Tiger Woods, not surprisingly, will not make his 2020 debut in the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui next week, and neither will Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy.
That’s the downside to the PGA Tour’s first event of the calendar year. The upside is that the 34-player field includes Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and defending champion Xavier Schauffele, from the top 10 in the World Ranking, as well as U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland and Brendon Todd, the hottest player on the PGA Tour at the end of 2019.
Woods, who will turn 44 on Monday, has not played the Kapalua event since 2005. A two-time winner of the event, he qualified to play by winning the Masters. He is expected to make his ’20 debut in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Koepka, No. 1 in the World Ranking, has not played since withdrawing from the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges in October with a knee injury that also prevented him from playing in the Presidents Cup earlier this month.
British Open champion Shane Lowry, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose also are passing on playing at Kapalua.
Those competing for the first time include Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ and Joaquin Niemann.
The tournament begins Thursday on the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
The field: Patrick Cantlay, Paul Casey, Cameron Champ, Corey Conners, Tyler Duncan, Rickie Fowler, Dylan Frittelli, Lanto Griffin, Jim Herman, J.B. Holmes, Max Homa, Dustin Johnson, Sung Kang, Kevin Kisner, Matt Kuchar, Nate Lashley, Adam Long, Graeme McDowell, Keith Mitchell, Collin Morikawa, Sebastian Munoz, Kevin Na, Joaquin Niemann, Ryan Palmer, J.T. Poston, Jon Rahm, Chez Reavie, Patrick Reed, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Brendon Todd, Martin Trainer, Matthew Wolff and Gary Woodland.