The post The PGA Tour just canceled its opener. Is there more to the story? appeared first on Golf.

The post The PGA Tour just canceled its opener. Is there more to the story? appeared first on Golf.

The PGA Tour announced on Wednesday that its 2026 season opener, the Sentry, is canceled.

Curiously, it wasn’t the only Kapalua-related announcement on Wednesday. The Plantation Course — the pride of Maui and longtime host to the first event of the Tour’s calendar season — added a banner to its website trumpeting the fact that it’s now booking tee times after closing the course for two months.

So what on earth is going on?

This is a story of drought, of course conditions and of Hawaiian politics. But it has also become a story about the PGA Tour’s future, about its vision and its strategy and its relationships with markets and sponsors. Let’s talk through a few of the complicating factors together, Q&A-style.

Wait — why aren’t they having the Sentry at Kapalua like they normally do?

The simplest answer is that water restrictions on Maui (resulting from a combination of drought, infrastructure, streams, ditches, lawsuits, finger-pointing and more) called into question the course’s readiness to host a premier field in January. Tournament officials and PGA Tour representatives deliberated and ultimately decided last month that the Sentry wouldn’t happen as scheduled.

An earlier release on the decision cited conditioning concerns and explained that they pulled the plug early because of “logistical complexities unique to staging a tournament on the island of Maui.”

“These include shipping deadlines, vendor coordination and tournament infrastructure build-out — all of which are intensified by the island’s remote location,” the Tour wrote.

So how bad is the course, really?

Honestly? If you’ve seen posts of browned-out fairways on social media, it’s probably not as bad as you’d think. There are two courses at Kapalua, the Plantation and the Bay, and the resort has doubled down on its efforts to revitalize the Plantation — while some of the more viral images, like the one below, have been from the sepia-toned Bay.

As for the Plantation Course? They have a live view of the first tee which you can check out here, and below is a screenshot from Wednesday afternoon ET.

This is hardly proof of anything; we don’t have up-close looks at how well grass has grown in on the greens, for instance. But we’re still two-plus months from the start of the tournament. If everybody involved had been committed to the idea that the Sentry must be played at Kapalua this year, it seems like they could have done so. One way to think about this is that Tour doesn’t like uncertainty. Combining complex local politics with the uncertainty of the course conditions and everything required to get equipment, vending and personnel to Maui contributed to pulling the plug.

Wait, so why not have it somewhere else?

Good question! There was talk of holding the Sentry elsewhere. Torrey Pines, which served as fill-in host for last year’s Genesis, was a possibility, as were other options, from Palm Springs to Florida. Ultimately, those in charge decided that the logistical challenges of pulling together a last-minute replacement venue weren’t worth it. That’s not a particularly satisfying answer, but another way to think about it is this: The Tour and this tournament are each in reset mode. It wasn’t worth pulling out all the stops to make the Sentry happen in a less-than-satisfactory way.

There was also this comment from Sentry’s Stephanie Smith in the release:

“The Sentry is a jewel in the PGA Tour schedule,” said Smith, chief marketing and brand officer and chief golf partnership officer at Sentry. “We were determined to find a way to play a signature level event in 2026 – one that honored the tournament’s tradition and provided the quality of competition that players and fans have come to expect. Despite the Tour’s best efforts, it became impossible to do that. Sentry is committed to our long-term relationship with the Tour – which runs through 2035 – and the Sentry’s place as a prominent event. While 2026 will not turn out as we would have liked, we’re optimistic about the future.”

Are there other complicating factors?

There are! One is the fact that the Sentry is no longer the only early-January competition on the golf calendar. The DP World Tour’s 2026 Dubai Invitational is scheduled for the week after the Sentry (Jan. 15-18) and has already gotten commitments from Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood; they’re also among the top Europeans expected at the following week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic (Jan. 22-25).

There’s also TGL, which kicks off in Florida on Sunday, Dec. 28, and then features matches on Monday or Tuesday every week of January — which raised eyebrows when the schedule was released, given it’s tough to combine a Tuesday TGL match with a Thursday tournament tee time in Hawaii.

So … where does the PGA Tour season start?

Technically the first PGA Tour event of the season will be the Sony Open in Hawaii, with balls in the air for the first round on Jan. 15. But it may not feel quite like the full-on PGA Tour will be underway; top pros who typically island-hop from the Sentry to the Sony may not make the trip at all.

