Justin Thomas won his second Tournament of Champions title in January to become the first to earn a spot back at the Kapalua Plantation Course next year. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

The Associated Press and The Maui News

Next year’s Sentry Tournament of Champions won’t exactly live up to its name, but it will include the PGA Tour’s best from this coronavirus-shortened season.

As part of a number of announcements Thursday, the PGA Tour unveiled a plan for an expanded field at the typically winners-only event at the Kapalua Plantation Course, Jan. 7-10. In addition to winners from the 2020 calendar year, those who reach the Tour Championship — currently scheduled for Sept. 4-7 at East Lake — will also get a spot in the TOC. That means whoever finishes in the top 30 in the FedEx Cup gets a trip to Maui.

Justin Thomas won his second Tournament of Champions title in January to become the first to earn a spot back at Kapalua next year. Others to qualify so far include Cameron Smith, Andrew Landry, Marc Leishman, Webb Simpson, Nick Taylor, Adam Scott, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Reed, Sungjae Im and Tyrrell Hatton — Hatton won on March 8 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the last PGA Tour event to be completed before the season was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also on Thursday, the tour said that no one will lose a PGA Tour card this year, meaning that the Korn Ferry Tour players will have to wait a year before fully joining the big leagues.

A memo sent to players to outline the changes was another step in the tour trying to figure out what’s equitable in a season that will be without 13 previously scheduled events.

The tour said players exempt for this season will keep the same status for the 2020-21 season that is scheduled to start in September unless they earn a higher ranking after this shortened season.

As for the developmental Korn Ferry Tour, no one will graduate to the PGA Tour after the season. The tour was working on rewarding the top 10 players, such as allowing them in opposite-field events for next season.

Previously, golfers who ranked in the top 25 at the end of the Korn Ferry regular season would earn PGA Tour cards, while another 25 cards were available to the highest finishers at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Maui’s Alex Chiarella is among the golfers who will have to wait for his shot at the PGA Tour — the Seabury Hall graduate is currently at No. 46 in the Korn Ferry standings, within striking distance of the top 25.

All of this is contingent on golf resuming June 11-14 at Colonial, the restart of a season that would include only one major championship. The PGA Championship is tentatively set for Aug. 9-12 in San Francisco. The U.S. Open was pushed back to September, the Masters was moved to November and the British Open was canceled.

That means six majors will be played during the 2020-21 season.