Halfway home: More playoff thrills await

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 PGA TOUR’s 2022 winners and those who finished in the top 30 of the FedExCup will open the year in the first of the new designated events that will feature the game’s top players competing for elevated purses. Kapalua has become known for its scenic vistas, low scores and wild finishes. A big reason for the theatrics? The uniqueness of the venue. The Plantation Course is not your everyday TOUR layout. Severe elevation changes and dramatic slopes make for an unpredictable four days in paradise. This course was the firstfruits of the famous design partnership between Bill Coore and two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw, and it is celebrating its 25th time hosting the Sentry Tournament of Champions. To mark this milestone, and the debut of a new era for the PGA TOUR’s schedule, here are five things to know about the venue where the PGA TOUR annually celebrates the New Year. 1. SEVENTY-THREE’S COMPANY Ernie Els won at 31 under in 2003, and Jordan Spieth nearly caught him with a winning score of 30 under in 2016. Last year saw the lowest score in relation to par in the TOUR’s history (34 under). 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. 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 players making the trip to the South Pacific better be ready to make some birdies. 2. EXCITING FINISH From the tee box, the 18th hole provides one of the most beautiful vistas 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 a ridge if they want to attack in two. It is site of the first 400-yard drive in TOUR history. Jonathan Byrd hit it in first round of the 2003 tournament. The fairway slants sharply from right to left, and players often use those contours to feed their second shots onto the green, as well. It’s the safer route, as the entire left side of the hole is lined by a penalty area full of thick vegetation. The green also is guarded on the left by bunkers that penalize any misses short or left, especially to the left-side hole locations. 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. 3. RENOVATION PROJECT 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 course’s firmness 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 Tournament of Champions. “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. … Players will be able to use side-slopes 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. 4. STEEP SLOPES 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. The steep slopes mean the scorecard doesn’t tell the entire story. Holes can play much longer, or shorter, than advertised. Take, for example the 550-yard 17th and 541-yard 15th. The former is a par-4, while the latter is a par-5. The first and eighth holes are two more downhill par-4s that stretch longer than 500 yards. 5. QUARTER CENTURY The 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions marks the 25th time Kapalua is hosting the Sentry Tournament of Champions. It saw some dramatic finishes right from the start. David Duval won the first Sentry at Kapalua during a hot streak that saw him supplant Tiger Woods atop the world ranking. Duval won by nine – the largest winning margin at Kapalua – then shot a final-round 59 to win The American Express in his next start. He won THE PLAYERS two months later. The next year, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els engaged in a memorable duel that set the stage for Woods’ greatest season. They matched eagles on the 72nd hole to go into a playoff, which Woods won with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. He went on to win three majors that year and Els was runner-up in two, albeit 15 shots behind Woods at the U.S. Open and eight behind him at The Open. Jordan Spieth followed up his incredible 2015 – in which he won two majors and the FedExCup – with an eight-shot win in the 2016 Sentry. The next year, Justin Thomas swept the Hawaiian events, winning the Sentry Tournament of Champions and Sony Open. He won the Sentry by three before shooting a first-round 59 at the Sony en route to a seven-shot win. Thomas went on to win that year’s FedExCup and his first major at the PGA Championship. Two years later, Xander Schauffele shot a final-round 62 to rally from five shots back and win his third PGA TOUR title. It is the lowest final-round score by a winner at Kapalua. Thomas, who won the Sentry again in 2020, and Jon Rahm then became the first players to shoot 61 at the Plantation Course, doing so in the third round last year.