It’ll be interesting to see if we get a beefed-up field when the Tour returns to the mainland with the American Express in Palm Springs Jan. 22-25. That’s followed by the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines (Jan. 29-Feb. 1) and the WM Phoenix Open (Feb. 5-8) before, at last, the first Signature Event, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Feb. 12-15). From there, things will hit warp speed (eight Signature Events plus the Players and all four majors in the next 23 weeks). But it’s an admittedly slower start with the Sentry off the schedule.

Does this mean the end of PGA Tour golf in Hawaii?

The answer there is a very definitive maybe. There have been no final decisions made about the future of the Sentry nor Sony, but the Tour appears to be assessing all its options — and has been clear about the built-in challenges that come with hosting pro events in Hawaii.

On the one hand, there’s a long tradition of early season tournament golf in Hawaii. Cold-weather golf fans have grown to love being transported to Kapalua’s epic Hawaiian hillsides for primetime viewing the first week of the year. Players who make the trek love starting their seasons there and love bringing their families, too. And Sentry recently extended its partnership with the Tour and that kickoff event through 2035.

On the other hand, having a massive golf tournament on a remote island chain is expensive. It’s a logistical challenge from tournament operations and TV production standpoints. And Hawaii doesn’t have the population centers of its mainland counterparts, making revenue generation tougher. Reading between the lines of the Tour’s statement, it sounds committed to its relationship with Sentry (“a tremendous partner of ours”) but avoided any mention of the tournament’s future at Kapalua. Add in the fact that Sony’s deal expires in 2026, combine that with the Tour’s new leadership, and it’s easy to imagine a world where the season begins somewhere else — and somewhere easier to get to.

What does this mean for the future of the PGA Tour?

Nothing, yet. But it’s a reminder that change is coming. That everything is being assessed. That the Future Competition Committee, chaired by Tiger Woods, has been tasked with creating the Tour’s “optimal competitive model.” As new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said in August:

“The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change.”

That committee also includes Tour pros Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy and Keith Mitchell — as well as ex-Valero CEO Joe Gorder, Fenway Sports Group’s John Henry and baseball-executive-turned-sports-visionary Theo Epstein. They’ll have more to say, in time.

For now all we know for sure is that the first Tour event of 2026 is off the schedule. We can only guess at what changes come next.

The post The PGA Tour just canceled its opener. Is there more to the story? appeared first on Golf.

The post Popular PGA Tour site closes temporarily, raising questions about season opener appeared first on Golf.

The post Popular PGA Tour site closes temporarily, raising questions about season opener appeared first on Golf.

Come winter, the humpbacks are expected to return to Kapalua.

But will the Tour pros be back as well?

That question has emerged in the wake of this week’s headlines from Hawaii, where Kapalua Resort, the famed Maui destination and longtime host of the PGA Tour’s season-opening event, announced that it is closing for two months to protect its parched courses after prolonged water restrictions. Starting Sept. 2, Kapalua’s Bay and Plantation courses will shut down for 60 days, while most of the resort remains open to guests, including the Bay Course driving range.

News of the course closures, first reported by the AP and confirmed by GOLF.com, has prompted speculation over Kapalua’s readiness to stage The Sentry, the Tour’s traditional January kickoff, which has been held at the resort since 1999 and long ranked among the players’ favorite stops.

“This decision was not made lightly,” Alex Nakajima, general manager of Kapalua Golf and Tennis, said in a statement. “Closing at this time will allow us to begin careful recovery and restoration so that the courses may once again meet the standards of playability our guests deserve.”

Kapalua is situated in West Maui, the dry side of an island that has been wracked by drought in recent years. In 2023, high winds and tinderbox conditions helped fuel a devastating fire that left more than 100 people dead and leveled the city of Lahaina, nine miles down the coast from Kapalua. 

Whether drought is to blame for Kapalua’s dried-out courses is another matter. The resort’s owner, Tadashi Yanai, founder of the apparel brand Uniqlo, believes that responsibility lies elsewhere. In a lawsuit filed last week, Yanai joined Kapalua homeowners and the operators local farm in accusing Maui Land & Pineapple of mismanaging the ditch-and-stream system that funnels water from the West Maui mountains to Kapalua. 

“MLP has knowingly . . . allowed the Ditch System to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair,” the lawsuit alleges. “That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water.”

Maui Land & Pineapple has dismissed those allegations, saying that system inefficiencies are not the issue.

