DraftKings preview: Charles Schwab Challenge

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It’s that time of year again, when you turn on the TV for the Sentry Tournament of Champions and ask yourself, “Why did I go another year without booking a trip to Kapalua?” The 2021 PGA TOUR winners (and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele) open 2022 in Hawaii with a no-cut event that has provided some of the wildest finishes in recent memory. We’ve witnessed two playoffs and a final-round 62 to win in the last three years. A big reason for the theatrics? The uniqueness of Kapalua. The Plantation Course is not your everyday TOUR venue. This track comes with mountains and valleys and tropical weather providing an unpredictable and dramatic four days in paradise. The unique design of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, so we are celebrating by bringing you Five Things to Know about the course that opens the calendar year on the PGA TOUR. It’s a rare par 73 Ernie Els won at 31 under in 2003, and Jordan Spieth nearly caught him with a winning score of 30 under in 2016. These scores for a four-round event may seem crazy until you check the scorecard. Kapalua is the only par-73 course on the PGA TOUR schedule, as it comes with just three par 3s. The long holes are long and the short holes are short at Kapalua. The course has seven holes that regularly play longer than 500 yards – four of those are par 5s – but also has four par 4s playing shorter than 400 yards (all on the back nine). Weather, especially the wind, is often a factor in Maui, but six of the last seven champions have shot 21 under or better, so players making the trip to the South Pacific better be ready to make some birdies. The 18th hole is full of trouble From the tee box, the 18th hole provides one of the most beautiful drives in golf, looking straight down into the Pacific Ocean with mountains in the distance. But the journey, more than one-third of a mile when played at its longest, brings danger into play. The par 5 can stretch all the way to 667 yards, making it one of the TOUR’s longest holes. With a wide fairway, players can take a rip off the tee but need to catch some help from the ridge if they want to attack in two. On the second shot, a ravine, along with scattered bunkers, make missing short and left a disaster, and with a usual front-left Sunday pin position, this all comes into play. Justin Thomas found the hazard in 2020 and made a bogey to fall into a playoff with Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele, which Thomas eventually won after playing No. 18 three more times. A more conservative second shot is directed out to the right, where the contours will guide the ball back toward the green upon landing. However, if the ball does not get a kick, a downhill pitch shot awaits. While having a par-5 as the 18th hole seems like an obvious birdie opportunity to finish each round, the 600-plus-yard gauntlet also provides a long strip of danger en route to the clubhouse. Birdie is manageable. Eagle is feasible, but risky. Recent renovation was also a restoration When the Plantation Course opened in 1992, Coore and Crenshaw made sure to use the West Maui Mountains and Pacific Ocean for stunning views on every hole. Those features won’t change, at least for a few thousand years. But the bounce of the course had decreased at a much faster rate and required a fix after almost three decades of existence. “Years ago, you would hit a tee shot and it would chase and chase and chase unbelievable distances. But as the grass grew and grew for 30 years, a lot of that element was lost,” Coore said before the 2020 Sentry TOC. “The course had gotten so soft that it was easy pickin’s for TOUR players and really long for resort players.” In 2019, 100 acres of the Plantation Course’s fairways were stripped and regrassed with a new surface: Celebration Bermudagrass, a denser playing turf than the original Bermuda. This surface could be mowed tighter and controlled against year-round trampling. “The idea at Kapalua always was to land a shot 60 yards short of a green and let it roll on,” Coore said in 2020. “In recent years, a ball landing 20 yards short of a green would just stop. It will play differently this year. Players will be able to use sideslopes to feed shots to a flag. And drives will roll out farther, sometimes closer to trouble.” The greens, which had shrunk over almost three decades, were expanded closer to their original sizes. “There’s no question our greens needed a little more calming to offer some more pin positions,” Crenshaw said. Perhaps 2020’s winning score of 14 under, the highest since 2007, was representative of this change. But it didn’t last. Harris English and Joaquin Niemann went low again last year, each reaching 25 under. It’s way, way up Most tourists may come to Maui for the beach. TOUR players come for the elevation. The Plantation Course reaches a high point of 510 feet and spans 316 acres of property. The following week’s Sony Open at Waialae Country Club on Oahu will peak at roughly 10 feet of elevation change on a 120-acre property. The Kapalua Golf website embraces the elevation change by noting, “This course offers plenty of downhill tee shots. You’ll feel like one of the pros when – with the aid of the aggressive slope of the 18th fairway – you will enjoy hitting one of the longest drives of your life.” While most holes feature ocean views, there is no water on the course. However, various canyons, including the notorious penalty area on 18, provide potential trouble. Mountains, not water, define Kapalua. Americans have dominated America’s 50th state has been an automatic U.S. victory for the last decade and change. Coming into the 2022 event, the Sentry Tournament of Champions has seen 11 consecutive American winners, from Jonathan Byrd in 2011 to Harris English in 2021. Former world No. 1s and FedExCup champions Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are among those who have also won and often contend there. It wasn’t always this way. After David Duval, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk won the first three editions at Kapalua from 1999-2001, the U.S. went nine straight years without a win on Maui. Aussies Stuart Appleby and Geoff Ogilvy won three times and two times, respectively, while Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Daniel Chopra each lifted the trophy once. Since last year’s Sentry, the TOUR has had 17 different international winners, including Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith, team winners of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Five of the fall’s nine winners are from countries outside of the United States. Will that trend continue at Kapalua?

