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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.

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The PGA Tour needs a fill-in venue for its season-opening event.

The Tour announced on Tuesday that The Sentry will not be played at The Plantation Course at Kapalua in January due to ongoing drought conditions on the island of Maui.

The Plantation Course, with its massive elevation changes and dreamy ocean views, has long been a famous first stop on the new year’s schedule, but current water conservation efforts due to Maui County drought conditions have forced the Tour to move the event, which is scheduled for Jan. 8-11, 2026.

According to state data, more than 90 percent of Maui County and over 140,000 residents have been impacted by the drought, which includes Kapalua Resort, host of The Sentry.

News

The Tour said its agronomy team conducted a site visit earlier this month and decided course conditions, due to water limitations, have been compromised. It also cited logistical issues, which forced the Tour to make a decision months in advance.

The Tour released the following statement on Tuesday: “Following discussions with the Governor’s office, as well as leadership from Sentry Insurance, Kapalua Resort and Maui County, the PGA Tour has determined the 2026 playing of The Sentry will not be contested at The Plantation Course at Kapalua due to ongoing drought conditions, water conservation requirements, agronomic conditions and logistical challenges. Additional event information will be shared when appropriate.”

The resort previously announced it would close its Plantation and Bay courses for 60 days beginning on Sept. 2.

“This decision was not made lightly,” Alex Nakajima, general manager of Kapalua Golf and Tennis, said in a statement at the time. “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.”

The Sentry is not only the first event of the year, but the first of nine Signature Events of 2026, which means a bigger purse ($20 million) and more star power in the field.

The Tour’s second event of 2026, the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, remains unchanged.

No information on a replacement venue for The Sentry has been released, although the next five tournaments after the Sony are either in California (four events) or Arizona (one), so the Tour could decide to stick with a West Coast venue for logistical purposes or create a mini extension of the West Coast swing.

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Cam Davis should’ve hit from 48 yards away. And Will Zalatoris should’ve hit from 37 yards away. 

Had they, they wouldn’t have each been hit with two-stroke penalties and, as it turned out, pay-stub deductions. 

“It’s going to be expensive,” analyst Mark Rolfing said. 

The issue? During Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour’s Sentry tournament, each pro learned they’d hit each other’s ball on their third swings on the 551-yard, par-5 15th hole on the Plantation Course at Kapalua — a no-no according to the rules. Davis and Zalatoris then played from where they should’ve, plus two shots, and finished with bogeys. 

How did it happen? Neither player spoke in formal press conferences afterward, though announcers on the Golf Channel broadcast offered some thoughts. 

Said Rolfing: “Wow, what a pair of mistakes there.” 

Said Dan Hicks: “Especially with the money involved here and the FedEx Cup points. It’s just frustrating, disappointing, everything above.” 

Said Rolfing: “Almost doesn’t seem possible in today’s game. You cannot play your own ball.” 

Said Hicks: “Losing a little bit of focus, right? Just kind of get careless.”  

In the end, Davis tied for 13th and cashed for $410,000, while Zalatoris tied for 26th and took home $163,333.33. But what if they had each played the correct ball on the hole — and not been penalized? Assuming they would’ve both made birdies, Davis would’ve moved up to a tie for fifth and earned $715,625, while Zalatoris would’ve tied for 15th and collected $283,200 — the difference in money being $306,625 for Davis, and $119,866.67 for Zalatoris. 

Notably, had the players not corrected the mistake before starting the 16th hole, they each would’ve been disqualified. For clarity, here is the wording of Rule 6.3c (1) that describes what happens when a wrong ball is played:

“In stroke play, the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by continuing play with the original ball by playing it as it lies or taking relief under the rules. The stroke made with the wrong ball and any more strokes before the mistake is corrected (including strokes made and any additional penalty strokes solely from playing that ball) do not count. If the player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to begin another hole or, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.”

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Hideki Matsuyama, after ripping apart the Plantation Course at Kapalua through three rounds, was asked by a reporter what he felt was the best part of his game, and he murmured to the translator standing to his left. He’d said he wasn’t sure. Modest, as always. He wasn’t going to tout. 

