THE SENTRY: ROLL OF HONOUR
The PGA Tour year kicks off with The Sentry at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Hawaii, a tournament that was originally known as the Tournament of Champions, but whose field has now been expanded so that 60 players were due to take part in 2025.
Here are some facts about the opening tournament of the calendar year, its history, course details and a list of the most recent winners.
The Sentry History
The Sentry is now one of eight signature events on the PGA Tour calendar where big prizes are on offer and they subsequently attract the biggest names to battle it out over the course of 72 holes.
However, before 2023 it was known as the Tournament of Champions and the field was made up of the winners of each tournament from the previous year and was first played in 1953 when Al Besselink triumphed.
It was the opening event of the PGA Tour season from 1986 to 2013 before the tour adopted a run-around format for the campaign so that it started in September and ended with the FedEx Cup playoffs and Tour Championship in August.
The tournament was expanded to include the top 50 players in the previous year’s FedEx Cup standings in 2023.
The Sentry Venues
The Tournament of Champions was first played at the Desert Inn Country Club in Las Vegas before moving across town to the Stardust Country Club.
La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California became the venue from 1969 to 1999, when it moved to its present location at the Plantation Course at Kapalua in Maui, Hawaii.
The Sentry Winners
Jack Nicklaus holds the record of winning the tournament five times, while Gene Littler, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson all won it three times before it moved to Hawaii.
Tiger Woods is the only Kapalua winner (2000) to have won at La Costa (1997) while Australian Stuart Appleby won it three times on the trot from 2004 to 2006.
Fellow Aussie Geoff Oglivy, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson are all two-time Kapalua winners.
Australia’s Cameron Smith and Spain’s Jon Rahm, both of whom now play on the LIV Tour, are the only non-Americans to have won the tournament since 2010.
The Sentry Course Details
Smith holds the 72-hole course record of 258 that he posted in 2022 on the only par-73 course that a PGA Tour event is played on all season.
The track measures 7,596 yards and has seven holes of more than 500 yards from the tournament tees while six of the par fours are less than 400 yards.
The heavily undulating and wide fairways allow players to let loose from the tee and proficiency on the greens can often be the difference between success and failure.
The prize fund for the 2025 tournament was $20m, with a prize of $3.6m going to the winner.
The Sentry list of recent winners
Here is a list of the last ten winners of The Sentry as of January 2025
| 2024 | Chris Kirk (USA) |
| 2023 | Jon Rahm (Spain) |
| 2022 | Cameron Smith (Australia) |
| 2021 | Harris English (USA) |
| 2020 | Justin Thomas (USA) |
| 2019 | Xander Schauffele (USA) |
| 2018 | Dustin Johnson (USA) |
| 2017 | Justin Thomas (USA) |
| 2016 | Jordan Spieth (USA) |
| 2015 | Patrick Reed (USA) |
Please note that the information provided in this The Sentry Showdown: The PGA Tour’s Elite 60 article is for entertainment purposes only. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information provided. Any action you take upon the information on this article is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with the use of our article. We do not encourage gambling and remind you to gamble responsibly.
18+ | BeGambleAware.org