News

“During this time of record low stream levels, it is in the best interest of the community that all parties remain focused on facts and solutions,” the company’s CEO Race Randle told the AP. “Collaboration, not litigation, is the best path forward to addressing West Maui’s water needs.”

Until recently, Kapalua was under Tier 4 water restrictions, which typically prohibit the use of non-potable water for irrigation. While those restrictions have since been loosened to Tier 2 (allowing for 60 percent irrigation), maintaining the courses has been a struggle.

“Under the Tier 2 restrictions . . our team is making every effort to restore golf course conditions to the highest level to host The Sentry PGA Tournament in January 2026,” Kapalua’s Nakajima said.

A decision as to whether to reopen the course on Nov. 1 will be made on Oct. 15, he said.

The Tour, meanwhile, has said that it is monitoring the situation and will remain in communication with both the resort and tournament sponsor Sentry Insurance.

The post Popular PGA Tour site closes temporarily, raising questions about season opener appeared first on Golf.

The post With 1 swing, Max Homa entered the PGA Tour record book Saturday appeared first on Golf.

The post With 1 swing, Max Homa entered the PGA Tour record book Saturday appeared first on Golf.

Rory McIlroy may have set the PGA Tour driving distance record last season, but in 2024, Max Homa is the PGA Tour’s biggest hitter.

With conditions ripe for huge drives at Kapalua this week, already leading to 220 400-yard drives through three rounds at the Sentry, Homa unleashed a poke for the record books Saturday.

On the 7th hole — his 16th of the day — Homa ripped one on the 525-yard downhill par-4 that rolled, and rolled, and rolled before finishing just 43 yards from the hole. The bomb measured out to 477 yards, the longest in the PGA Tour’s Shotlink era (since 2003). It just edges out Davis Love III’s 476 drive on the 18th of the final round at the 2004 event at Kapalua.

Unfortunately, Homa started the third round Saturday T23 and in the first group of the day on the 10th tee, so there was no video on the NBC or ESPN+ broadcasts of the record drive. Nor did the PGA Tour have a radar device on the 7th tee at the time so we do not know the launch statistics for the tee shot.

Nevertheless, it’s not hard to figure out how Homa was able to accomplish the feat as the 7th, which is already significantly downhill from tee-to-green, played downwind too during the third round. In fact, the average drive in the 59-man field Saturday on the hole went 406.3 yards, the longest of any hole at the Plantation course. No drive went less than 338 yards on No. 7.

News

That’s all despite Homa being just the 62nd-ranked golfer in driving distance last season with a 304.8 average. McIlroy set a PGA Tour record for driving distance last season at 326.3 yards.

While the USGA is focused on rolling back the golf ball, it was simple gravity that led to the record-breaking tee ball.

Anyway, in classic Max Homa-form, the 33-year-old wise guy had a little fun with the achievement on Twitter.

“For it being uphill into the wind with no roll,” Homa tweeted, likely sarcastically, “I was pretty proud of this one.”

In addition to being the longest drive on No. 7, Homa’s tee shot was also just one of 13 (22%) to stay in the fairway Saturday. The fairway slopes hard from left to right and many drives Saturday caught a bunker — or the rough around it — that is just 420 yards off the tee. The fairway necks around 430 yards from the tee.

They say, “Drive for show, putt for dough,” but Homa made good on his mammoth tee ball by getting the flip wedge up and down. His pitch ended up less than four feet from the hole and he converted for his fourth birdie of the day.

Homa added another birdie on 8 and parred the ninth to post a five-under 68. He’ll start the final round T17 at 15 under, six shots behind leader Chris Kirk.

The post With 1 swing, Max Homa entered the PGA Tour record book Saturday appeared first on Golf.

The post Stats (and huge drives) reveal why Kapalua is one of the most unique courses on Tour appeared first on Golf.

The post Stats (and huge drives) reveal why Kapalua is one of the most unique courses on Tour appeared first on Golf.

If there’s one thing we all love about the first week of the year on the PGA Tour, aside from the stunning setting of Kapalua, it’s the absolutely gargantuan bombs hit by pros at the Plantation course.

We see it just about every season when the PGA Tour returns at the Sentry for the new year, drive after drive, after drive just keep rolling and rolling down Kapalua’s massive sloped fairways. In 2023, 89 of the 121 drives of 400+ yards on the PGA Tour were hit at Kapalua. This year, with firm and dry conditions, that number is already being smashed with 220 through three rounds. Every player in the field except one (sorry Tom Kim) has hit a 400-yard drive this week.

