Nerves? Pressure? Yes, it’s daunting pairing up with Tiger Woods

The holiday season is now complete, and the 2021 portion of the PGA TOUR season is set to begin in its traditional tropical locale. The Sentry Tournament of Champions will kick off the new year once again, but with a unique field. Because of the reduced number of events in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all qualifiers for last year's TOUR Championship also are eligible to tee it up in Maui. Dustin Johnson, the reigning FedExCup champion, highlights the field in his first appearance since winning the Masters. FIELD NOTES: Johnson, a two-time winner of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, looks to keep his momentum going in the new year. Johnson ended 2020 by finishing no worse than T6 in his final seven events, including three wins and three runners-up. ... Sergio Garcia returns to the Sentry Tournament of Champions after his first TOUR victory since the 2017 Masters. Garcia, an 11-time TOUR winner, won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in 2002 but hasn't teed it up at Kapalua since 2006... Justin Thomas looks to defend his Tournament of Champions title after winning in a three-man playoff a year ago... Twenty-eight golfers qualified for the 2021 event via their TOUR victories last season. An additional 17 golfers earned a spot in Hawaii via their appearance at the TOUR Championship... One of those golfers who earned a spot via the TOUR Championship was Xander Schauffele, winner of the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions. Schauffele fell just short in his title defense last year, losing in that playoff that also included former Sentry winner Patrick Reed... There are five first-timers playing in the Sentry Tournament of Champions this year... Forty-two of the 45 eligible golfers are making the trip to the Tournament of Champions, with just Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton, and Jim Herman not teeing it up. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points COURSE: Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, 7,596 yards, par 73 (yardage subject to change). Opened in 1991, the Plantation Course at Kapalua has long been ranked as the top course in Hawaii. It was the first Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore design to open. The duo has now, of course, gone on to become one of golf's most sought-after design teams, and the pair did an expansive renovation in 2019. The course features dramatic ocean views, wide fairways, and big-time elevation changes. STORYLINES: The last four winners of the Sentry Tournament of Champions went on to finish in the top five of the FedExCup standings at season's end, proving that a hot start at the beginning of the calendar year is paramount to season-end success. Justin Thomas finished second in the FedExCup standings in 2017. Dustin Johnson finished fourth in 2018 after winning in Kapalua. Xander Schauffele finished second in 2019, while Justin Thomas finished second again in 2020... No golfer since Geoff Ogilvy (2009-10) has won the Sentry Tournament of Champions in back-to-back years, although Schauffele came close in 2020... Thomas is looking to build off the momentum from his year-end victory alongside his father Mike at the PNC Championship in mid-December... Golfers who did not find the winner's circle in 2019-20 but are in the field include Rookie of the Year Scottie Scheffler, the highest finisher in last season's FedExCup (fifth) without a win... Eight of the top 10 golfers in the world will be in the field. 72-HOLE RECORD: 261, Ernie Els (2003) 18-HOLE RECORD: 62, K.J. Choi (3rd round, 2003), Graeme McDowell (4th round, 2011), Jason Day (4th round, 2015), Chris Kirk (4th round, 2015), Xander Schauffele (4th round, 2019). LAST TIME: On the hunt for his second straight Sentry victory, Xander Schauffele eventually fell just short in a playoff to Justin Thomas, who won for the second time at Kapalua. Thomas had a one-shot lead going into the 72nd hole but made a bogey on the par five to drop into a three-way tie. Patrick Reed, who zipped up the leaderboard in the final round thanks to a sizzling 7-under 66 (the round of the day) made it through two holes of the playoff with Thomas but eventually lost to the former FedExCup champion, who birdied the par-5 18th on the third extra hole to Reed's par. Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, and Joaquin Niemann rounded out the top five. HOW TO FOLLOW Television: Thursday-Friday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. (Golf Channel). Sunday, 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Golf Channel).

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

DUBLIN, Ohio – Martin Kaymer had already won a PGA Championship and been world No. 1. He then won the PLAYERS Championship and, soon after, dominated the U.S. Open. But that was almost five years ago. And since then, it hasn’t been as good. Related: Leaderboard | Double bogey costs Tiger | Rose blooms on Friday The problem? Distractions. “I distract myself,â€� Kaymer said. “I listen too much to other people. And also a bit of belief. Sometimes you would think I won so many big tournaments I should have so much belief in myself that I can win any week. But that’s not the case because certain times you just feel like you’re not on your “A” game. “Sometimes it’s still enough to win, but at the moment or the last two years, I was just not there. I just didn’t believe that I could win the tournament that I’m playing.â€� And so, of late, Kaymer has spent most of his energy getting rid of distractions. That includes social media. It has helped him at Muirfield Village, where rounds of 67-68 has him at 9-under and tied for the 36-hole lead. The last time he held the 36-hole lead was the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, where he won by eight shots. “Just getting away from so many things, social media, watching TV, reading stuff that is not important. What do you really gain from social media during tournament days? There’s so much gossip, so much talk, so much distraction,â€� he explained. “And I just got out of that. I just didn’t want to read that because there’s nothing really to gain from it. And that was a big one for me… It’s just distraction, stimulation for your brain, just not thinking, not being there. “So I tried to get away from that. And that automatically makes you more aware, makes me more conscious, and I think leads to more calmness, I guess. It helped me.â€� The calmness has certainly transferred to his putting this week. Kaymer has needed just 25 and 26 putts, respectively, over two rounds. He ranks second in Strokes Gained: Putting. It has him feeling old feels all over again. “You’re excited to be in position again. You worked quite hard over the last few years, and you want to feel that excitement of playing one of the last groups,â€� Kaymer adds. “And who knows what happens by Sunday afternoon, if I’m still up there or not. But I’m very pleased right now that I put myself in that position, especially with that summer coming up, knowing and proving to myself that I have it in me right now; that I don’t need to work on something special right now. I just need to play the game.â€� Kaymer uses old visions of himself to also get in the mood. He wants to remember the winning feeling. It’s a feeling where, if he gets it again, he will act differently. “I just need to visualize the success more often that I had to really let it sink in. Because I’m not the guy who celebrates a lot, which I think is a little bit of a mistake,â€� he says. “Because you don’t know the value of the win, if you see everything the same. If you just move on and move on, you try to go from one tournament to another and you continue doing that, but you need to pull yourself out, maybe celebrate, however the celebration looks like. “It doesn’t need to be going to Vegas and get drunk, but you need to celebrate the win, the resolve, the effort. You need to give credit to yourself, and I never did. So whenever the next win will come, I know what to do different.â€� Come Sunday, we might see what that celebration looks like.

Click here to read the full article…