Kapalua, Maui >> The Sony Open in Hawaii will boast a strong field, as 23 of the 33 golfers in this week’s winners-only tournament on Maui will make the 80-mile trip to Oahu.
Chief among this talented Sentry Tournament of Champions field is 2017 Sony Open winner Justin Thomas, who is ranked No. 4 in the world. The other top-10 player making the journey over is world No. 5 Bryson DeChambeau. In all, six of the top 20 in the world are playing next week, including No. 15 Patrick Reed, No. 16 Bubba Watson and No. 17 Jordan Spieth, who didn’t play on Maui this week because he didn’t win last year.
There are also nine past Sony Open champions teeing it up at Waialae Country Club dating back to Jerry Kelly, who won in 2002. The following week Kelly will defend his Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island in the season’s first senior event. Other notable past champions taking part next week are former world No. 1 Vijay Singh (2005), three-time major winner Zach Johnson (2009) and Jimmy Walker (2014 and ‘15).
Current Masters champion Reed is the only major winner in the field. It will be his second appearance at Waialae. He missed the cut in 2013. U.S. Open and PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka will not be in the field. His world No. 1 ranking is in jeopardy. Justin Rose will take his place if Koepka doesn’t finish higher than eighth this week on Maui. He enters the weekend tied for 27th. British Open champ Francesco Molinari is here this week, but will not take part in the Sony Open.
The Sony is the first full-field event of the calendar year. Other big names teeing it up on Oahu are Hideki Matsuyama, past Masters champ and former world No. 1 Adam Scott and fan favorite Matt Kuchar, who is playing here on Maui this week.
Plantation Course to undergo face-lift
The Plantation Course will go under the knife starting Feb. 11 and lasting until November in a $10 million improvement plan designed to help not only the professionals who compete here once a year, but the average resort player as well.
During this nine-month span, the 27-year-old course will have the fairways, rough and tee boxes seeded with what is called Celebration Bermuda. In addition, all the greens will be resurfaced with Tif Eagle Bermuda grass. The greens will be refined to create more options for pin placements. Bunkers will be renovated, with some being eliminated and others moved to different parts of the course.
All the existing tee boxes face reconstruction, and more tees will be added to accommodate the weekend hacker. Original course designer Bill Coore was in the house Friday to try to remove any fears that when the Plantation Course is revealed to the public next fall no one will recognize the place.
“Our hope is the golf course that will be presented next year will be more of a restoration and rejuvenation,” Coore said. “Maybe refinements in certain areas, but a restoration of what the course was in its early days. There’s no intent on our part to create a golf course that is unrecognizable from what it has been here before. It will be just a more polished version than that.”
Inside the numbers
This was not a particularly good day for scoring for the 33 golfers playing the wind-swept course on West Maui. The scoring average in the opening round was 71.333 in similar conditions. There were four eagles and 146 birdies carded among the 33 golfers on the course.
The scoring average rose a bit on Friday to 71.394 as the golfers in this winners-only event remained tightly bunched, with just six strokes separating the top 11 golfers through 36 holes. The hardest hole on Friday was the par-3 eighth with a scoring average of 3.273. There were four birdies, 20 pars, six bogeys, two doubles and a triple by Jason Day that kept him six off the pace of leader Gary Woodland.
The easiest hole was the par-5 15th with a scoring average of 4.364. There were 22 birdies, 10 pars and a bogey by Molinari.