You would think that would mean Kapalua ranks toward the top for driving distance on the PGA Tour, but in fact the opposite is true.

In 2023, on the two measured holes for the PGA Tour driving distance stat (it’s holes 3 and 5 this week), the pros only averaged 286.5 yards. That ranks sixth in terms of shortest course for the official driving distance stat.

When you factor in all drives captured by Shotlink, the average goes up to 307.3 which is the 41st shortest out of the 58 courses on the PGA Tour last season (not all have statistics). Of course, with all the 400-yard bombs, especially in a limited field, you’d expect that average to be inflated.

While there were six holes during the first round of this year’s Sentry where the average tee shot went 345 yards or more (1, 6, 7, 12, 17 and 18), there were also seven holes that averaged 286 yards or less (3, 4, 5, 10, 13, 14 and 16.

That leads to one of the most unique challenges on the PGA Tour all season, according to Patrick Cantlay.

“This golf course is— at first glance, seems really difficult because you hit lots of shots that are different than you would any other week, and yet you look at the scores and people are always 20-, 25-, 30-under lately,” Cantlay said Wednesday. “So it really is a birdie contest, and I think with the par-5s and with 14 being drivable, you know there’s five, six holes every day that you have to make birdie on if you want to have a chance to win.

News

“So if you’re not comfortable with all the unique shots that you have to hit, it’s hard to embrace that I have to make 25, 30 birdies for the week to have a chance.”

The Plantation course was the easiest on Tour in relation to par in 2022-23, but it’s also the only par-73 golf course on the schedule as the 1991 Coore/Crenshaw design has just three par-3s. However, it also effectively only has three par-5s, as the first of the course’s three-shotters, No. 5, was the easiest hole on the PGA Tour in 2023, averaging nearly a shot under par, more than two-tenths of a shot easier than any other hole.

If the 5th was a par-4, Kapalua would still be easier than every course on Tour except for PGA West’s Nicklaus course.

Yet, players seem to embrace the birdie-fests and the unconventional shots the course demands. Take for instance the 6th hole, a 420-yard downhill par-4. On Thursday, both Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele hit 370-yard tee shots that ended up in or near a bunker about 45 yards short of the green.

Travel

From the sand to the front left pin, Schauffele played an explosion shot that landed well short of the green and ran up to to feet for an easy birdie look. From the collar around the bunker, Spieth did the same thing, leaving himself three-and-a-half feet (we’ll ignore the result).

There are also tee shots that force you to be creative, not necessarily the downhill bombs-away holes like 7, 17 and 18, where many of the 400-yard drives are hit, but some of the uphill holes

“I think there’s probably not a course on Tout where you have to use your feel more than this one,” Scottie Scheffler said Friday. “Especially with the wind direction today, there’s so many holes where you’re either hitting it very uphill and downwind, and then as you come towards the downwind holes, a lot of them are into the wind out of the left. So, you got to really use your feel, use numbers a little bit, but it has a lot to do with how you flight the ball in order to get it close.”

On Thursday, Scheffler hit a tee shot on 13 that launched at just 1.6 degrees, had a peak height of 40 feet. His low cut ended up going just 253 yards and despite moving hard left to right, it still wound up in the left rough.

That drive came after Scheffler drove it over the green on the 420-yard 12the hole, a feat he duplicated Saturday on the downhill par-4.

With a course that has some 400 feet of elevation change, that dichotomy is something players see all over Kapalua. With so many downhill holes, there are uphill holes to balance them out. On Saturday, Max Homa’s tee shot on the 525-yard par-4 7th rolled out 477(!!!) yards, the longest tee shot on the PGA Tour in 22 years.

Two holes earlier, on a 524-yard par-5, his drive was nearly 200 yards shorter, coming to rest after just 279 yards.

The same contrast can be seen in the scoring from day to day. While every player broke par Friday, with the trade winds picking up, 13 players of the 59-player field were over par Saturday.

But that’s Kapalua.

The post Stats (and huge drives) reveal why Kapalua is one of the most unique courses on Tour appeared first on Golf.

The post 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions live coverage: How to watch Sunday appeared first on Golf.

The post 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions live coverage: How to watch Sunday appeared first on Golf.

We’re through three rounds of high-flying play at the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions and are closing in on the completion of the first event of the 2022 PGA Tour calendar year. Below, find everything you need to know to tune into the action on Sunday, including tee times, TV schedules, and streaming information.

