{"id":9248,"date":"2024-01-01T16:14:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T16:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/?post_type=article&p=9248"},"modified":"2024-01-02T23:47:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T23:47:14","slug":"the-sentry-at-the-plantation-course-at-kapalua-2024-preview","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/api.betspertsgolf.com\/raw-forum\/article\/the-sentry-at-the-plantation-course-at-kapalua-2024-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sentry at the Plantation Course at Kapalua – 2024 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a six-week hiatus, regular PGA Tour golf is back! Happy New Year to all those in the Betsperts Golf family and to everyone reading this. There is no better place to kick off the 2024 calendar year than the warmth, beauty, and lush green grass of Hawaii at The Sentry, played at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. Though the PGA Tour is experiencing a turbulent stretch due to the disruption brought on by the LIV Golf Tour, the defection of Jon Rahm, and seemingly futile attempts at reaching an agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and other entities to merge all of the different golf leagues, The Sentry event represents golf’s rebirth and hopefully a calendar year full of intrigue and fierce competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with it being one of the Tour’s “Signature Events”, this year’s tournament takes on added significance because of the devasting Maui wildfires that killed 97 people earlier in the year in Lahaina which is just 13 miles away from Kapalua. The fires also destroyed more than 2,000 structures. And though the property at the Kapalua Resort was not affected, a third of the staff who live in the Lahaina area lost their homes. Said Tyler Dennis, the Tour’s chief competition officer, “There is no other organization in sport which rallies around those in need like the PGA Tour. Given the overwhelming support for playing the tournament, the Tour and The Sentry are currently working on plans to further raise awareness and assist with fundraising and community service to Maui in a thoughtful and respectful manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1999, the Tour has kicked off the new year with this tournament which has been held at the Kapalua Resort near Lahaina on the island of Maui. Kapalua is where paradise and golf meet. Once the site of a large pineapple plantation, it’s such a unique course that you can see whales breaching in the distance on the first tee, and on the 18th tee can wallop a 450+ yard drive. Thanks to the wind and elevation changes, it is one of the few courses on Earth where the yardage on the scorecard is irrelevant on many holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This compilation of the world’s best golfers is a unique, no-cut, small-field event, played on a low-scoring par-73 course that has expansive fairways, numerous elevation changes, and gusty coastal breezes. Thanks to the combination of easy-to-hit fairways and greens, it’s one of the most genuine birdie fests on Tour, and it favors the best wedge players and the hottest putters. It plays the complete opposite of a target-style golf course. The allowance for creativity and multiple options for each shot makes it a fun track to play. Players with every shot in their bag who can maneuver the terrain and manage the wind will best position themselves for success at Kapalua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a wind-blown 2020 where the winning score by Justin Thomas was only 14-under par, the past three events have seen scoring return to the more common finishing number of 25-under or lower. After Cam Smith took birdie-making to another level in 2022 by winning with an event record of 34-under, last year, Jon Rahm took advantage of Collin Morikawa’s final-round collapse by rallying from as many as nine strokes back to win by two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Field<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the past, as its previous name implied, “The Sentry Tournament of Champions” (now just “The Sentry”) has always only been for PGA Tour winners. Things are changing this year with the top 50 from the previous year\u2019s FedEx Cup along with any other Tour winner from 2023 eligible to participate. Currently, 59 players are in the field, including 21 of the top 25, and 38 of the top 50 golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sentry kicks off the \u201cHawaii Swing\u201d (which concludes with next week\u2019s Sony Open) and is meant as a paradise of escape from the cold winter enveloping most of America by providing the best players on Tour with a rewarding experience at the Kapalua Resort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With everyone in the field coming in with at least a month off from competition, it’s always interesting to see which players have been grinding away back home over the break and come out sharp in the first round. The resort setup is meant to help the pros ease back into the grind after (mostly) putting their clubs away over the holidays. Related to returning from a long break, Patrick Cantlay remarked, “It’s a good golf course to kind of shake some rust off. The fairways are big and there’s lots of space out here to hit shots and it’s also a golf course where you have to be very creative, and so you have to play all the different shots out here to be successful.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past Sentry champions that will be teeing it off this week include Harris English, Xander Schauffele, and Jordan Spieth. The past two winners at Kapalua, Smith and Rahm, are both ineligible to play due to joining the LIV Golf League. All of the other top-ranked players in the world who qualified will participate this week except for Rory McIlroy who has once again decided to skip this event and begin his season in Dubai in a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Course History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Plantation course at Kapalua was the creation of famed architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. Designed in 1991, the course is laid out over an immense area of terrain on the lower slopes of the volcanic West Maui Mountains. The scenic 677-yard 18th hole was the original hole that was designed with the rest of the course being built around it. “Coore and Crenshaw” courses are known for providing options off the tee for players to attack the greens from a variety of angles. Thanks to fairways that are wide enough to land a 747 jet, players have multiple landing zone options on each hole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting on 240 acres, the rugged terrain presented a huge challenge as Coore and Crenshaw had several valleys and gorges with which to deal. According to Coore, the massive