Then again, he also might’ve just had a hard time picking.  

On the tee? Check. Away from the tee? Check. Around the green? Check. On the green? Check. Consistency? Over 54 holes, yes, but Sunday, during the final round of the Sentry event, the PGA Tour’s season-opener, would settle that.

Check. One through 18, it was more of the same, masterfully so. And historically so. Matsuyama peeled off seven birdies and one eagle for a round of eight-under 65 and a tournament total of 35-under, giving him a three-shot win over Collin Morikawa and a PGA Tour record, by one, for the lowest 72-hole score in relation to par. It also marked his 11th career Tour win.  

Sunday, like Thursday, Friday and Saturday, showcased Matsuyama’s bag-wide expertise again. What did you feel was the best part? The birdies on 5, 8, 9, 11 and 12? Those were good. The circles on 8, 11 and 12 all came on putts 20 feet or longer. Or did you like the hole-out on 5 more? It came from 107 yards out, and Matsuyama ooh’ed on that one.

Or did you prefer the action on 16? There, he was feeling the heat. There, he essentially won the tournament. After Morikawa had pulled within two shots on 15, Matsuyama blasted a drive down the right side of the fairway, dropped a wedge to 4 feet and birdied, restoring a three-shot advantage. From there, he parred 17 and birdied 18 for the record. 

At the end, he fist-pumped. 

You’d seemingly get no argument from even him that that was the best part of his week. 

The takeaway

Matsuyama looks dialed in. A year of him and Scottie Scheffler playing darts would be fun, wouldn’t it? 

The leaderboard breakdown

— Hideki Matsuyama starts the final round with a one-shot lead. Matsuyama is at 27-under, Collin Morikawa is at 26-under, Thomas Detry is at 22-under, and Sungjae Im is at 21-under. 

— Matsuyama eagles the 417-yard, par-4 2nd by holing out from 107 yards out, and his lead grows to two. Matsuyama is at 29-under, Morikawa is at 27-under, and Im is at 22-under. 

— Matsuyama birdies the 520-yard, par-5 5th after hitting his third shot to 14 inches, and his lead grows to three. Matsuyama is at 30-under, Morikawa is at 27-under, and Im is at 23-under. 

— Morikawa bogeys the 418-yard, par-4 6th after three-putting from 56 feet, and Matsuyama’s lead increases to four. Matsuyama is at 30-under, Morikawa is at 26-under, and Im is at 23-under. 

— Matsuyama bogeys the 532-yard, par-4 7th after missing the green with his second shot, and Matsuyama’s lead drops back to three. Matsuyama is at 29-under, Morikawa is at 26-under, and Im is at 23-under. 

— Matsuyama and Morikawa each birdie the 185-yard, par-3 8th — Matsuyama on a 20-foot putt, and Morikawa on a 14-footer — and Matsuyama’s lead stays at three strokes. Matsuyama is at 30-under, Morikawa is at 27-under, and Im is at 23-under. 

— Matsuyama birdies the 545-yard, par-5 9th on an 8-footer, and his lead grows to four. Matsuyama is at 31-under, Morikawa is at 27-under, and Im is at 25-under. 

— Morikawa birdies the 377-yard, par-4 10th on a 10-footer, and he pulls within three of the lead. Matsuyama is at 31-under, Morikawa is at 28-under, and Im is at 25-under. 

— Matsuyama and Morikawa each birdie the 167-yard, par-3 11th — Matsuyama on a 30-footer, and Morikawa on an 11-footer — and Matsuyama’s lead stays at three. Matsuyama is at 32-under, Morikawa is at 29-under, and Im is at 25-under. 

— Matsuyama birdies the 429-yard, par-4 12th on a 21-footer, and his lead grows to four. Matsuyama is at 33-under, Morikawa is at 29-under, and Im is at 25-under.  

— Morikawa birdies the 297-yard, par-4 14th on a 6-footer, and he pulls within three. Matsuyama is at 33-under, and Morikawa is at 30-under. 

— Morikawa birdies the 551-yard, par-5 15th after getting home in two, and he pulls within two. Matsuyama is at 33-under, and Morikawa is at 31-under. 

