The PGA Tour will kick off the 2024 calendar season with a trip to Maui, Hawaii for The Sentry (It used to be called the Sentry Tournament of Champions, but is now called The Sentry). The PGA Tour season officially started last September, but I always consider The Sentry as the start of the Fantasy Golf season.
The Sentry is a special event because it is a reward for all of the golfers who won a tournament in 2023. The field is made up of 35 winners on tour last year and 24 players who qualified by finishing in the top-50 in the FEDEX Points (59 total golfers in the field this week). JON RAHM won this tournament last year and secured a spot in the 2024 Sentry. We will not see “The Big Spaniard” in the field for The Sentry since he left the PGA Tour for the LIV Tour. There is $15M on the line this weeks, so there is a lot of motivation for the golfers to show up is good form in Hawaii.
Here is the recent form and course history for each golfer this week: Course History and Form
Course Breakdowns
The Sentry will be played at Kapalua Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii. The course was able to survive the wild fires on the island and hopefully the event will bring some money to the struggling Maui economy and help the people who were affected by the fires.
The Plantation Course is one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour. The course will play 7,596 yards this week and will be scored as a par-73. The ocean views of this course are breathtaking.
The fairways at the Plantation Course are the widest on tour and the elevation changes make 350-yard drives common off the tee (Do not be surprised to see golfers’ drive it well over 400-yards on the par-4 17th hole).
The only defense for this course is the weather. The scores have been really low when the winds are calm and the course is dry. The forecast for this week is for some rain and 20 MPH winds. The winning score has been 20 under par or better in seven of the last eight seasons, so we should have some scoring in Hawaii.
Click here to see the course: Plantation Course at Kapalua.
KEY STATS FOR THE SENTRY
– Distance Off the Tee
– Strokes Gained Approach
– Par 5 Scoring
– Birdie of Better %
TOP 30 GOLFERS
THE SENTRY STRATEGY
Course history is important at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, but many of the golfers who dominated The Sentry are now playing on the LIV Tour. The golfers with the best course history include Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Sunjae Im. These golfers have multiple top-10 finishes at The Sentry and they never finished outside the top-16 at this course. Morikawa, Schauffele, Cantlay and Im are good building blocks to have in your lineups.
The golfers who play well at Augusta National and the L.A. Country Club typically play well at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. The golfers who have played well at all three courses include Scottie Scheffler, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Ludvid Aberg.
The common theme in DFS Golf this week will be to build your lineup around the golfers who can bomb it off the tee. Yes, we do need guys who can hit it long, but the ball-strikers have won this event in the past (Collin Morikawa was running away with the tournament last year, before he blew up on Sunday). Ball-Strikers like Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Brian Harman, Sungjae Im, Corey Conners and Russell Henley should have a good chance to win Sunday.
CORE GOLFERS FOR THE SENTRY
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK ($9,500): I wanted to start my Cash Contest Lineup with Xander Schauffele, but it was hard to pay up for him with Collin Morikawa, Ludvig Aberg and Sungjae Im in the lineup. I will pivot to Fitzpatrick. He started to bomb it off the tee last year; he ranks No. 1 in Shots Gained Putting (Bermuda) and No. 2 in Scrambling. Fitzpatrick should build off his good 2023 season with a top-10 to start 2024.
COLLIN MORIKAWA ($9,100): Morikawa smoked the field at The Sentry for three rounds last year. He blew a six-stroke lead in the final round, but he has the mental game to overcome it. Morikawa’s game fits perfect for Kapalua. He has finished 2nd, 5th, 7th and 7th in his for trips to Hawaii. Morikawa is a lock for all Cash Contest lineups.
LUDVIG ABERG ($8,700): Arberg is a name you need to know in 2024. I will be using him a lot in my DFS lineups. Arberg has already won on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. He ranks No. 1 in Shots Gained Off-the-Tee, No. 1 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, No. 2 in Ball-Striking, No. 3 in Scrambling, and No. 5 in Shots Gained Putting (Bermuda). Aberg has no weakness. He should play well in his first trip to Kapalua.
SUNGJAE IM ($8,100): Sungjae is a “horse for the course.” He has finished 13th, 8th and 5th in his three trips to The Sentry. His elite ball-striking from 200+ yards is what gives Im and advantage over the field. Im played well in the fall with five finishes in the top-15 in his six tournaments. He should score well enough to help this lineup reach to pay-line Sunday.
