Gary Woodland was sitting pretty after 54 holes at the Tournament of Champions last year.
Woodland held a three-shot lead at Kapalua’s Plantation Course — one thing he didn’t count on was a final round 62 by Xander Schauffele.
Schauffele birdied the closing hole to shoot 11-under par and tied the course record then watched as Woodland missed a 10-footer for birdie to force a playoff. In the end, it was Schauffele shooting 23-under at this season-opening event.
The PGA Tour is back at it this week in Hawaii but before next week’s full-field at The Sony, it’s winners-only this week at Kapalua.
You’ve got 34 guys showing up but there are a bunch of big names who stayed home including Masters champion Tiger Woods, Open champion Shane Lowry, Players and Fed Ex champ Rory McIlroy, PGA champ Brooks Koepka along with Phil Mickelson, Francesco Molinari and Justin Rose.
Tiger is still resting up from his double-duty gig at the Presidents Cup while Koepka’s physical status remains up in the air due to the unknown condition of his left knee.
As for the rest of the absentees, they simply chose to pass.
Highest ranked stars on hand will be Jon Rahm (No. 3), Justin Thomas (No. 4), Dustin Johnson (No. 5) Patrick Cantlay (No. 7) and the defending champ — Schauffele (No. 9).
Of course Matt Kuchar is there. Kooch the Caddie Mooch won the Sony last year, the week after the TOC, so he’ll spend a couple of weeks in the islands.
Last year’s Tournament of Champions was a birdie-fest and unless the Kona winds kick up in a big way, they’ll be going low again.
This will be prime-time viewing on television and all the shivering golfers up north can eat their hearts out watching the guys in their shirtsleeves.