— Matsuyama, under pressure, birdies the 363-yard, par-4 16th with a tee shot down the right side of the fairway and a wedge to 4 feet, and his lead goes back to three. Matsuyama is at 34-under, and Morikawa is at 31-under.  

— On the 678-yard, par-5 18th, Matsuyama hits his tee shot down the left side of the fairway, hits his second shot just to the right of the green, pitches on to 8 feet and drops the putt for a closing birdie. He shoots an eight-under 65 and finishes at 35-under, the lowest 72-hole score in relation to par. Finishing runner-up, at 32-under, was Morikawa, and Im was third, at 29-under.  

The final word 

“That last putt, I felt like if I make it, then it’s going to be the record, and so I’m so happy it went in.” — Matsuyama, through his translator, on Golf Channel after his round 

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The first tournament of the new year also packs a serious payday, as the Sentry also has the distinction of being the first of eight Signature Events on the PGA Tour in 2025.

It’s a pretty great way to kick things off if you’re a player in the top 60: a week in paradise, no cut, and a golf course that is yielding birdies by the dozen.

Hideki Matsuyama is on track to challenge the scoring record Cameron Smith set at Kapalua’s Plantation course in 2022, where his memorable battle with Jon Rahm brought him to a record-setting 34 under par. Matsuyama’s record-breaking 54-hole tally is 27 under par, thanks to a round of 11-under-par 62 on Saturday.

Fitness

That’s pretty impressive. But like Smith, Matsuyama also has a chaser close by. Collin Morikawa is only one shot back at 26 under par, after he too shot a 62 on Saturday. The two major winners have separated themselves from the pack ahead of Sunday’s final round. Thomas Detry is their closest peer, at 22 under.

In addition to a potential new entry in the PGA Tour record books, Matsuyama, Morikawa and the rest of field are also pursuing a sweet purse. A whopping $20 million is up for grabs on Sunday. Below, you can see how it all breaks down.

Sentry purse, winner’s share 

Win: $3.6 million

2: $2.16 million

3: $1.36 million

4: $975,000

5: $815,000

6: $735,000

7: $682,500

8: $630,000

9: $590,000

10: $550,000

11: $510,000

12: $470,000

13: $430,000

14: $390,000

15: $370,000

16: $350,0000

17: $330,000

18: $310,000

19: $290,000

20: $270,000

21: $252,000

22: $236,000

23: $220,000

24: $204,000

25: $188,000

26: $172,000

27: $163,000

28: $155,000

29: $148,000

30: $141,000

31: $134,000

32: $127,000

33: $120,000

34: $115,000

35: $110,000

36: $105,000

37: $100,000

38: $95,000

39: $91,000

40: $87,000

41: $83,000

42: $79,000

43: $75,000

44: $71,000

45: $67,000

46: $63,000

47: $61,000

48: $59,000

49: $57,000

50: $55,000

51: $54,000

52: $53,000

53: $52,000

54: $51,000

55: $50,000

56: $49,500

57: $49,000

58: $48,500

59: $48,000

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The 2025 Sentry concludes on Sunday with the fourth and final round at Kapalua’s Plantation Course in Hawaii. Here’s everything you need to know to watch the Sentry on Sunday, including full TV coverage, streaming info and Round 4 tee times.

How to watch Sentry on Sunday

The Sentry is looking a bit like a two-man race in the final round, with Hideki Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa pulling away from the pack in Round 3.

At 27 under par through 54 holes, Matsuyama now owns the lowest score in relation to par in history on the PGA Tour. And incredibly, Morikawa is only one shot behind him at 26 under par. Thomas Detry is in third, five shots behind Matsuyama and four shots behind Morikawa at 22 under par.

Approach Shots

How low will they go? Matsuyama and Morikawa will need another big day to beat the 72-hole scoring record of 34 under par, set by Cameron Smith in 2022. But after they both fired rounds of 11 under 62 on Saturday, it certainly seems not only feasible but likely that one of them will get there.

