This year's field at Kapalua featured 34 of 37 winners, including Dustin Johnson, on the PGA Tour last yearGETTY IMAGES
Xander Schauffele won the PGA Tour Sentry Tournament of Champions in a week that left "little question" the tourney is on "firm footing -- perhaps the strongest outlook the event has ever enjoyed in its 21-year history at the Kapalua Plantation Course," according to Robert Collias of the MAUI NEWS. There is "no doubt" PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan "likes what he sees from the winners-only event." He said, "The thing that you have to look at is the younger players and the way that they embrace and love being here. That has played out for the world to see." Monahan "pointed to the fact that 34 of 37 winners on tour last year" played in the event, while Tiger Woods "seriously considered playing" for the first time since '05 (MAUI NEWS, 1/6). GOLF CHANNEL's Rex Hoggard wrote the leaderboard after the third round was "plucked straight from the Tour’s hope chest." The winners of all four majors in '18 "joined the party, along with eight of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking." By comparison, only "two of the top 10 players in the world bothered to make the trip over to Maui" in '15. Now, after attracting the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, among others, the tournament is a "success story for the Tour" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 1/6). The tournament over the past 21 years has had its "fair share of ups and downs, as well as different sponsors" (HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER, 1/6).
