The Sentry Tournament of Champions in review.
The Tournament of Champions is always one of my favorite golf events to watch each year. Think about the positives: The best players, being envious of Hawaii, the occasional Blue Whale, weird course.
Oh, and golf. The golf is back.
How crazy have the past two Sentry tournaments been? 2022 had Jon Rahm shooting -33 and LOSING to (eventual lead LIV villain) Cam Smith. 2023 featured a stone cold stud of a player in Collin Morikawa blowing a 7 stroke lead by going bogey-free for 67 holes then bogeying 3 straight holes.
It was absurd and amazing all at once.
I feel for Morikawa on a spiritual level.
Who amongst us hasn’t absolutely chunked a 60 yard wedge? It’s the hardest shot in golf.
Who hasn’t bombed one out of a bunker? I certainly have.
Who hasn’t three putted at the worst moment? This guy does it on the regular.
We understand Morikawa’s pain unlike most tour failures. Which is strange because it’s unheard of for a pro to collapse like this.
In the same moment we linger on the collapse, we must celebrate the big Spaniard. Jon Rahm pulled through with a 10 under on Sunday for the improbable victory. So improbable that after hole number 1, he was down 9 strokes on the day. As much as Morikawa blew it, Rahm won it. Rahm showed up time and time again when there was a chance to score, finally finishing it on hole 18 to go up 3 strokes with Morikawa having 2 to play.
Golf is back and it’s a beautiful thing.
Here is a bit of categorical thinking for you.
Shot of the tournament:
I debated momentarily between Max Homa’s hole-out, Tom Kim DUNKING the ball in, but alas… The answer was pretty simple. Jordan Spieth and his magic flop shot. The guts to make this swing and the grace to control it reminds me of a swordsman going for the kill. So impressive.
Thing that pleasantly surprised me:
The coverage was fantastic! Two things specifically stuck out to me.
The first was the drone footage - On a course that feels so vast and undulated, the drones gave fantastic perspective of the shots that were hit.
The second was the commercial free last hour - It was absolutely perfect considering we were in the midst of epic meltdown/comeback. The tension during Morikawa’s chipping was palpable. I don’t know if that same feeling would have been there if we would have been interrupted by a PXG commercial.
The how did this guy miss the cut, Tiger never missed cuts award:
No cut this tournament. But I am giving this to Justin Thomas. It felt like I saw three JT shots all weekend. Is this fair for him to get? Probably not. But someone has to be sacrificed to the Golf God’s this week
And that caps the first week of golf. It is so good to be back writing about sports. Thank you for reading this and thank you for joining me in this journey to write more. Always a pleasure to kick back and talk sports.