You can watch the final round of the 2025 Sentry on TV via NBC and Golf Channel, which will air coverage beginning Sunday evening at 4 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET, respectively. PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ will provide featured group streaming coverage. If you have a cable subscription, you can watch a live simulcast on NBCSports.com or the NBC Sports App.

Below you will find everything you need to watch the final round of the Sentry.

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How to watch Sentry on TV Sunday

NBC and Golf Channel will air final-round TV coverage of the 2025 Sentry from 6-10 p.m. ET on Saturday. NBC will cover the tournament from 4-6 p.m. ET, with Golf Channel taking over from 6-8 p.m. ET.

How to stream Sentry online Sunday

You can stream the final round of the 2025 Sentry via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+, which will offer featured group coverage beginning at 2:08 p.m. ET. NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports App and Peacock will provide a live simulcast of Golf Channel and NBC’s coverage for viewers with an active cable subscription.

2025 Sentry Round 4 tee times (ET)

Tee No. 1

1:20 p.m. – Robert MacIntyre, Patton Kizzire, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1:32 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Max Homa, Aaron Rai
1:44 p.m. – Sam Burns, Ludvig Åberg, Austin Eckroat
1:56 p.m. – Taylor Pendrith, Keegan Bradley, Matt Fitzpatrick
2:08 p.m. – Tony Finau, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay
2:20 p.m. – Maverick McNealy, Corey Conners, Jhonattan Vegas
2:32 p.m. – Adam Scott, Sepp Straka, Cameron Young
2:44 p.m. – Will Zalatoris, Tom Hoge, Cam Davis
2:56 p.m. – Sungjae Im, Harry Hall, Max Greyserman
3:08 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Thomas Detry

Tee No. 10

1:20 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley, Jason Day
1:32 p.m. – Nico Echavarria, Xander Schauffele, Byeong Hun An
1:44 p.m. – J.T. Poston, Brice Garnett, Chris Kirk
1:56 p.m. – Si Woo Kim, Stephan Jaeger, Denny McCarthy
2:08 p.m. – Billy Horschel, Davis Thompson, Justin Thomas
2:20 p.m. – Eric Cole, Akshay Bhatia, Peter Malnati
2:32 p.m. – Kevin Yu, Sahith Theegala, Chris Gotterup
2:44 p.m. – Matt McCarty, Nick Taylor, Matthieu Pavon
2:56 p.m. – Nick Dunlap, Rafael Campos, Jake Knapp
3:08 p.m. – Brian Harman, Davis Riley

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The final round of the 2025 Sentry kicks off Sunday at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation course in Hawaii. You can find full Sentry tee times for Sunday’s fourth round at the bottom of this post.

Featured tee time for Round 4

With just 18 holes to go in the first PGA Tour event of 2025, two golfers are cut above the rest.

Both Hideki Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa shot 11-under 62s Saturday at Kapalua to get to 27 and 26 under, respectively, four shots better than anyone else in the field.

Our gambling expert Brady Kannon noted in his column earlier this week, Matsuyama’s performance should be no surprise, as he’s not only an excellent Bermudagrass player but has also had past success at the other PGA Tour Hawaii staple, the Sony Open, with a win there in 2022.

News

Now he’s on the doorstep of PGA Tour win No. 11 after equaling the PGA Tour 54-hole scoring record in relation to par. But he’ll have a redhot Morikawa right on his tail after both players matched each other shot for shot Saturday, Matsuyama making a career-best 11 birdies while Morikawa notched nine and an eagle.

For Sunday’s round, Matsuyama will tee off at 3:08 p.m. ET alongside Morikawa and Belgium’s Thomas Detry.

You can watch Sunday’s final round of the 2025 Sentry from 4-6 p.m. ET on NBC, then on Golf Channel from 6-8 p.m. ET. You can also stream featured group coverage via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ from 1-4 p.m. ET on Sunday, followed by Peacock from 4-6 p.m. ET.

You can check out the complete Round 4 tee times for the 2025 Sentry below.

