It seems an age ago that Scottie Scheffler held the FedEx Championship aloft at the culmination of the 2024 PGA Tour season, since then several players have had to battle their way through the tough PGA Tour Fall schedule for the right to play on the PGA Tour in 2025 and it all begins with the 2025 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
The annual curtain raiser for the PGA Tour, the Sentry Tournament of Champions is played amidst the beautiful setting of Hawaii’s Kapalua Plantation Course on and the tournament holds a huge prize pool of $20 million.
The standout feature of the Tournament of Champions is the fact that not just anybody can tee it up with spots in the field reserved only for those who finished in the top 50 in the 2024 FedEx standings or those who won a PGA title in 2024.
With a huge amount of money on the line, ranking points and the ability to kick off a new year in style, the Tournament of Champions often produces some great golf and some interesting storylines, here is everything you need to know.
The Course
Kapalua Plantation Course is one of the most beautiful in the world, set on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, players and fans are greeted with stunning views and the opportunity to see some of the world’s best nature and wildlife in their natural setting.
In terms of the course, it is fair to say that the Plantation Course offers up a soft introduction to the start of the season. The fairways are some of the widest that the players will experience all year and more often than not you will see the best players be able to pepper their approaches close to the flag. Whilst the wind can certainly make things harder, over the last three years of the tournament the conditions have been a non-factor and the winning scores have been low, with the last three winning totals being -29, -27 and -34.
There are plenty of eagle opportunities dotted around the course but in order to be competitive wedges and putters need to be in fine working order. Often turning into something of a putting contest, those who can get the flat stick firing should find themselves bang in contention when it matters most.
2025 tournament rocked by absences
Usually a well attended event, the lead up to the 2025 event has been blighted by several key absences. World number three Rory McIlroy often opts to skip this tournament, instead preferring to start his season in the Middle East, however a huge blow was dealt to organisers when World number one Scottie Scheffler confirmed that he wouldn’t be able to tee it up this year.
Requiring surgery after having broken a plate and needing pieces of glass surgically removed from his hand, the omission of the world number one is a glaring one and the PGA Tour will hope that several others will be able to step up to the plate in Scheffler’s absence.
Other names to keep an eye on in the run up to the event are Tony Finau and Viktor Hovland, both are battling injuries and look unlikely to claim their spots in the 60 man field.
Schauffele the clear favourite for victory
It’s not often that a man who wins eight PGA titles is overlooked but by winning two majors last season, Xander Schauffele was able to take some of the spotlight away from Scottie Scheffler as he enjoyed the best season of his career by some distance.
This time last year, Schauffele was without doubt one of the best players in golf not to have won a major and many were left wondering if he had the temperament to win some of the game’s biggest prizes.
Those fears were raised when he threw away a big lead at the 2024 Wells Fargo, but he showed exactly what he is made of when coming back a week later to capture his first major title at the 2024 PGA Championship.
The front runner after the first round, the Californian showed an elite mindset to stay clear of the chasing pack to finally secure that first major title that his talents clearly deserved.
With the monkey finally off his back, Schauffele was a different beast on the course. Exuding a cool confidence never seen before, he made it a year to remember when producing a special final round to capture the 2024 Open.
With only Scheffler in front of him in the rankings, Schauffele is the headline act at this year’s Tournament of Champions and he will easily be the short priced betting favourite. Looking to cement his place as one of the game’s best players, look for him to make the most of the generous scoring conditions and for him to lay down an early marker that he is back for more this year.
Who else should we keep an eye on?
Despite the absence of some of the world’s best players, there are still a whole host of names to keep an eye on.
After a rough period where Collin Morikawa looked to have crashed back down to earth following a brilliant start to his career, the two time major winner got things back on track in 2024 and is arguably playing some of the best golf of his career.
Now back inside the world’s top 5, despite being one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour last season, he still finished the year without a title and he will want to amend that record at the first time of asking in 2025.
A runner up at this tournament back in 2023, Morikawa, who has Hawaain heritage has often spoken of his dream to win this title in front of his family and friends. With plenty to like about his chances, expect a big showing from the popular American by the time the tournament kicks off.
Justin Thomas would have been hurt by his omission from the 2024 Presidents Cup team. A player who loves team golf, he could have had few complaints of being left out and he will be determined to bounce back and make the 2025 Ryder Cup team.
Despite being labelled as a generational talent, it’s now over two years since Thomas last won a title and it’s fair to say that he has struggled with his swing. Having shown signs of life at times last year, Thomas will hope to get his career back on track this year.
A former winner of this title, the man from Kentucky certainly has fond memories of this tournament. Needing to be better with his putter, his winning score of -14 was achieved amidst some tricky conditions and is certainly an outlier to some of the low scores we have become so accustomed to seeing.
If the conditions are sunny and crisp, Thomas will need to putt lights out to win, however if the wind swirls, he could be a man to watch with real interest.
Jack Hartman
A keen golfer and huge fan of the game, Jack has been covering golf for the last five years. Bringing you all the latest coverage and news from the PGA, LIV, LPGA and DP World Tours, never before has golf been so popular and Jack can’t wait to bring all the excitement to his readers.
