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Island hopping continues in Hawaii as the TOUR shifts from the newly redone Plantation Course on bucolic Maui to the hustle and bustle of the classic Seth Raynor Waialae Country Club in Honolulu on Oahu. The traffic on the course, and island, increases this week as 144 players comprise the first full-field event of calendar 2020. The top 60 and ties will play the weekend for a piece of a $6.6 million prize purse with the winner taking home $1.188 million plus 500 FedExCup points. Waialae CC stretches only 7,044 yards (Par-70) and has hosted the event since 1965, so course form plays a massive angle. Bermuda greens and tight driving targets usually provide the challenge but this week, the trade winds will also keep scoring at a premium. The classic layout has only crowned two debut winners this century and only two more under the age of 30 since 1999 so experience, in the wind and on the course, matters this week. With gusty conditions in the forecast, experience and ball-striking receives extra emphasis. Of the 144 players entered, 23 knocked the rust off last week in Maui. Over the last 21 events, 15 champions played the week prior in the winner’s-only event. Justin Thomas (2017) and Ernie Els (2003) are the only two to win both Hawaii events back-to-back to kick off the year. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks Recent Winners 2019: Matt Kuchar (-22, 258) Became the third winner since 2012 to also win the previous year at Mayakoba. … Just the second player 40 or older to win this century. … Played the previous week on Maui. … Top nine in EVERY major statistical category other than Strokes-Gained: Around-the-Green. … Led the field in GIR and Ball-Striking. … Won in his 14th attempt. Notables: Only four over-par rounds posted from the top 28 players in benign conditions. … Andrew Putnam (2nd) and Brian Gay (T22) both gained over 10 strokes on the greens. … Corey Conners closed 64-64 for T3 after qualifying on Monday. … Noted wind player Marc Leishman cashed T3. … Top 28 were 10 under or better. @GolfOdds has set this year’s winning total for 270.5. #Windy. 2018: Patton Kizzire (-17, 263) The 2017 Mayakoba champion defeated James Hahn on the second playoff hole to win in his second visit to Waialae CC. … Joined the previous four winners by finishing in the top five in Strokes-Gained: Putting. … Third-consecutive winner who did NOT finish in the top 55 in driving accuracy. … T1 Par-3 scoring. Notables: James Hahn fired 62 in Round 4 to force a playoff. … Tom Hoge led by one after 54 holes and missed the playoff by a shot. … Brian Harman led by three after 36 holes (64-63) before cashing T4. … Webb Simpson’s furious finish (63-65) secured T4. … 10 under was good for T25 and there were only five over-par rounds from those 31 golfers. 2017: Justin Thomas (-27, 253) Completed the Maui-Honolulu double as he set the course record (59; Round 1) and the tournament record to win by seven shots. … Set the TOUR record for best 36-hole score (123) and tied the 54-hole mark (188). … Led by seven after 54 holes over Zach Johnson. … Top four in all Strokes-Gained categories minus Around-the-Green. … Won in his third attempt. Notables: Kevin Kisner posted 60 in Round 3 and eventually cashed T4. … Johnson signed for 61 in Round 2 and played in the final group (T6). … Chez Reavie closed the proceedings with 61 to hit T8. … The top 44 players were 10 under or lower. Key stat leaders With gusty conditions in the forecast and a winning total expected around 10 under, this week is going to look different to previous editions at Waialae. Getting the ball in the hole is going to trump scoring for me this week. Top golfers in each statistic on the 2019-20 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week.  * - previous top-10 finish here since 2015 Strokes-Gained: Putting  4 Graeme McDowell (first appearance)  5 *Andrew Putnam  7 *Patton Kizzire  9 Vaughn Taylor 11 *Webb Simpson 12 *Brandt Snedeker 14 *Pat Perez 19 Peter Malnati 20 *Kevin Kisner 22 Patrick Rodgers 23 Sam Burns Strokes-Gained: Approach-the-Green  2 *Justin Thomas  3 Emiliano Grillo  5 Hideki Matsuyama  9 *Corey Conners 13 *Chez Reavie 14 *Webb Simpson 15 Talor Gooch 17 *Matt Kuchar 18 *Russell Knox 19 Keegan Bradley 24 Nate Lashley 25 Joaquin Niemann 28 *Marc Leishman Bogey Avoidance  2 *Webb Simpson  4 *Charles Howell III  6 *Matt Kuchar  7 *Scott Piercy 10 Vaughn Taylor 13 Matt Jones 14 Sungjae Im 16 *Justin Thomas 17 Bud Cauley 22 *Rory Sabbatini 25 Patrick Reed Mahalo Justin Thomas: T16 or better in four of five starts the last five years. … Also owns 61 from debut event in 2015. … Scoring average is 66.56 and is 51 under his last three trips. Charles Howell III: Leading money winner at the event and he’s never won! … 18 visits, 18 paychecks. … Hit the top 10 in five of his last 10 starts and 10 overall. … 23 rounds in the red and counting and 61 of 68 career rounds 70 or better. Matt Kuchar: Last six have gone for WIN, T13, T3, T8, T5 and T5. Frequent Fliers Marc Leishman: Never missed in 10 trips. … Of 40 rounds, nine have gone for 65 or better. … Eight of 10 paydays T28 or better. Webb Simpson: Never missed in nine trips. … 11 of 35 rounds 66 or better. … T20 or better last five visits. Brian Gay: Cashed 16 of 19 career including 16 of his last 17. Wait, What? Brian Stuard: Made six of seven weekends with four top-10 paydays and 67.23 scoring average. … Top 10 last two years. Hudson Swafford: 67.32 scoring average in six tries; three top-10 paychecks including T3 last year. Jimmy Walker: Last repeat champion in 2015 hasn’t found his mojo in his last three visits. Caution. Pat Perez: Almost half of his 17 appearances have ended up in the top 25 with half of those in the top 10, but his last three (MC-81-T69) have been clunky.
