Some of the world’s best golfers are set to tee it up on Thursday at the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui.
The 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions field consists of winners from the previous season and will feature the likes of Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau to name just a few.
As well as winners from last year, the top-30 golfers from last season in the FedEx Cup rankings will also feature in this 42-strong field.
Course/Field
Course: Kapalua Resort, Plantation Course
Length: 7596 yards (Par 73)
Greens: Bermuda
Opened: 1991
Architect: Bill Crenshaw and Bill Coore
Ladies and gentlemen, golf is back!!
After a short Christmas break, the PGA Tour returns and as always, we start the new year in sunny Hawaii with the Tournament of Champions.
This year’s edition sees one of the strongest fields in recent years with McIlroy, Hatton and Herman being the only winners or players who made it to the Tour Championship in 2020 not making the trip to Maui.
The Plantation Course at Kapalua is a rear par 73 with four Par 5s and just three par 3s and with three of the par 4s measuring over 500 yards par 5 scoring will surely be an important stat this week.
But it is worth noting that due to the elevation we often see 400+ yard drives so the course plays a bit shorter than what the scorecard shows.
While the fairways are almost ridiculously wide, they are severely undulated and contoured so the golfer will almost never get a flat lie so be sure to target good ball strikers this week.
This gets me thinking about Augusta and this is another tournament that usually favours the bombers but like the Masters, Spieth and Reed have won here so the comparison does seem valid.
The greens are some of the biggest on tour, which negates the around the green component and leads to the green in regulation stat being a bit misleading around this course.
If the wind stays down as forecasted we are looking at a winning score around the -25 mark so be sure to pick guys that can make birdies in bunches.
Here are some of the things I will be looking at/for:
- Driving distance
- Strokes gained approach
- Par 5 scoring
- Bermuda putting
Betting history
2019
Profit/Loss: +35.61 units
ROI: 121%
2020
Wagered: 60 units
Won: 10,62 units
Result: -49,38 units
Picks
Viktor Hovland @ 21.00
2 pts EW (1/5 the odds 5 places)
Coming off his second win in 2020 at Mayakoba in early December the Norwegian arrives at a course that sets up perfectly to highlight his strengths (off the tee and iron play) and mitigate his weaknesses (his around the green game).
The perception of Hovland is that he is good at hard courses and while he is his two wins have come at birdie fests in tropical climates – the likes of that we are seeing this week.
The one caveat is that he has not played the course before but that is not enough for me to not put a few bucks on him to win back to back and start 2021 with a bang.
Adam Scott @ 46.00
1 pt EW (1/5 the odds 5 places)
Scott starts his year at Kapalua for the first time since 2014 when he kicked off the season with a solid 6th place finish.
With none of the players having played for some time it’s good to know that the Australian won his first start of 2020 at The Genesis after not having played for almost three months so rust shouldn’t be a factor, even though he has not played since The Masters.
The course should set up well for the former Masters champion whose strengths are tee to green and if he can get one of his better putting weeks he should be right in the thick of things come Sunday.
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