champions from afar this year, as most of the top players in the Official World Golf Rankings vie for supremacy on the Plantation Course at Kapalua in the first PGA Tour event of 2021.
Because the pandemic forced cancellation of a number of tournaments in 2020, the Tour has expanded eligibility for the TOC to include not only tournament winners but also the 30 players who qualified for last year’s Tour Championship but did not win an official event.
The 42-player field for the TOC is a case of out-with-the-old-and-in-with-the-new. Twenty-one years have passed since Tiger Woods won what was then the season-opening tournament for the second and last time. In recent years, Woods has been a no-show even when eligible, typically preferring to forego the Hawaii swing to open his season at Torrey Pines.
Dustin Johnson (Metro Golf Magazines File Photo)
Woods, who has fallen to 43rd in the world rankings since his victory in the 2019 Masters, isn’t eligible this year. Neither is Phil Mickelson, who is ranked 69th. Jordan Spieth, whose star shown so brightly in 2015 through 2017, is another absentee, having fallen to 84th in the OWGR during an extended swoon that dates to his last victory and third major—the 2017 Open Championship.
Spieth was the 2016 TOC winner at 30 under par, one shot off Ernie Els 2003 tournament record.
Those absences leave others to carry on. Eleven of the top 14 players in the world rankings will tee it up on Maui, which has hosted the event since 1999. The exceptions are No. 5 Rory McIlroy, No. 9 Tyrrell Hatton and No. 12 Brooks Koepka.
But the field includes rising stars Viktor Hovland and Joaquin Niemann, with Sergio Garcia and resurgent Stewart Cink holding the line for the old guard.
Justin Thomas (Metro Golf Magazines File Photo)
If you’re inclined to wager on golf, there’s a small group of players who seem to have an affinity for the sprawling Plantation Course, and affinity that translates into recurring success. World No. 3 Justin Thomas is the defending champion; he also won at Kapalua in 2017.
Top-ranked Dustin Johnson is another two-time winner, having triumphed in 2013 and 2018. Xander Schauffele was the 2019 champion, and last year he lost to Thomas in a three-man playoff. Patrick Reed, the 2015 winner, was the third man in the playoff. He also finished second to Spieth in 2016.
Bottom line? If you have money on Johnson, Thomas, Schauffele and Reed, you have the field all but covered.
Then there’s the Byson DeChambeau factor. The fairways at the Plantation Course are inordinately wide and should provide the reigning U.S. Open champion the opportunity to take advantage of his prodigious drives with very little risk. Depending on wind direction, there are as many as six par-4s DeChambeau could conceivably reach with his tee ball.
Given that, you might want to include Bryson on your fantasy team, too.