What To Look For: Sentry Tournament of Champions

 The start of the 2021 year of PGA Tour golf comes to us with the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Plantation in Hawaii.

Kapalua is on the northwest shore of the island of Maui and is owned by the publicly held corporation, The Maui Land & Pineapple Company.  

They have two courses at Kapalua Resort...the Bay Course playing at 6,600 yards and the Plantation course playing at a par-73 at 7,500+ yards.  The tournament is on the Plantation course and some of the longest drives all season will be hit here due to the hilly terrain and wide open fairways.

Most strokes will be gained and lost on long approaches and short 1/2-3/4 wedge shots.  Expect about 70%+ of the GIR to be hit by the field, but if the wind picks up then some short game around the green shots will be a factor because it's a very difficult course to get up-and-down and there usually is a high standard deviation in scrambling percentage.

The course itself is generally well liked by the Tour pros, but not so much the caddies because it's so hilly.  But it's a very limited field, big purse and no cut and you're in Maui...so who can complain?

It's tough to complain about views like this:

The final Critical Hole at Kapalua is the 360 yard 16th hole.

What makes the hole has such a large deviation in score is that it's a short hole, but the fairway is practically split in two with by the 3 fairway bunkers.  This is where Bryson DeChambeau should have a large advantage as carrying those bunkers should be a piece of cake.

Projected Winning Score:  -23

3JACK'S FAVORITES

Dustin Johnson +600

Justin Thomas +700

Bryson DeChambeau +1,100

Patrick Cantlay +1,800

Collin Morikawa +2,200

3JACK'S DARK HORSE PICK

Ryan Palmer +10,000 

3JACK