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Justin Thomas got a lot done in eight holes Saturday, leaving with a one-shot lead over Adam Scott and facing a marathon finish in the rain-delayed Genesis Open. Thomas, a former FedExCup champion, played six holes in the morning, nearly holing a 9-iron and then making par with a flop shot on the green and over the bunker on the par-3 sixth as he completed a 6-under 65 to share the 36-hole lead with Scott, who also had a 65. They started the third round in the afternoon with only about 45 minutes of daylight, and Thomas holed a 12-foot eagle putt to take the lead. Scott missed his eagle attempt on the par-5 opening hole. The final group hit tee shots on the third hole when it was too dark to continue. They were to resume at 6:45 a.m. local time to complete the third round, and then head back onto the course in the same groups to try to finish. Thomas was at 13-under par through two holes of the third round. Tiger Woods completed seven holes and they were loud. Woods made a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe on his final hole of the second round that assured he would make the cut — he ultimately made it with one shot to spare — and then he made Riviera rock with his start to the third round. Woods made birdie on No. 10, hit 3-wood to 10 feet for eagle on the par-5 11th, holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 12th and a 15-foot birdie putt on the 13th. Just like that, he was tied for 12th as the leaders were just getting going. Woods remained seven shots behind, and he stopped playing after his third shot on the par-5 17th came up short of the green. Patrick Rodgers, who completed a 67, opened with an eagle and was two shots behind Thomas. The start of the tournament was delayed seven hours by rain Thursday and has been trying to catch up, creating a disjointed feel to the week. Thomas said he could barely feel his toes when he warmed up Saturday morning in temperatures in the low 40s and darkness as he set out to finish the second round. He also was up before dawn on Friday to get ready to start his opening round. Imagine how he felt when told when the third round was to resume. “I’m still trying to get over that 6:45 a.m. start I just heard,” he said. “That’s in a couple of hours.” Conditions were so good that players wanted to get in as many holes as they could, so they launched tee shots on No. 3. But darkness sets in quickly off Sunset Boulevard, and they had no choice but to stop. Scott could hardly see the flag from 136 yards away. “I have no depth perception because I can’t see the flag,” Scott said. Michael Thompson, who didn’t get into the tournament as the first alternate until Sunday, was at 10 under. Rory McIlroy finished off a 63 in the morning to get back in the game, and he had one birdie through three holes in the third round. He was playing with Jordan Spieth, who had a 70 in the morning to finish four behind. Spieth three-putted for par on the opening hole, missing from 3 feet, and three-putted from the fringe on No. 3 for a bogey to fall six shots behind. He also missed a 10-foot birdie on his final shot of the day. But there is a long way to go. Saturday night usually feels like the end is near. Instead, the final group still has just under half the tournament to go. Woods, while seven shots behind, still had 29 holes to play. “All of us have to deal with it,” Woods said. “I’ve got to get in two solid rounds. They’re pushing us to get through it. Give us a bag lunch and we’re off.”

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