Typically, a career year for any professional athlete isn’t identifiable until there’s agreement that the glory days have passed. For the best talent at any time, evidence suggesting future greater achievement is filed regularly, so it’s a fool’s errand to argue that a career year already has been cemented. Yet, there are exceptions. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look In professional golf, winning a major constitutes candidacy for a career year, but Hideki Matsuyama is only 30 years old, so classifying his career year as 2021 when he became Japan’s first male major champion at the Masters, could be rushing to judgment despite the historic accomplishment. However, the year also included his participation in the Olympics in his native Japan where he was edged for a medal, and it ended with victory at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, also in his homeland. It was a lot, and it was great. The moral of the matter is that it would be unfair to expect any golfer to convert on a combination of those successes when the stars align like that. So, while it may prove not to be Matsuyama’s career year in the context of an overall body of work, it likely will be the most special year of his career personally, so it demands this moment to appreciate it because he defends the last of those highlights at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba this week. POWER RANKINGS: ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP Corey Conners, Cam Davis and Shriners co-runner-up Matthew NeSmith will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. The ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP opens a fortnight reserved for 78-man invitationals. THE CJ CUP in South Carolina is on deck. Both are rewards to the top 60 in the previous season’s FedExCup standings and neither has a cut. (Each field reserves space for the top 60 eligible among those who qualified for the Playoffs.) The event’s location in Japan is a giveaway that the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP is conducted in conjunction with the Japan Golf Tour, although it’s not an official event for the latter. Fifteen JGTO members are in the field, the majority of whom can be found at the top of their money list. Another is Keita Nakajima, who is making just his third start as a professional after an extended stretch atop the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Narashino is a par 70 with five par 3s and three par 5s. The nines are respective pars of 34 and 36. After debuting in 2019 with a scoring average of about one-half stroke under par, it returned in 2021 standing taller at 70.484. (Because of the pandemic, the 2020 edition was held at Sherwood Country Club in California.) After Matsuyama grabbed outright possession of the 36-hole lead, he sprinted through the finish line and posted 15-under 265 to win by five. The composite routing of the King and Queen Courses is 38 yards longer this year at 7,079 yards. The extensions occurred at the par-3 fifth that now can play as long as 205 yards after an increase of 14 yards, and at the par-4 10th that’s an even 400 yards with 24 yards of added length. Thursday’s opening round almost certainly will be a wet one, but dry conditions are expected for most of the remainder. Wind won’t trouble much and daytime temperatures will climb into the mid-70s, eventually, so scoring projects not to be harder than it was a year ago, but asking for another field average that’s a red number might be aggressive. Weather permitting, bentgrass greens are poised to crank at 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. The first two editions were prepped for 11½ and 12 feet, respectively. Members of the JGTO typically aren’t tested as often on this kind of pace. Also, because the tournament is scheduled a couple of weeks earlier than its first two spins in Japan, the thickest of the 3½-inch rough figures to be lusher than how returning entrants remember it. Course management is the priority, but now that there’s experience on the greens, ball-strikers aren’t benefited as much as they are on a new track. They’re going to need to roll in some putts, too. Matsuyama wasn’t going to be denied, so citing the fact that he led the field in greens in regulation and ranked second in scrambling presents and unrealistic benchmark for all. (ShotLink isn’t utilized at Narashino.) Speaking of hitting greens, the layout at Narashino serves as living history of golf in Japan. Each of the 18 holes has two greens. It was designed that way to extend playability across seasons of the year. The local rule is that when a golfer lands on the wrong green, he is allowed a free drop off the shortest of grass and no nearer the hole. For deeper detail on the possibilities this week, read this. Last year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP began at 8:30 a.m. local time on Thursday. Chiba is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Time in the United States, so it teed off at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. Consider this adjustment for how you monitor the action. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ‘Em Preview FRIDAY: Medical Extensions, Reshuffle SUNDAY: Qualifiers * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.
The PGA Tour was one of the first sports back in mid-June. With that return came questions. The biggest was this: Would it finish what it started? Aside from a hiccup here and there, the PGA Tour season concluded Monday. Here’s how it did it.