Sentry TOC final round preview

If three days of competition at the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions have taught us nothing else, it’s that in 2022, living under par will be no issue. The famed Plantation Course at Kapalua Bay has proven no competition for the game’s best — surrendering not one but two course-record rounds on Saturday afternoon.

As for the leaderboard, a pair of names have risen above the heap: Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith. The pair of longtime pros both enter Sunday’s final pairing at 26 under for the week, five strokes clear of the remainder of the field. The strong start to Rahm’s 2022 season comes at a time of particular interest for gear heads — Kapalua marks Rahm’s first start with Callaway’s new line of Rogue ST clubs in his bag, which the former major champ produced eye-popping numbers using in testing.

Further back, a trio of consecutive 66s were enough to place Daniel Berger in solo third place heading into Sunday. Berger (-21) will look to fend off Matt Jones, Sungjae Im and Patrick Cantlay (all -20) as he chases down the leaders on Sunday.

How to watch Tournament of Champions Round 4 on TV

NBC and Golf Channel will split final round coverage of the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions, with NBC kicking off coverage from 4-6 p.m. ET before things flip over to Golf Channel for the remainder of play.

How to stream Tournament of Champions Round 4 online

You can stream the final round of the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ from 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday through the completion of play, which includes featured group coverage. Fans can also stream the final round Golf Channel TV coverage on golfchannel.com.

SIGN UP FOR PGA TOUR LIVE ON ESPN+ TO STREAM THE ENTIRE 2022 SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS ONLINE

How to bet on the Tournament of Champions

Looking to make a (legal!) wager yourself? We teamed with BetMGM, and the online sportsbook is offering a “Risk-Free Bet” up to $1000 promotion. Sign up for an account to get into the action today.

2022 Tournament of Champions Round 4 tee times (All times ET)

12:50 p.m. — Lucas Glover, Jason Kokrak

1 p.m. — Abraham Ancer, Branden Grace

1:10 p.m. — Viktor Hovland, K.H. Lee

1:20 p.m. — Phil Mickelson, Harris English

1:30 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Lucas Herbert

1:40 p.m. — Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka

1:50 p.m. — Erik van Rooyen, Jordan Spieth

2 p.m. — Joel Dahmen, Garrick Higgo

2:10 p.m. — Seamus Power, Si Woo Kim

2:20 p.m. — Talor Gooch, Collin Morikawa

2:35 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns

2:45 p.m. — Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau

2:55 p.m. — Kevin Na, Max Homa

3:05 p.m. — Kevin Kisner, Stewart Cink

3:15 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Cam Davis

3:25 p.m. — Marc Leishman, Justin Thomas

3:35 p.m. — Sungjae Im, Patrick Cantlay

3:45 p.m. — Daniel Berger, Matt Jones

3:55 p.m. — Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm

The post 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions live coverage: How to watch Sunday appeared first on Golf.

The post Easiest hole on PGA Tour once again living up to its softball reputation appeared first on Golf.

The post Easiest hole on PGA Tour once again living up to its softball reputation appeared first on Golf.

If you’re a regular golf-watcher, you can probably picture many of the toughest holes on Tour: the meaty par-4 closers at Bay Hill and Quail Hollow; the recently lengthened par-4 5th at Augusta National; the 233-yard par-3 11th at Torrey Pines South. Bruisers all of them.

But what of the easiest holes? Or that matter, the easiest hole, period?

In the 2020-21 season, that distinction went to the 526-yard par-5 5th on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, home of the Tournament of Champions. The boys are back in Maui this week for the ToC, and exactly one round into 2022, Kapalua’s defenseless 5th is already well positioned to defend its title as the Tour’s biggest pushover, as noted Thursday evening in a tweet from Chris Solomon at No Laying Up.

How easy was the 5th? Of the 38 players in the field, 33 made birdie, 2 made eagle, 2 more made par and just a single player — Patrick Reed — made bogey, the result of a blocked tee shot into the native area right of the fairway. Reed hit a second tee ball, knocked his fourth shot on to the green and two-putted for his 6.

The scoring average for the hole on Thursday was a gaudy 4.053, meaning Reed, who shot a one-over 74, lost nearly 2 full strokes to the field with a bogey. Not something you see often.

The 5th actually doesn’t look that easy, at least not for mere mortals. The fairway — which has a center-line bunker — banks left to right, and you can’t miss too far right or you’ll pull a Reed. From the fairway, should you choose to go for it, you’re left with a daunting second over a gnarly ravine that guards the front-right of the green. Trouble can be found!

