Jason Day signs with Bridgestone Golf

It’s been a long time since Tiger Woods has been in a winning position after the third round. Question is: How will he deal with the emotions Sunday?

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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 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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OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Luke Donald glanced at the electronic leaderboard while waiting to putt out at the 18th green early Friday afternoon. He noticed the cut line: 2 over. He was 2 over. Having started the week outside the top-100 bubble, the par putt from 7 feet meant his season was on the line. It also meant the potential closure of a frustrating stretch of golf. Donald entered THE NORTHERN TRUST having missed eight consecutive cuts on the PGA TOUR. The last time he reached the weekend was at the RBC Heritage in mid-April. He finished solo second on a shot-maker’s course suited for his game. Since then, just three of his last 16 rounds have been in red numbers. The lowest was a 64 he shot in a four-ball round with partner Jamie Lovemark at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event. They missed the cut by two shots that week. Until this stretch, he had never missed more than three consecutive cuts since becoming a full-time TOUR member in 2002. “Been a tough run the last few months,â€� said Donald, who did make the cut in two European Tour events this summer. “It’s a fickle game. It doesn’t feel like I’m very far away. I feel like something good is coming soon.â€� But he former World No. 1 is finding it tough to compete on courses requiring length off the tee. He ranks 193rd in strokes gained: off-the-tee and 187th in driving distance. His short game and putting are among the best on TOUR – he ranks third in strokes gained: putting this season – but it hasn’t been enough. Even Glen Oaks, a first-time venue on TOUR, is not ideal for him. Its wide fairways and 7,436-yard length favors the bombers, and he’s a strategist and grinder. “Not much strategy,â€� he said. “Grab a driver and hit it as far as possible.â€� He opened with a 1-over 71 on Thursday, then made 16 consecutive pars to start his second round. He bogeyed the par-3 17th after finding a bunker, and at the 18th saw his approach dribble into the high rough behind the green. Then his chip didn’t release as he had hoped. So now he was 7 feet away from staying alive. At 107th in FedExCup points, it was weekend or bust. Unlike everyone else in the field, though, Donald has an additional reason to keep advancing. The third leg of the FedExCup Playoffs is the BMW Championship. It will be held for the third time at Conway Farms – Donald’s home course outside Chicago. Donald played in the BMW in 2013, used his local knowledge and made a big move to advance to the TOUR Championship. He didn’t get to play there in 2015. Donald first played Conway Farms while attending Northwestern, and was influential in helping it become a TOUR stop. No one on TOUR knows the course better – “I was there all this summer. Played a few rounds,â€� Donald said — and now he wants to help shape it. On Monday, Donald will travel to Conway Farms as part of the bid process for some bunkering renovation with architect Dave Zinkand. “I’m starting to get into that side of the business,â€� Donald said. “We’re one of the finalists to try to do it. See if we can get the job.â€� But first, there was this nasty business Friday of saving par from 7 feet. He rolled in the putt. Set your alarm clock, Luke. You’ve got an early tee time Saturday. 14 PLAYERS ELIMINATED Fourteen players who started the week outside the top 100 in FedExCup points were officially eliminated by missing the cut at Glen Oaks. Those players include: Jimmy Walker (5 over) Brian Gay (3 over) Brandon Hagy (7 over) Steve Stricker (4 over) Derek Fathauer (11 over) Tyrone Van Aswegen (3 over) Harris English (5 over) Dominic Bozelli (DNP) Nick Watney (4 over) John Huh (9 over) Blayne Barber (6 over) Ben Martin (7 over) Rory Sabbatini (5 over) J. J. Henry (4 over) BUBBLE WATCH Here are the players who are projected to move inside the top 100 that will advance to next week’s Dell Technologies Championship, along with the players who are projected to fall out. QUOTE OF THE DAY Guys, this has grown in stature. Now we’re over a decade in. It means a big deal. Guys are putting this down on the list of things they want to accomplish on the golf course. TOP 5 WATCH The top 5 players entering the TOUR Championship will control their own destiny at East Lake. Here’s a look at how the current top 5 fared Friday at THE NORTHERN TRUST. 1. Hideki Matsuyama (69). Bogeyed two of his final three holes – including a missed 4-footer for par on his final hole – to miss the cut at 3 over. Projected to drop to sixth. 2. Justin Thomas (69). Had a wild final five holes, with three birdies, a bogey and a double bogey and is 3 under and tied for 10th. Projected to fall to 5th. 3. Jordan Spieth (65). Fueled by five consecutive birdies on his back nine, Spieth enters the weekend tied for the lead at 6 under. Projected to first. 4. Dustin Johnson (69). Was leading at 8 under until back-to-back bogeys. Still, he’s tied for the lead at 6 under. He’ll move into first with a win, but currently projects to second (since he’s tied with Spieth). 5. Rickie Fowler (66). Another member of the top-5 club tied for the lead, thanks to his five birdies. Not guaranteed to take over first with a win but it’s likely. Currently projected to third since he’s tied with Spieth and Johnson. FEDEXCUP NOTES Geoff Ogilvy, who started the week outside the bubble at No. 116, arrived at his final hole Friday comfortably inside the cut line at even par. But then he found not one, not two, but three bunkers on the ninth hole. He had to sweat out a 4-foot putt for double bogey that left him at 2 over – right on the cut line. … Incidentally, if Ogilvy had missed that putt, the cut line would’ve moved to 3 over. It also would’ve saved the season for Brian Gay and Tyrone Van Aswegen, two players who were officially eliminated Friday after missing the cut. Graham DeLaet withdrew on the third hole Friday with a back injury, but he’s safely in for next week’s event at TPC Boston. DeLaet entered the Playoffs 67th in points and is projected to fall to 76th.

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