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2025 Sentry tee times for Sunday: Round 4 (ET)

Tee No. 1

1:20 p.m. – Robert MacIntyre, Patton Kizzire, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
1:32 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Max Homa, Aaron Rai
1:44 p.m. – Sam Burns, Ludvig Åberg, Austin Eckroat
1:56 p.m. – Taylor Pendrith, Keegan Bradley, Matt Fitzpatrick
2:08 p.m. – Tony Finau, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay
2:20 p.m. – Maverick McNealy, Corey Conners, Jhonattan Vegas
2:32 p.m. – Adam Scott, Sepp Straka, Cameron Young
2:44 p.m. – Will Zalatoris, Tom Hoge, Cam Davis
2:56 p.m. – Sungjae Im, Harry Hall, Max Greyserman
3:08 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Thomas Detry

Tee No. 10

1:20 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Russell Henley, Jason Day
1:32 p.m. – Nico Echavarria, Xander Schauffele, Byeong Hun An
1:44 p.m. – J.T. Poston, Brice Garnett, Chris Kirk
1:56 p.m. – Si Woo Kim, Stephan Jaeger, Denny McCarthy
2:08 p.m. – Billy Horschel, Davis Thompson, Justin Thomas
2:20 p.m. – Eric Cole, Akshay Bhatia, Peter Malnati
2:32 p.m. – Kevin Yu, Sahith Theegala, Chris Gotterup
2:44 p.m. – Matt McCarty, Nick Taylor, Matthieu Pavon
2:56 p.m. – Nick Dunlap, Rafael Campos, Jake Knapp
3:08 p.m. – Brian Harman, Davis Riley

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Will Zalatoris wants to say it was fun, then he almost immediately adds two letters. 

“It wasn’t fun, he said.

To be clear, the results are. Over the past four months, after adding what he says is “20 pounds of muscle” to a body that had been 163 pounds, Zalatoris believes he’s better equipped to play golf at its highest level. His body, he says, now won’t succumb as easily to injury, as it had multiple times since turning pro in 2018, and he’ll be able to swing at top speeds with lesser effort. 

“I think the best way I could describe how I’m feeling compared to where I was before this weight gain was I thought I was at my 100 percent, and it still didn’t feel good,” Zalatoris said Thursday after first-round play at the Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opening event. 

“I would have to take a couple days off and rest my back, or get a bunch of treatment. Not doing that anymore. It’s hard when you’re limiting your practice to then go out and play against the best players in the world. So now I think the beauty of it is I’m trying to do this for longevity, I’m not doing this for distance. If you look at my numbers, they’re all the same, but it feels so much better.”

So how did he gain his weight? It took some work.

He started a workout program with performance expert Damon Goddard and went on a specific diet that he detailed recently to the Tour social media team. Below is the video, and below that we’ll offer some thoughts.

“It was a lot of protein, a lot of working out,” Zalatoris said on the video. “Eating until I felt like I was full and then eating some more. 

“I needed to do it. I needed to get some more stability for my back. It just felt like throughout the year, I was reacting and not being able to be proactive about it. And now, you know, if you kind of think about it, over my last four to five years, I haven’t had an offseason — I’ve either been rehabbing a back injury or I’ve been playing. So, you know, I only played twice this fall, so I could be at home and put on some muscle and, you know, most importantly, work on my game.”

The diet, he said, broke down this way:

— “It was 200 grams of protein daily,” Zalatoris said on the video. 

— “It varied anywhere between 3,000 and 4,500 calories a day,” he said. “I needed to get 4,500 at least three times a week. When you weigh a buck nothing, you just need to find a way to put on weight. So at the start, it was see food, eat food.” 

— “The biggest thing,” he said, “was just trying to find a way to get to 200 grams of protein and not do it with more than 40 grams per sitting.”

What could that look like? Think of high protein foods such as chicken and turkey. (It’s here where we’ll note to consult your own dietician first, should you be interested in trying something similar.) 

“You know, I really wanted to make sure that I’m setting myself up for the next seven, eight years,” Zalatoris said on the video. “Because right now, at 28 years old, this is — it’s go time.”

Editor’s note: GOLF.com recently published another story on Zalatoris — headlined “Will Zalatoris gained 19 pounds in 4 months. But not for the reason you might think” — and that article can be found by clicking here or by immediately scrolling below. 