Drivers

Just not by Tour pros, apparently. On Thursday, the field, on average, was left with only 177 yards into the green, which doesn’t present much of a risk-reward decision for players who can hit 8-irons that distance. No risk, all reward. Making scoring even easier in the first round: preferred lies were in effect on account of soggy conditions.

“I didn’t find it all too difficult,” South African Eric Van Rooyen said after posting a six-under 67 that has him four back of leader Cameron Smith. “I think the course needs a bit of breeze to really protect it. The fairways are quite wide and it’s playing so soft, so if that doesn’t happen then the scores will be really low.”

And at the 5th, really, really low.

The other easiest holes on Tour last season? No surprise, the top 10 softballs were all par-5s. Runner-up honors went to another Hawaii hole, the 506-yard par-5 9th at Waialae (Sony Open), which had a scoring average of 4.171. The third-easiest hole was the par-5th at Sedgefield (Wyndham Championship), which had a scoring average of 4.220.

The easiest non-par-5 was the 341-yard par-4 15th at TPC Summerlin (Shriners), with a 3.464 scoring average.

Here, courtesy of the PGA Tour’s ShotLink database, are the top 10 most toothless holes from last season:

The post Easiest hole on PGA Tour once again living up to its softball reputation appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 Tournament of Champions purse: Payout information and winner’s share at Kapalua appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 Tournament of Champions purse: Payout information and winner’s share at Kapalua appeared first on Golf.

We’ve reached the final round of the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first event on the PGA Tour’s 2021 calendar. Below is all the information you need to know about purse money, including payout information and winner’s share.

Tournament of Champions final round preview

Ryan Palmer and Harris English share the 54-hole lead entering Sunday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua Bay. The pair of pros are 21-under heading into Sunday, but trailed closely by a host of big names.

Most notably, PGA Championship winner Collin Morikawa sits just one stroke off the lead heading into the final round. Morikawa (-20) has fired three consecutive rounds in the 60s, including a pair of 65s leading into Sunday. The soon-to-be 24-year-old is looking for his first win since the PGA in August and his first top-10 since the Tour Championship in September.

Also in the running are Daniel Berger (-18), Sungjae Im and Justin Thomas (-17) — with Jon Rahm (-14) further in the distance. Rahm is playing in his first event since signing a long-term equipment deal with Callaway.

Below is the payout information and winner’s share for the Tournament of Champions’ $6.7 million purse; you can catch all the action from 4-6:00 p.m. ET on NBC, and from 6:00 p.m. ET till the completion of play on Golf Channel.

Tournament of Champions payout information, winner’s share

1. $1,340,000

2. $782,000

3. $490,000

4. $378,000

5. $311,000

6. $250,000

7. $217,000

8. $198,000

9. $183,000

10. $172,000

11. $161,000

12. $150,000

13. $140,000

14. $130,000

15. $120,000

16. $111,000

17. $102,000

18. $95,000

19. $88,000

20. $83,000

21. $78,000

22. $75,000

23. $72,000

24. $69,000

25. $66,000

26. $63,000

27. $60,000

28. $58,000

29. $56,000

30. $54,000

31. $52,000

32. $50,000

33. $48,000

34. $46,000

35. $44,000

36. $42,000

37. $41,000

38. $40,000

39. $39,000

40. $38,000

41. $37,000

42. $36,000

The post 2021 Tournament of Champions purse: Payout information and winner’s share at Kapalua appeared first on Golf.

The post Here are the GOLF staff’s favorite 2019 photos from our phones appeared first on Golf.

The post Here are the GOLF staff’s favorite 2019 photos from our phones appeared first on Golf.

The year of 2019 was one to remember, both for the game we all love, and for the members of the GOLF.com staff. Here’s a look back at our favorite photos from the year, as captured by our phones.

---

This is me on the 12th at Augusta National — the day after Tiger’s historic Masters win. Nothing else needs to be said. But since I was tasked with offering up a few sentences on the photo, I’ll just add I went even-par through Amen Corner and came within a single revolution of making birdie on this stunner. The whole experience still feels like a dream.
—Jonathan Wall

---

For some reason, I feel like I earned this one. After tracking court documents for a full year, I was able to finally meet with the owner of a 1930s-era Augusta National green jacket. Whatever you think this thing weighs, it’s heavier. However scratchy you think the wool might be, it’s scratchier. It was a treat to see this artifact up close. —Sean Zak

View this post on Instagram

Good times, great place (and drinks), better company.

