Hyundai Tournament of Champions - preview

Hyundai Tournament of Champions

Plantation Course at Kapalua, Hawaii

Thursday Jan 7th - Sunday Jan 10th, 2016

by David Barwise

The beautiful Plantation Course in Hawaii
Photo: www.hawaiigolfexperience.com

First tournament of 2016 – and it’s a doozie.

The HTOC boasts a field made up solely of tour *winners* from the past calendar year, making it one of the most exclusive and glamourous fields in golf (only four golfers have elected not to participate). Six of the top ten golfers are there including Patrick Reed, the defending champion. The field of just 32 golfers holds three previous winners at the Kapalua – Reed, Zach Johnson and Dustin Johnson – along with Love III who won the tournament in Carlsbad, California back in 1993.

However the focus won’t be on any of these; it’ll be on the world’s top two ranked golfers. After a short winter sabbatical, both Jordan Spieth and Jason Day are kick-starting their campaigns at arguably the easiest course on the calendar. Ultimately it’s a fight to see who’s kept their form going from the tail-end of last season and who can assert their dominance early on this season.

Will Jordan Spieth get his win of the season this weekend?
Photo: www.skysports.com

The most glaring absentee is Rory McIlroy, who is (apparently) still recovering from his laser eye surgery and is yet to return to the tour. Sadly, we must wait for 2016’s first gathering of the “Big Three”.

Then who are we going to turn our attention to this week? Well, apart from Spieth and Day, the big name to watch is Bubba Watson.  With a win already under his belt in the new season (the Hero World Challenge about a month ago) it’ll be interesting to see whether he has the momentum to keep scoring low up until the Masters (or if he can even jump up alongside Spieth and friends).

US Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III will be hoping to be in contention
Photo: www.golfweek.com

And what of the newcomers? I’d recommend keeping an eye on Kevin Kisner, not just because he’s leading the FedExCup but also because his game suits the course and his aversion to par 3s can only be a good thing (there are only three of them on the course). I’m also keen to see how Brooks Koepka fares as he look to improve upon an impressive 2015. Finally - although you wouldn’t bet on it - should Davis Love III win this weekend, he would reclaim the event after 23 years.

By no means am I saying that such a small event with such a small field could be considered important to the rest of the season – this is more a dust-off to get back into things. But with its strongest line-up in years, it’s going to be a great watch.