There has been plenty of debate surrounding The Sentry after Hideki Matsuyama broke a PGA Tour record on his way to winning the first event of the year.
The Sentry provides an interesting start to the new season. It went into 2025 already holding the record for the lowest score to par in a 72 hole PGA Tour event, with Cameron Smith winning the 2022 tournament on 34 under par.
Hideki Matsuyama went one better this time around. The 2021 Masters champion finished three shots clear of Collin Morikawa in Maui. But it seems safe to say that the tournament has divided opinion.
Some fans criticised holding a PGA Tour event at the Plantation Course. The fairways are extremely wide, while the greens offer fairly generous targets. Those on 20 under par this past week finished in a tie for 24th. Meanwhile, Davis Riley was the only player in the field who was over par before he withdrew from the event during Sunday’s round.
Smylie Kaufman suggests what a scratch golfer would shoot around the Plantation Course following The Sentry
Matsuyama still deserves enormous credit for making the most of the conditions. Ultimately, no-one did a better job than the 32-year-old. But it does appear that there are questions to be asked about whether it is suitable for a PGA Tour event – even if the tour wants to provide a more gentle test for the curtain-raiser.
Interestingly, speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman shared what he believes a scratch golfer would have shot around Kapalua had they been playing in the calm conditions during the tournament.
“It’s just one of those golf courses. There’s just no defence to it, the greens are just not firm. The fairways are so wide. Statistically speaking, the easiest greens to hit on the PGA Tour year in and year out I think over like 20 years, one or two years it wasn’t the leader. So you hit tons of greens, you have four par fives, and three par threes and a drivable par four,” he said.
“All that being said, I think that argument that everybody has in the office, where you’re just shooting bull with the other golf guys in the office about, ‘hey, what do you think you would shoot on the PGA Tour?’ And that one guy is like, ‘what’s your handicap?’ ‘I’m a two’. Well, you probably shoot an 85 to 90, something like that. I really do think if you were a scratch who is zero, and you play golf on Friday and Saturday in no wind, I think it plays true.
“I know they tuck the pins, but it’s just not hard.”
The change already being discussed ahead of The Sentry in 2026
It is a remarkable statement. One of the talking points each year at the Masters concerns what an amateur would shoot around Augusta National if they started each hole on the green. And it is safe to say that plenty of players would still not end up with the green jacket at the end of the week.
Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that The Sentry is a signature event. It arguably does not do a lot for the stature of the signature events if three under par is only good enough for last place of those who finish.
Changes are already being discussed. It was suggested that the fifth could become a par four from next year, with most players only having a low iron into the green. The hole was played in an average of 4.12 shots across the week.
But given how strong some of the feelings are, it is hard to imagine that that change alone will be enough to silence the tournament’s critics.
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