A post shared by Tim Reilly (@lifeoftimreilly) on Nov 10, 2019 at 7:36am PST

Before working the GOLF Top 100 Teachers Summit at Pinehurst in November, I was able to play a little golf with my dad. We had never done a trip dedicated strictly to golf before, usually, it’s a secondary thought we tack on while seeing the Mets at Spring Training. While it wasn’t exactly southern hospitality in terms of the weather, as temperatures hovered in the 40s, it was truly a great experience to soak in one of the great golf resorts in the world for the first time with the man who taught me the game. Sharing drinks with Big Tim at The Cradle’s mobile bar was the epitome of the Life of Reilly. —Tim Reilly

---

This is more than just a great finishing hole at a dynamite resort. In March we took our first legit family vacation since our daughter was born, heading south to Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Fla. My daughter loved the pool and beach, my wife got to do the whole spa thing and I got to play golf here, on the challenging and watery Ocean Course. The par-4 18th that’s (literally) along the beach was a great way to finish. This golf course and resort will forever serve as a reminder that our family vacations will never be the same. Big pools and crazy waterslides are starting to become just as important as the golf. —Josh Berhow

View this post on Instagram

First round as a married couple was at Kahuku golf course in northwest Oahu. We paid $33, rented two crappy sets of clubs and had a blast playing this hilariously quirky and utterly beautiful 2,699 yard, par 35, 9-hole muni. There's a graveyard to the right of the 2nd green, a 30ft ramp in the middle of the 3rd green, and you tee off mats on the 110 yard 4th hole that drops down more than 150 feet. There are porta potties lurking in clusters palm trees, wild chickens roam the course, and ocean views flank six of the nine holes. One of a kind, and so much fun.

A post shared by Luke Kerr-Dineen (@lkd_golf) on Jan 23, 2019 at 9:32pm PST

2019 was a big year for me. I got married to the love of my life in January. It was a small and beautiful snow-covered ceremony, and few days later we were off to Hawaii. My wife is a new golfer, so we decided to take the opportunity to play our first round of golf together. We drove up to the north shore of Oahu to Kahuku Golf Course: A delightfully quirky 9-hole muni that has a graveyard to the right of the 2nd green, a 30ft ramp in the middle of the 3rd green, and you tee off mats on the 110 yard 4th hole that drops down more than 150 feet. There are porta-potties lurking in clusters in the palm trees, wild chickens roam the course, and ocean views flank six of the nine holes. There’s not a course in the world I would’ve rather picked for our first round of golf as husband and wife. —Luke Kerr-Dineen

---

At the Wednesday pro am in advance of the Safeway open, the marquee pairing featured five-time major champion Phil Mickelson with three-time NBA champion Steph Curry. Given the relaxed setting, you knew at some point it was going to happen. And on the 17th hole, it finally did. Someone busted out a basketball and pinned a hoop high on a grandstand. An impromptu game of horse broke out. As crossover athletes go, Curry had already proved himself. As for Phil’s multi-sport talents, well, check out the form below. I’ll let you be the judge. —Josh Sens

View this post on Instagram

The People’s Championship with The People’s Champions.

A post shared by James Colgan (@jamescolgan26) on May 16, 2019 at 2:49pm PDT

I’m from Long Island, but truthfully, the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black — my home course — was a homecoming in a few ways. Four days prior to this photo, I was donning a cap and gown, celebrating my graduation from Syracuse University. After the big day, three of my best friends from school (Tim Leonard, Jonathon Hoppe and Connor Federico) came down to the Island and stayed with me and my family for the PGA. After the insanity of graduation, I’ll always remember those few days of laughs with lifelong friends. Even with the schedule change, this year’s PGA Championship proved to be “Glory’s Last Shot” for someone after all: me. —James Colgan

---

For years, I have listened to my colleagues extol the virtues of the Open Championship, and after 12 years at GOLF, it was the one major I had yet to attend. I was thrilled to make it across the pond for this year’s thrilling edition at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, but Shane Lowry’s heroics aside, one of my favorite memories of the week turned out to be the daily 20-minute walk to the course. Major-week commutes are usually dominated by lengthy shuttles and security lines. But at Portrush, the scenic walk to the course was an enjoyable and refreshing way to start each day. This photo was taken on Saturday morning of Open week, during a fleeting moment of brilliant sunshine. Had I taken the photo from a slightly different angle, you would be able to see the course in the distance on the right side. As it turns out, my colleagues were absolutely right. It’s the little things that make the charm of a week at the Open truly second to none. —Jessica Marksbury

