The winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui in January – annually the first PGA Tour event after the turn of the calendar each year – might not have a full field of champions in 2021.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has turned the pro golf schedules upside down. The PGA Tour has canceled or postponed 13 events so far this season.
So that likely leaves the Sentry event likely short of an all-champion field and could also likely mean a smaller-than-normal field. There were 34 golfers in the 2019 field.
Winners of tournaments in 2020 earn an invitation and will be joined in 2021 by players who qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship, which is reserved for the top 30 in the FedEx Cup points race. Make The Tour Championship without winning, you’re going to Maui.
Justin Thomas won the event earlier this year in a playoff. Thomas holed a 3-footer for birdie in approaching darkness, edging Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele, both past champions of the event. Schauffele held the 54-hole lead, but dropped out after a par on the first playoff hole.
Currently, the PGA Tour is scheduled to return June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. If the schedule holds, a FedEx Cup champion will be crowned at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in September. If the PGA Tour does resume in June, FedEx Cup points will be awarded.