resort course was built on such a huge scale to accommodate the wind and the slope of the mountains. As we will get into further below, the course can be very challenging, but not because of the design choices. The architects kept the build elements very minimal to let the natural geography and weather create difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course received a renovation (or as Coore called it “a rejuvenation”) in 2019 that was meant to restore the layout to its original condition. “We look forward to the opportunity to restore many elements of the Plantation Course and implement a few \u2018refinements\u2019,\u201d said Coore. \u201cIt\u2019s like when you have a special piece of art, or something really special to you, and you get a chance to dust if off and make it new again. This will be a very thoughtful restoration and refining process, but it\u2019s not a redesign. We are very happy with the way the course looks and the way it has gone through the past nearly three decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, almost every part of the course was modified in the $12 million project including tee boxes, fairways, bunkers, and the green complexes. Repositioned bunkers and new tee boxes are in response to the distance gained by professional players since the course was built. The entire course from tee-to-green was replanted with Celebration bermudagrass which is a more durable playing turf for the conditions of the island because it can be mowed shorter and better protects against the year-round trampling the course receives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every single green was rebuilt and resurfaced with TifEagle Bermuda. The greens had dramatically shrunk over time since 1991 so they were expanded back to their original size. This also allowed for more pin positions to be utilized. After the renovation was completed, Bill Coore said this about the changes around the greens, “The idea at Kapalua always was to land a shot 60 yards short of a green and let it roll on. In recent years, a ball landing 20 yards short of a green would just stop. Players will be able to use side slopes to feed shots to a flag. And drives will roll out farther, sometimes closer to trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finish Position and Strokes Gained Event History (2015-2023)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round in each category. Players are sorted by SG: Total. The Plantation Course at Kapalua is the 18th (out of 44) most predictive annual course on Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Course Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Located on the north shore of the Hawaiian island of Maui, the Plantation Course at Kapalua is a unique Par 73 coastal parkland layout that measures 7,596 yards. It is the 12th-longest course in the annual Tour rotation and sits on a spacious tract of mountainous land. From the breathtaking views overlooking Honokahua Bay to the 500-foot elevation difference between its highest and lowest points, the course is a spectacularly scenic place to host a highly competitive event comprised of a majority of the world\u2019s best golfers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to several factors, Plantation has the well-deserved reputation of being one of the lower-scoring courses on Tour relative to par. Since beginning on Tour in 1999, the winning score is typically in the low-to-mid 20s under par. There have been outliers, of course, with Thomas (-14) and Smith’s (-34) victories being separated by 20 strokes. Over the past five years, it has ranked as the second-easiest course on Tour at -3.08. Last year’s tournament set the record at a whopping -4.08 under par. While there are plenty of birdie and eagle opportunities, the course still offers a few potential challenges including coastal winds, uneven lies, and expansive tiered greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it is a parkland course with plenty of trees, they don’t crowd the fairways. While there are no holes that bring any type of water danger into play, there are 93 bunkers (fourth-most on Tour) that litter the course. There are also a few canyons with heavy vegetation and penalty areas to contend with. But even more challenging to golfers this week is the ability to manage the factors mentioned above that could cause trouble – elevation changes, massive greens, and the strength of the wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Though located on the coast, it’s the mountains that define Kapalua. The resort\u2019s Plantation Course was built on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains. This terrain creates large undulations throughout the course as golfers progress up and down the elevation changes throughout their round. In fact, the course has the largest amount of elevation changes on Tour. Patrick Reed remarked that all the awkward lies, blind shots, and elevation changes force players to be more engaged and creative in their shot-making throughout the week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Fun” is a word that pops up continually in player interviews about the course. Said 2019 winner, Xander Schauffele, “It just kind of fits my eye. Usually, it’s a little windier, you got to sort of do all things in your game correctly. It’s just a lot of fun to play because you’re on these massive hills and a ton of wind and kind of weird breaking putts.” Rickie Fowler, who has four top-6 finishes here in his only starts jumped on the “fun” bandwagon as well by remarking, “This golf course allows you to use your imagination. Obviously with the amount of up and down and side slopes, and in the wind you’ve got to have some imagination on shot shape and hit your windows. So judging that properly is always fun for me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kapalua’s Bermuda rough measures 2.5″ long but poses little threat to golfers as the average proximity to the hole from the thicker grass is only three feet further than from the fairway. The mammoth Bermuda greens at Plantation average 8,700 square feet. Combining the size and slope of the greens with the typical gusty winds makes the course one of the toughest on Tour for proximity to the hole. This, in turn, increases the potential for three putts and bogeys on certain holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the main defense the course offers is in the form of the prevailing east-by-northeast trade winds which can make certain holes much more difficult and which tend to increase as the afternoon progresses. Players who have more experience in windy conditions, especially those who can control their ball flight will have a definite advantage. These are not light and variable breezes, but gusts often exceeding 25 mph that can wreak havoc on the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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