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Finau adds to ‘really fun group’ of Kapalua qualifiers

2022 field shaping up as good mix of golf’s best and journeymen

By Robert Collias 6 min read

When Tony Finau broke a 1,975-day win drought on the PGA Tour on Monday, he added to an intriguing list of qualifiers for the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The event is scheduled for Jan. 6-9 at the Kapalua Plantation Course, and Finau's win in The Northern Trust -- his first since the 2016 Puerto Rico Open -- brings the number of qualifiers for the winners-only TOC to 36 so far.

"Watching Tony win today made me smile because he's such a great guy," TOC executive director Alex Urban texted to The Maui News on Monday. "We can't wait to have him at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, especially given his ties to Hawaii."

Xander Schauffele, the 2019 champion here, was recently added to the field as the Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner.

"The field, right now, of our qualified players from the 2021 calendar is outstanding," Urban said via phone earlier on Monday. "We have such a great mix of the top stars on the PGA Tour, like a Justin Thomas and a Brooks Koepka, and Jordan Spieth and Hideki (Matsuyama).

"All those guys who are at the top of the game, but also some really great kind of longterm journeyman stories. We're excited to have Stewart Cink back in the field, he's a fun name. Lucas Glover is another example of a guy who won this year and hadn't won in a while, so it's fun to have those guys coming out here."

Urban said the field is diverse and stellar.

"Just a really fun group of guys," he said.

Spieth has not been to the event since 2018 and has finished in the top 10 here in all four of his appearances, including a win in 2016 when he finished 30-under par.

He told the assembled golf media then to scold him if he ever missed a chance to play here -- Spieth always makes sure to bring his family with him to Kapalua.

"It's huge," Urban said. "First of all, we love having a family affair out here. We love that our players love to travel with parents and kids and all that stuff, so that's great that he brings his family out. Jordan's one of those players, we have a really strong core of young players on the PGA Tour that absolutely love playing in this event.

"And I think what you've seen over the last five to seven years is really a rededication by all those young players to be here every January. I think Jordan was one of the leaders in that. I think Dustin (Johnson) is included in that conversation. Justin Thomas, obviously, is a vocal supporter. It doesn't hurt that all three of them have won this event."

In succession, Spieth finished second, first, tied for third and ninth here from 2014-18. In 2017, he won three times, including the British Open and claimed the FedEx Cup, but then dropped off the win map until a victory at the Valero Texas Open this year.

He is a lock to be back here in January. Urban talked to Spieth last week in New York at The Northern Trust.

"Jordan is just one of those guys -- when he plays golf, people pay attention," Urban said. "So it's really exciting to have him back in the field. I know he's excited. I ran into him in New York and he is very, very excited to make his way back to Kapalua in January."

While in New York, Urban was able to talk to most of the players eligible to be here in January.

"I connected with nearly every qualifier that we have in our field and I would say by and large, the sentiment is that they love Maui, and they love Kapalua and they cannot wait to get back here," Urban said. "That was essentially to a man what we heard. Bryson De­Chambeau was going on and on about it. Collin Morikawa, he can't wait to be back.

"Truly every single person I talked to has just a special place for this event. ... This event is in the top of our players' minds when they're thinking about winning. We're very fortunate to have such a wonderful event with the sponsor that we have on the golf course that we have it on, simple as that."

Urban said an announcement on ticket availability will be officially done in the next few weeks. Last January's event was capped at only a few hundred spectators each day, all limited to a skybox at the 18th green due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would say hopefully we'll have some news in the near future," Urban said. "You can imagine that we're keeping our eye on everything as it progresses as it relates to COVID and making sure that we talk to the PGA Tour, and the county, and the state, and all those organizations. We want to make sure that we do things in a healthy and safe manner.

"The good news is, our event being outdoors certainly helps. And so does the PGA Tour's record of staging events in a very healthy and safe way for a year and a half now. Hopefully in the very near future we will have some more information, but as you can imagine we're still kind of taking in as much information as we can."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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Sentry Tournament of Champions

2022 qualifiers

Tournament: Jan. 6-9,

Kapalua Plantation Course

Abraham Ancer

Daniel Berger

Sam Burns

Patrick Cantlay

Cameron Champ

Stewart Cink

Joel Dahmen

Cam Davis

Bryson DeChambeau

Harris English

Tony Finau

Lucas Glover

Branden Grace

Garrick Higgo

Max Homa

Billy Horschel

Matt Jones

Si Woo Kim

Kevin Kisner

Brooks Koepka

Jason Kokrak

K.H. Lee

Marc Leishman

Hideki Matsuyama

Rory McIlroy

Phil Mickelson

Collin Morikawa

Kevin Na

Seamus Power

Jon Rahm

Patrick Reed

Erik Van Rooyen

Xander Schauffele

Cameron Smith

Jordan Spieth

Justin Thomas

Starting at /week.