Kapalua field
Five past champs set to return
Garcia, making his first appearance at Kapalua since 2006, joining Johnson, Reed, Thomas, Schauffele
The Sentry Tournament of Champions today announced that five former champions — Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele — have committed to play in the limited-field event when the tournament returns to the Kapalua Plantation Course from Jan. 7-10.
Johnson is currently No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking, Thomas is No. 3, Schauffele is No. 8 and Reed is 11th. They join Jon Rahm (No. 2), Bryson DeChambeau (5) and Collin Morikawa (7) as top-11 players to commit to the field here.
Garcia, No. 46 in the world, won here in 2002 and has not played on Maui since 2006. He earned his 11th career PGA Tour victory — and first win since the 2017 Masters — at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October. With that win, Garcia now owns victories in three different decades on Tour (2000s, 2010s, 2020s), the 78th player to achieve this feat (most recent prior to Garcia was Stewart Cink at the 2020 Safeway Open).
Next week’s Tournament of Champions will be the 40-year-old Garcia’s fifth trip to Kapalua.
Two-time TOC winner Johnson (2013, 2018) collected four victories this calendar year, including the Masters and FedEx Cup titles. Johnson originally qualified for his return to Maui when he won the Travelers Championship in June, followed by wins at The Northern Trust, Tour Championship and Augusta.
In 10 previous appearances at the Plantation Course, the 24-time Tour winner owns eight top 10s, including a tie for seventh in 2020.
Reed, the 2015 Sentry winner, qualified for his return trip to Maui with a victory at the World Golf Championships Mexico Championship in February. Reed defeated DeChambeau by one stroke to capture his eighth career Tour title and second WGC title.
In six previous appearances at the Plantation Course, Reed owns four top 10s, including a tie for second last January.
Defending champion Thomas punched his return ticket to Maui after he battled through three playoff holes to defeat Reed and Schauffele for his second title here; he also won in 2017. Thomas earned his second win of the year at the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August for his 13th career Tour title.
The 2021 event will be the 27year-old’s sixth trip to Maui, where he also placed third in 2019.
Over the course of the 2020 calendar year, 2019 Sentry winner Schauffele earned six top-5 finishes and 18 top 25s in 20 events. He was a runner-up three times, including here and the Tour Championship. Schauffele made his third consecutive appearance in the FedEx Cup playoffs, advanced to the Tour
Championship for the third time in as many seasons as a Tour member and finished No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings.
Schauffele, who has three previous appearances at Kapalua, is eligible for next week’s event after advancing to the 2020 Tour Championship.
There are 28 players who have qualified for the 2021 event courtesy of their PGA Tour victories this calendar year, including six firsttimers. An additional 17 players without a victory in 2020 who advanced to the Tour Championship are subsequently eligible for the 2021 TOC. The additional eligibility category for the 2021 event was created due to the PGA Tour’s changes to its calendar as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The field becomes final on Friday at noon HST.