***

Will Zalatoris’ season ended last year in the middle of August in Colorado. He stepped off the scale that week at 163 pounds and, at 6-foot-2, was as wiry as ever, fully aware that he was set to get even skinnier. That’s what he’d grown accustomed to, dropping five to 10 pounds during the offseason months in the fall. 

Only, he didn’t want to lose any weight. In fact, he wanted to gain weight.

And a lot of it. 

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“I was tired of people telling me I have a 22-inch waist and all that stuff,” he said Thursday from the season-opening Sentry event in Maui.

But this was about more than just his waist. Zalatoris needed to create a better operating weight for himself to be able to play at a high level, at a high speed and for three or four weeks in a row. The past few years had taught him that he didn’t have the stamina to power through the heat of a PGA Tour season.

“If you look at the weeks that I had throughout the year, my best weeks were always the first of a stretch, and I always loved playing one, two, three weeks and building in a rhythm,” he said. “And the events that I’ve won as a professional, it’s been in like the third or fourth week. And just, by the third or fourth week, I was down a couple miles an hour in swing speed, I didn’t really feel very good, I wasn’t driving it great, and it’s just hard to play out here like that. I knew I needed to get stronger. It wasn’t so much about the speed; I know that the speed will come. I needed the stability to make sure that I was able to do what I’m doing.”

By that he means swing hard and not hurt himself, which has been an ongoing saga for Zalatoris in recent years. The 28-year-old, who stormed onto the scene with six top 10s in his first nine major starts, battled herniated discs toward the end of 2022, eventually pulling out of the 2023 Masters and quickly resorting to a microdiscectomy surgery. He took months away from the game to heal before returning at the end of 2023. Last spring nearly featured a victory at the Genesis Invitational, but quickly devolved into more pain as Zalatoris battled a hip injury throughout the summer. 

Which brings us to the end of his season in Colorado, where he decided enough was enough. Zalatoris got on a workout program with performance expert Damon Goddard and has spent the past four months bulking up, first mentioning it to reporters during an appearance in December in South Africa. When he stepped on the scale in Dallas before heading to this week’s Sentry event, it read 182 pounds: a 19-pound increase in just four months. 

The benefit of added weight, he said after shooting an eight-under round to kick off his season, is that he feels he has maintained the carry distances he seeks without swinging “110 percent” at the ball, putting less stress on his body. 

“I think the best way I could describe how I’m feeling compared to where I was before this weight gain was I thought I was at my 100 percent, and it still didn’t feel good,” Zalatoris said. “I would have to take a couple days off and rest my back, or get a bunch of treatment. Not doing that anymore. It’s hard when you’re limiting your practice to then go out and play against the best players in the world. So now I think the beauty of it is I’m trying to do this for longevity, I’m not doing this for distance. If you look at my numbers, they’re all the same, but it feels so much better.”

It’s been a long journey toward feeling better for Zalatoris. He admitted Thursday he feels so good, it’s like he didn’t even have surgery. And while it remains to be seen how these changes show themselves on leaderboards moving forward, he hasn’t had a cortisone shot — a pain killing injection he relied on in recent years — since August, another sign that the quick fixes are hopefully a thing of the past.

“The ceiling is something that I wanted to keep raising,” Zalatoris said, “because I knew that if I was going to be sitting at 160 pounds and trying to hit it 300 yards out here, it’s not a recipe for longevity.”

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What happened on 9, the reporter asked Corey Conners. A good question, though if you happen to be in a hurry here, perhaps you would’ve wanted the scribe to ask this instead:

What didn’t happen?

Friday, after his second round at the Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opener, Conners offered some intel. Notably, he bogeyed the 545-yard par-5 on the Plantation Course at Kapalua, which stood out in and of itself in his seven-under-66 round — but how he bogeyed may also be of interest, especially the sequence that unlocked four rules incidents. 

Said Conners of it all: “I had a funny situation.”

Here’s how things played out:

— His tee shot strayed right. “I just made an uncommitted swing on the tee,” Conners said. 

— His ball wound up in “long grass,” where Conners said it was embedded. He called over an official. 

