Matt Kuchar shot the 10th lowest score in PGA Tour history last January to capture the Sony Open in Hawaii. The 40-year old won $1,152,000.

Hawaii charities collected $1.2 million.

On Thanksgiving Day, it seems only natural to thank the people that made that possible: The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc., which matches funds raised by the tournament, and some 1,500 volunteers, who donated thousands of hours so Friends of Hawaii Charities could distribute so much money to 150 local non-profits.

Kuchar will defend his title Jan. 9-12 at Waialae Country Club, well aware the tournament has distributed $19 million the past 21 years. He made a video appearance when this year’s funds were given to the charities.

The tournament tries to have its volunteers committed for January by the beginning of December. That is coming up quickly and the numbers are a little short, especially in the areas of ShotLink and caddies.

ShotLink is one of seven committees you can sign up for on the Sony Open website (sonyopeninhawaii.com), along with Admission and Will Call, Gallery Control/Marshals, Parking, Pro Transportation, Standard Bearers and Volunteer Pool.

Each volunteer usually works a minimum of two days, gets a shirt — often very bright — and hat, a shot at playing Waialae in the volunteer tournament and an opportunity to see the greatest players in the game up close and personal.

If you listen to them, you realize they get something more, even beyond helping golf and their community.

When Pearl City’s Bobby Tsumura was 64, and had been with the Sony and Hawaiian Opens more than 25 years, he was named 2003 Volunteer of the Year by the PGA Tour.

“It’s fun because of all the people,” Tsumura said then, and keeps repeating as he heads toward his 50th year of volunteering. “You see some of them only once a year. The volunteers and Waialae people are so friendly and helpful. It’s like a big carnival. We all have common cause, working to put on a good tournament.”

And raise as much as possible for non-profits that need more each year.

“It would be easier to say what I don’t like about volunteering,” said Ed Clary, Sony’s 2019 Chester Kahapea Volunteer of the Year. “You do what you love and you love what you do. I love what I do.”

It’s the same for ShotLink volunteers and caddies.

Volunteers don’t need experience to work for ShotLink, but there is an online course and on-the-course training during the Wednesday pro-am.

The ShotLink system, which started about the same time as Sony, maps Tour courses before an event starts to provide a digital image of each hole. Its precise locations make it possible for the volunteers with laser range finders and the “gridders,” who input where the ball lands on a Surface computer, to find exact distances between any two points.

A small Tour staff helps a large volunteer contingent calculate all the needed data, and spit out stats that range from basic distances to the fact that at one point Adam Scott had hit the most greens from fairway bunkers (70.7%).

The Tour estimates the work “equates to approximately three years of effort,” with 10,000 volunteers needed annually.

First-year chair Clayton Sato has worked in ShotLink 12 years and says his group is aging out and needs younger volunteers to fill pukas. His requirements are simple:

“Someone eager to learn and interested in volunteering,” he says. “The best part is watching all the pro golfers in person. You can also watch the tournament when you are not working.”

Caddies are even closer to the action at the four pro-ams (Jan. 5 ,6, 8 and 13). They are not officially volunteers because they get paid and have four options for collecting — a $100 payment, a 2020 Players Golf Card worth $100 that supports local courses and First Tee of Hawaii, or donating $100 to First Tee or Hawaii State Junior Golf Association.

Steve Small (steve@caddienow.com or 480-710-6975) is trying to come up with 125 caddies for the four pro-ams, from groups such as junior golfers, the military, college students, Sony volunteers and local golfers. They also get the shirt and hat, along with a tournament access pass and single-day guest pass.

Every caddie needs a 45-minute orientation, with five coming up in December (16, 21 and 27 at Bayview, 19 at Dave and Busters and 28 at Royal Kunia).

“It’s a chance to be inside the ropes with pros that are the best on the PGA Tour,” Small says, “at the exclusive Waialae Country Club.”

He hopes the work at Sony will encourage caddies to join CaddieNow.com, which just brought its program to Ko Olina and is expected to announce new sites here soon. The “caddie service platform” pairs golfers with caddies and “protects the occupation of caddying to elevate the standards of caddie services.”

And, at the Sony Open, help elevate donations to local non-profits above $20 million.