---

It’s clichéd to say Tiger’s Masters win was surreal, but, really, is there a better word for it? Even all these months later, it’s still difficult to wrap one’s head around what the guy achieved, battling back from the chip yips, the mug shot, the screws in his back. At the end of 2017, he was ranked 1,199th in the world, a broken-down legend, an afterthought. Sixteen months later, he slipped on the green jacket. A few weeks after the Masters, two of my kids came to work with me. At the end of the day, we walked from GOLF’s midtown office, through the canyons of midtown, back toward Penn Station. As we neared our destination, there he was. Red shirt, arms raised, exulting. The significance of Tiger’s win was largely lost on my boys, but they were still clearly captivated by the ad. It was hard not to be. Surreal. —Alan Bastable

To receive GOLF’s newsletters, subscribe for free here.

The post Here are the GOLF staff’s favorite 2019 photos from our phones appeared first on Golf.

The post Three Hawaii courses that are certain to cure your winter blues appeared first on Golf.

The post Three Hawaii courses that are certain to cure your winter blues appeared first on Golf.

Here comes the sun. Hawaii is a toasty golf destination that is sure to shake your wintertime blues.

Hawaii
Average January Daytime High: 80 degrees

Kapalua Resort (Plantation)
Kapalua, Maui; $269-$329
golfatkapalua.com

Home to the PGA Tour’s Sentry Tournament of Champions every January, this 1991 Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw creation dishes out roomy landing areas draped atop a wildly rolling tract that once yielded pineapples. To win the title, past champs Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson and Ernie Els have had to conquer the downhill-plunging, 508-yard, par-4 17th and the 663-yard, par-5 18th, each with jungle-strewn canyons to their left and Pacific Ocean panoramas beyond. Coore and Crenshaw will undertake a complete renovation immediately after the 2019 Sentry TOC concludes.

Hualalai at the Four Seasons Resort
Kailua-Kona, Big Island; $195-$295
fourseasons.com/hualalai

Home to the PGA Champions Tour’s Mitsubishi event, the Four Seasons Hualalai course is one of Jack Nicklaus’s most player-friendly designs—especially on the minimally contoured greens. Highlights include the jaw-dropping par-3 17th, with its putting surface jabbed into black lava rock and backdropped by the Pacific.

Manele Golf Course
Lana’I City, Lana’I; $350-$425
fourseasons.com/lanai

Jack Nicklaus’s 26-year-old hillside spread is renowned for its unforgettable 202-yard, par-3 12th (photo, right), with nothing between tee and green except vertical cliff faces and the crashing surf of Hulopoe Bay 150 feet below. The remainder of the layout measures up nicely, with holes zigzagging high above the Pacific Ocean among ancient black-lava outcroppings.

The post Three Hawaii courses that are certain to cure your winter blues appeared first on Golf.

The post Sentry Tournament of Champions money: Total purse, payout breakdown and winner’s share appeared first on Golf.

The post Sentry Tournament of Champions money: Total purse, payout breakdown and winner’s share appeared first on Golf.

The Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii wraps up on Sunday, with Gary Woodland currently in the lead by three strokes after 54 holes. The winner of the first PGA Tour event of 2019 will take home $1.3 million, as the purse is set at $6.5 million.

The runner-up in the event will take home $759,000, while third place will finish with $475,000.

The payout breakdown for the entire field as of Thursday at Kapalua’s Plantation Course is below.

SENTRY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS PAYOUT BREAKDOWN

1. $1.3 million
2. $759,000
3. $475,000
4. $366,000
5. $304,000
6. $246,000
7. $218,000
8. $203,000
9. $191,000
10. $179,000
11. $168,000
12. $157,000
13. $147,000
14. $137,000
15. $127,000
16. $117,000
17. $109,000
18. $102,000
19. $97,000
20. $92,000
21. $88,000
22. $84,000
23. $81,000
24. $78,000
25. $75,000
26. $73,000
27. $71,000
28. $69,000
29. $67,000
30. $66,000
31. $65,000
32. $64,000
33. $63,000
34. $62,000

The post Sentry Tournament of Champions money: Total purse, payout breakdown and winner’s share appeared first on Golf.