“So I had the official there,” Conners said, “and was trying to get relief from the embedded ball, and wasn’t entitled to that because I didn’t really have a shot. Which, I didn’t really have a shot. If my ball wasn’t plugged, I would have been taking an unplayable. Could have argued maybe that I could have swung.”

Wait. Why didn’t Conners get relief here? That’s spelled out in Rule 16.3a (1), where it says: “There is no relief under Rule 16.3b: When playing the ball as it lies is clearly unreasonable because of something from which the player is not allowed to take free relief (such as when a player is unable to make a stroke because of where the ball lies in a bush).”

(Notably, according to the rules, “a committee may adopt a local rule restricting relief to a ball embedded in those parts of the general area cut to fairway height or less.”)

— Conners took a one-stroke drop for an unplayable ball, allotted under Rule 19.2. 

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— But now?

“The Shot Link tower was in my way,” Conners said, “so I got a drop.”

That falls under relief from temporary immovable obstructions. (The USGA offers a wonderfully detailed description of TIOs in a pamphlet that can be found here.) 

— But now?

“Was on the cart path, took relief from that,” Conners said. 

That comes via Rule 16.1, which defines relief from abnormal course conditions. 

— Finally, Conners played shot three, and he advanced his ball to wedge distance. From there, he pitched to 14 feet, then missed the par putt and finished with a bogey.

“It was just set up by a poor drive,” Conners said. “Gave myself a par putt, but wasn’t able to convert it.”

With that, Conners’ post-round press conference was done, and he was seemingly off to unwind. 

A lot had happened, after all. 

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At Kapalua’s Plantation course on Friday, benign conditions made the scores ultra low. In fact, of the 59 players in the field, only two posted scores over par. Thirty-two players fired rounds of five-under (68) or better, and a whopping eight players signed for 64s — that’s nine under par!

Posting opening rounds of 69-65 (-12) would normally place you well in the mix on the leaderboard. But this week, Sepp Straka is still outside of the top 10 after 36 holes, trailing Hideki Matsuyama’s lead by four shots. But Straka did earn quite a distinction on Friday, carding an incredible seven birdies in a row on the back nine before finally ending his run with a par on the 17th.

“Well, I love a turkey, so I made three in a row on 12, and was pretty happy about that,” Straka said after his round. “Then birdied 13, 14, 15, which were pretty gettable, so I was thinking about six in a row, I never got to seven, but, yeah, I got kind of hot there with the irons and hit some nice shots and was able to make the putts.”

When the streak finally ended with a par on the par-4 17th hole, Straka said his playing partner, Patton Kizzire, was more disappointed than he was.

“I had a putt on 17 and missed it, and he immediately told me that he was pissed at me,” Straka said.

So what happened?

“I hit it like 20 feet and missed the putt,” Straka said.

A follow-up: Was that devastating?

“It was devastating,” he said. “It was a tough scene, but I’ll get by.

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“[Playing partners Kizzire and Stephan Jaegar] were both pretty disappointed in my finish (laughing).”

Making seven birdies in a row is quite an accomplishment (the PGA Tour record is nine in a row), and one Straka says he can’t recall ever doing before.

“I definitely haven’t gotten eight so I think seven is definitely my max,” he said.

Although Straka had to convert seven putts in order to keep the streak alive, he attributed the birdie barrage to stellar iron play.

“I was hitting my iron shots really close,” he said. “10 I hit it to five feet. 11 I hit it to 10 feet. I just getting inside 10 feet. That can be tough with the wind out here, it wasn’t as windy today, but it’s also kind of hard to figure out exactly where it’s coming from, so it’s hard to really get it inside 10 feet, and I was able to do that for a little stretch there.”

While he’s currently in a chaser’s position on the leaderboard, when the scoring is this low, anything can happen over the course of two rounds.

“This is the type of course where, by the time I tee off, I might be in 15th place or something,” he said. “So you got to keep your foot on the pedal out here and keep trying to give yourself looks and keep trying to make putts.”

Straka will play the third round alongside Wyndham Clark and Will Zalatoris at 2:24 p.m. ET.

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