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Thomas, 26, now a veteran on tour, at Kapalua

By Robert Collias 4 min read

KAPALUA -- Even Justin Thomas has to pinch himself sometimes when he is called a veteran on the PGA Tour.

The 26-year-old is making his fifth straight appearance at the Sentry Tournament of Champions this week at the Kapalua Plantation Course. He won the event in 2017 and has earned more than $1.85 million here.

"It is crazy. I mean, I still think I'm very young. I mean, 26 years old. But in terms of guys that are out here, I'm definitely not the young one anymore. But it's cool," Thomas said during a press conference on Tuesday. "I mean, the tour is becoming younger. It was becoming younger when I first got out here, but yeah, I mean, I think this is my ... fifth or sixth year, and it is kind of nuts how fast it's gone by.

"I think when you don't have that time, that couple months to just kind of relax and do whatever, when it's kind of bang-bang-bang from January to December, it goes by pretty fast."

Thomas wouldn't want to be anywhere else this week.

"Yeah, this is always the best place I think to start the year, being able to be at Kapalua," he said. "It's a good thing. It means you won the previous year. But also, a small field, fun, relaxed week, great golf course."

Thomas is a fan of the $10 million renovation of the Plantation Course that has changed the layout since last year. The course reopened in November after the nine-month project.

"The changes are great," Thomas said. "I feel like it's always a little iffy the first year just in terms of how the course is going to come back, but as my dad said the other day, you can't really get much better growing conditions than Hawaii with a lot of rain and a lot of sunshine. It's really come in well, and the greens are firm because they're new, but they're rolling very, very true."

Collin Morikawa, one of 15 first-timers in the 34-player field here this week, played the Plantation Course 13 years ago when he was 9 years old. He has several family ties to Maui.

"Obviously with the renovation and everything, I don't remember really anything from (when) I played it when I was 9," he said. "I just remember sitting right outside the clubhouse taking a family picture, and that's about it. It's a brand new look for me. The course looks amazing, good shape, so I look forward to it."

Thomas said the changes are for the good, although the course is still familiar to him. The fourth-ranked player in the world is 55-under par here in 16 rounds, including his 18-under 274 last year when he finished third. He shot 270 when won here in 2017.

"I mean, it's still the same golf course. It's just -- I mean, you have holes like 3 -- 4, that tee was there but we didn't really use it," he said. "Nine, 10, I mean, those holes all have new tees, but still, it's not like it changes anything, it's just that 3 is now (longer) and now the bunkers are in play when it's into the wind and we're hitting anywhere from an 8- to a 4-iron instead of a wedge, and 4, same sort of thing, and 9, we probably can't get there in two now, which is kind of bizarre because sometimes we're hitting 3-wood to stay short of the end of the fairway."

The changes did add some options for pin placements on several greens, Thomas pointed out.

"The only thing that's a little different is just I feel like we're going to have more pin placements on some of the greens because instead of having one gradual slope, now it's kind of turned into shelf, and you have to maybe focus a little bit more on being on the correct side of the shelf or the correct side of the hole," he said. "I would say that's the biggest difference is just hitting different clubs into greens and not having to worry about that as much."

Thomas said he's not sure what kind of score it will take to win this week, but there's no question the course that now measures 7,596 yards on the official scorecard will make it interesting.

"It's definitely more difficult, yeah," he said. "It's a lot longer, and the firm greens are always going to make a course more difficult."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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