LUKE LIST ($6,200): I need a “punt play” to make this lineup work. I had a hard time deciding between Akshay Bhatia and List. I decided to go with List since he has some course history at Kapalua (List finished 11th in The Sentry last year). He ranks No. 3 in Shots Gained Off-the-Tee, No. 6 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green, No. 8 in Ball-Striking and No. 10 in Scrambling. Not bad for almost the minimum price. I will take a chance with List in Hawaii.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
XANDER SCHAUFFELE ($10,000): Schuaffele always plays his best in these small field tournaments. He won The Sentry in 2019, finished 2nd in 2020 and 5th in 2021. He ranks No. 2 in Shots Gained Approach, No. 7 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green and No. 4 in Shots Gained Putting (Bermuda). It worries me a bit that Schauffele has not played in a long time, but he typically shows up for this tournament in good form. I will use Schauffele as my pivot from Scottie Scheffler.
MAX HOMA ($9,700): Homa was on fire to start the season last year. I will play him this week and hope he starts the 2024 season the way he started 2023. Homa finished 3rd at The Sentry last year. He also won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in the fall and finished 7th at the Fortinet Championship. Homa has the course history and recent form to play well this week. I doubt he will be highly owned.
TOM KIM ($8,900): Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg are going to eat up a lot of ownership around the $9K price range. I will pivot to Kim. Not only is he fun to watch, he also has the game to score well at Kapalua. Kim is deadly accurate with his long irons and he ranks No. 3 in Shots Gained Putting (Bermuda). Those are the stats a golfer needs to score well on this course. I will not be surprised to see Kim near the top of the leaderboard Sunday.
RUSSELL HENLEY ($7,700): I want elite ball-strikers in my DFS lineup and Henley checks the box. He ranks No. 8 in Shots Gained Approach and No. 8 in Shots Gained Tee-to-Green. Henley ended the 2023 season on a hot streak when he fined 2nd at the Wyndham Championship, 6th at the St. Jude, 8th at the BMW and 13th at the Tour Championship. I will take a chance with Henley this week and hope his hot streak continues into the 2024 season.
ERIC COLE ($7,400): Cole is another name we need to get familiar with (just like Ludvig Arberg). It is tough to find a golfer who was playing as well as Cole in the fall. He finished 3rd (RSM Classic), 2nd (ZOZO Championship), 3rd (Schriners Children Open) and 4th in the Fortinet Championship. Cole ranks No. 3 in the Key Stats this week because of his hot play in the fall. Cole should finish in the top-10 if he shows up with the same form he had in the fall.
AKSHAY BHATIA ($6,200): Bhatia is always a good play outside the continental U.S. He nearly won in Bermuda, Bahamas, Puerto Rico and Mexico. He said that he just likes to play in tropical climates. Does it get any more tropical than Hawaii? I will play Bhatia and hope his game shows up for another tournament outside the lower 48 states.
FANDUEL CASH CONTEST LINEUP
FANDUEL TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
PGATOUR.COM FANTASY PICKS
* This is the first tournament in Segment 1. There are 10 tournaments in this segment, so use your golfers wisely this week. We need to save some of our top golfers for the tournaments on the mainland.
** There are two ways to play your One & Done Contests this week. The Sentry has a small field, has no cut and it is an elevated event, so the paycheck will be huge. You can select one of the “stars” because you would rather take him in a field of 59 and guarantee you start your One & Done season with a bang, or you can take one of the “scrubs” because you know he will make your One & Done lineup some money since there is no cut. I like XANDERS SCHAUFFELE if you want to go the “stars” route and I like SUNGJAE IM if you want to go with a “scrub” (Im is not exactly a scrub though and he has never finished worse than 13th at The Sentry)
FANTASY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP ONE & DONE PICK: XANDER SCHAUFFELE (THE SENTRY)
* If you are looking for a place to play a One & Done Contests, I always play at Fantasy Golf Championship. Here is the link to join a league: Fantasy Golf Championship
** The Fantasy Golf Championship game starts next week at the Sony Open
Players in Fantasy Golf Championship One & Done so far: None yet
SEASON-LONG ONE & DONE PICK: SUNGJAE IM (THE SENTRY)
– One & Done picks used so far this season: Alex Noran (Won), Beau Hossler (15TH), Min Woo Lee (6th), Adam Schenk (MC), Eric Cole (35TH), Sahith Theegala (Won)
BEST BETS FOR THE SENTRY
XANDER SCHAUFFELE (14-1)
LUDVIG ARBERG (14-1)
TONY FINAU (28-1)
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK (25-1)
COREY CONNERS (60-1)
Good Luck This Week!!!!
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