Sentry 2020: Watching Young Guns Hit Woods Into Par-5s Was Exciting! Stop The Presses!
/
Kapalua played like a golf course re-opening year one of a major overhaul. The turf was young, the greens sported that dreaded new-green firmness and overall, it needs a little more time to settle in. Mother Nature was also cruel to the 2020 Sentry Tournament of Champions in making Kapalua play long, soft, wet and not as much fun as we know it can be.
But as the ground dried just enough during Sunday’s windy finale, the 18th played like it did fifteen years ago. Drives that caught the right line and ridges shortened the hole. Clubs once called woods—not irons!—were used for second shots on a par-5. The hazard was in play. The ground mattered. Position off the tee was key. Genuine skill behind mere power was on display. And it was all very exciting to watch.
This is noteworthy given how often we are told the long ball is vital to selling the sport when we were once again reminded that power is fascinating when it is used to overcome hazards or to separate highly competitive players in a tight battle. Seeing the shots of Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed just trickle on to a green in two, after starting 677 yards away, proved far more exciting than most finishes we’ve seen in some time and certainly were more fun than the simple lash at a tee shot.
It was all a reminder of how much pleasure can be found in watching a skilled player use a wood off of a hanging lie under tournament pressure, and how rarely it now happens as distance overwhelms the game.
Well done to all involved and thanks for the viewing pleasure to kick off 2020 in style.
Here was Thomas hitting into the hazard, hopefully we’ll get some social posts of the brilliant shots hit by Thomas, Schauffele and Reed on the first playoff hole (Think shaped, running and using the land, with a wood in their hand.)
Hopefully we’ll get some of those posted in the PGA Tour highlights package, but in the meantime, eventual winner Justin Thomas’s gaffe in regulation and his near eagle hole out in the playoff, in case you missed all the fun.