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LAS VEGAS — Notes and observations from the third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin where Bryson DeChambeau and Peter Uihlein head to Sunday tied for the lead. LEADING LIGHTS Bryson DeChambeau knew he needed to make something happen late Saturday if he was serious about winning in Las Vegas. While playing steady to be sitting two under on his round through 12 holes the four-time PGA TOUR winner was frustrated. He walked off the 12th hole having missed a five-foot birdie try and a glance at the leaderboard saw him now three shots off the lead, shots in his head he had left out there over his opening 48 holes. He figured he better shake it off and deliver. “I’ve had three three-putts and missed a numerous amounts of putts inside 10 feet (nine of them) this week,â€� he explained. “It is what it is and that’s golf. You’re not going to have everything every week. I’m always a guy trying to strive for the best, and, yeah, I’m going to get frustrated. That’s just who I am. That’s my nature. Got a little fire in me.â€� The fire worked. DeChambeau birdied four of his closing six holes to grab a share of the 54-hole lead with Peter Uihlein. Come Sunday the two former U.S. Amateur winners will play with a former U.S. Open champion in Lucas Glover in the final group. Uihlein is chasing his first PGA TOUR win. “Tomorrow will be exciting. Depending on the weather, if it’s windy could be tricky again. If not I think you can get after it. It will be a bit of a shootout,â€� Uihlein said “Definitely looking forward if. I’m excited.â€� OBSERVATIONS GLOVER GOES LOW: Former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover had a chance to win the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open two years ago when he held the 54-hole lead only to fade to third. He’s hoping he can exact some revenge Sunday after producing a blistering 10-under 61 in the third round, punctuated by an eagle putt from 41 feet, six inches from the fringe on his final hole. Having started on the 10th hole with a bogey it was an incredible effort of two eagles and seven birdies that left him at 15 under, just one shot behind the leaders. He needed just 26 putts, making 155 feet, 11 inches of them – a mark that doesn’t include his above eagle try as it is classed as a chip in statistically. “Just one of those days. Holed it like a bucket. But I made it look like a bucket, which feels good, too,â€� Glover said. “I just need to do what I’ve been doing… be smart where I need to be smart and be aggressive where I can and make some putts. That’s always the key for me… putt well and confidently.â€� CANTLAY BACK NINE BLITZES: Defending champion Patrick Cantlay is not prepared to give up his title without a solid fight and if he sits close to the lead at the turn Sunday he might just have an edge. Cantlay’s 8-under 63 on Saturday rocketed him back into contention at 14 under, just two shots from the lead and tied fourth. The key to his week has been the final nine holes of TPC Summerlin where he is bogey free and 12 under compared to just two under on the front side. “There’s a couple of par-5s and the drivable 4 so it’s gettable,â€� Cantlay said of the home stretch. “I kind of botched the front side the first two days. Played much better on the front side today. Still haven’t got at 9 (par-5) any day, which is obviously not good. “Patience is always good but you still need to be aggressive. I’m going to continue that mindset tomorrow and try and get hot early and keep it going.â€� VARNER III TAKES PENALTY ON THE CHIN: Harold Varner III thought he’d be chasing his first PGA TOUR title from three shots back but a moving ball penalty pushed him four off the pace. Varner was settling in to his approach from the fairway on the 11th hole when his ball moved during his waggle process. He was looking at the target when it moved but called in an official after noticing the ball had shifted. Initially Varner believed he hadn’t grounded his club and was cleared of any wrongdoing but video replay of the incident confirmed he had and a penalty was assessed post-round leaving him with a 2-under 69 to be 12 under and four back. Varner accepted the decision after seeing the footage. “I didn’t think I grounded my club but the video showed I did,â€� Varner explained. “It is what it is. We got tomorrow and I am super excited about another opportunity.â€� SI WOO KIM ADVENTURES: Former PLAYERS Champion Si Woo Kim had quite the adventurous third round. The Korean opened with five straight birdies before a wild drive on the par-4 6th hole went out of bounds and he muffed two chips to post a quintuple bogey nine. A hole later his driver was broken yet he managed to play the final 11 holes without it in two under. “Seven birdies, no bogeys… two under… that’s golf,â€� he shrugged as he came off the 18th hole. QUOTABLES Probably would’ve gone in a thimble.Have a fun night and play a little bit better tomorrow, that’s for sure. See if we can at least post something low and see what happens.If I can just stay in it and keep executing great shots every single time… I’m going to be tough to beat. That’s just the way it is. SUPERLATIVES Low round: 10-under 61 by Lucas Glover. Two eagles, seven birdies and one bogey. Longest drive: 373 yards – Peter Malnati and Seth Reeves both on the par-5 13th. Longest putt: 45 feet, 9 inches – Lucas Glover. Toughest hole: Par-4 12th. Played to 4.189 with just four birdies, 10 bogeys and four doubles. Easiest hole: Par-5 13th. Was taken apart by the field at 4.297 with five eagles and 42 birdies. SHOT OF THE DAY CALL OF THE DAY For play-by-play coverage of the final round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, listen at PGATOUR.COM.

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