Sentry Tournament Of Champions

For the past two months, Zero Putts has been going through some cosmetic changes. Throughout this rebranding process, we revamped the website, updated our logo, and made our site much easier to navigate as well. This rebranding princess allows us to put out the best product we can going forward. With that being said, welcome golf fans to the 2023 golf season.

This year will be a year unlike any other on the PGA Tour and other professional tours around the world. There will be several changes going forward but the most noteworthy this year are the elevated events. This season there will be 17 elevated events, starting this week with The Sentry Tournament of Champions, featuring a purse of 15 million spread across 39 golfers. Some of the 16 other events include all the majors, The Players, The Genesis and Arnold Palmer Invitational, The BMW Championship, and finally the Tour Championship. The purses for those events range from 20-25 million each. However, there are certain events that will only be elevated for one year, and each year it seems like certain elevated events will change on a yearly basis. It should be rather interesting how the PGA Tour determines which events will qualify to become elevated, but going forward since there is a rotating schedule it seems like every event will have a chance at the opportunity. Another major change that will be put in place after the completion of the 2022-2023 is there will be no more wrap around anymore. More specifically going forward the PGA Tour tour season will begin in January and end in September. The season won't begin in the fall any longer. It should be interesting to see how this change unfolds. There is one thing for sure, golf is not the focal point in the fall, battling football and baseball has hurt ratings and viewership. The serious golf fans are part of the much smaller demographic that watches the beginning part of the season in the fall. 

Another major change is the playoffs. This is one I firmly do not agree with, going forward the playoffs will only host the top 70 players leaving 55 players out of the playoffs unlike the previous 125 players in years prior. The top 70 now will be awarded full status for the upcoming year; the rest of the players outside of the top 70 will have conditional or some sort of limited status for the upcoming year. It should be interesting to see how this plays out because certain players who just barely get in around the top 80 or so end up playing at East Lake with strong play. They will no longer have that chance now that only 70 players will be moving on to the playoffs. Some changes are needed and necessary, others are not. Like everyone always says “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

Now for those still in the dark on why these changes are put in place look no further than LIV Golf. Throughout the past year LIV has pressed all the right buttons on the PGA Tour. They have forced the hand of Jay Monohan as well as many others surrounding the PGA Tour to make real, heavy duty changes in the hopes to combat LIV in the future. More recently I'm sure the tour executives are not thrilled with the fact that Augusta National has now invited all LIV players that qualify for the Masters. I’m sure Jay and the tour were hoping they wouldn’t invite them but that seemed like a pipe dream all along. The very sad part is that all of this could have been avoided if Jay had a sit down with LIV ironed out details and came to an agreement, but everyone is on a power trip these days and now we are at a point in golf where half the top players are on LIV, half are on the PGA Tour and nobody knows who or what to watch. The PGA Tour had all the right cards and they unfortunately folded. With that being said the damage is down and it's all water under the bridge at this point, but nevertheless the show will go on. 

This week we jump right into a really fun event with a great field, featuring 39 of the top players on tour currently. The Plantation Course at Kapalua is just magnificent. Between the views and the contours of the land it provides the players the opportunity to get wildly creative with their strategy throughout the week. Most notably is the 18th hole. The 18th hole is a picturesque 677-yard par 5 that many of the players can reach in two shots due to slope and elevation. One of my favorite shots from the hole was from left Bubba Watson who is known for his creativity on the course. Bubba hit a low bullet cut that seemed like it rolled forever, ultimately nestling itself to inside 20 feet which later led to an eagle. It’s shots like that that really get the fans involved and there are numerous opportunities for players to pull off those kinds of shots this week. This week keep an eye on Will Zalatoris. Will has not played since his playoff win last year. He has been on bed rest dealing with back issues. It should be interesting to see how his game and body holds up playing four rounds for the first time since August. My top pick for the week however goes to Xander Schauffele. Xander is no stranger to the winner’s circle and he’s got the creativity to win at Kapalua. He’s roaring with confidence and currently sitting at #6 in the world he could make some moves especially since World #1 Rory McIlroy is not in the field this week. Golf is back folks and we are in for a treat this year. (Mike)