Sentry Tournament of Champions Recap: Thomas Rings In the New Year

Justin Thomas tried very hard to kick away the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday, but Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed simply wouldn't let him.

In a wild, whiplash-inducing christening of the new year on the PGA Tour calendar, Thomas somehow was the last man standing in a three-way playoff, winning on the third playoff hole at Kapalua in Hawaii.

Thomas held a two-stroke lead with three holes to go, but he stunningly found the hazard on the 677-yard 18th hole and bogeyed. All Schauffele, his playing partner, needed to do was two-putt from 35 feet to successfully defend his title. But he three-jacked it. Nearby, Reed was watching it all unfold, with everything breaking just right to get him into a playoff when it appeared he'd be at least a shot short.

Schauffele promptly repeated his three-putt on the first extra hole and he was gone. Reed twice had the tournament on his putter in the playoff but couldn't deliver. And Thomas almost found the hazard yet again on the third playoff hole, oh-so-narrowly clearing it to close out the tournament with a winning birdie.

The victory was Thomas' second at Kapalua and his 12th of the PGA Tour. The relevance there is that we're starting to view Thomas' career from a historical perspective. He is now one of just four golfers to reach a dozen Tour victories before turning 27. The others are Tiger Woods, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus, who also happen to be 1-2-3 on the all-time PGA Tour wins list.

Of course, thinking of Thomas in those terms is unrealistic; it would take him perhaps 15 years of consistent winning to even get close to Nicklaus' 73 titles (and just to show the improbability of the task, the difference between 12 and 73 is more than the 44 tournaments Phil Mickelson has won in his career).

But Thomas also now has more Tour wins than anyone under 30, breaking a tie with good buddy Jordan Spieth, with still more than three years to go.

So clearly there is a lot of lofty stuff going on with Thomas, who has won two of his past three starts to climb within an eyelash of Jon Rahm for No. 3 in the world.

Tour wins are nice, and so is being ranked No. 1 in the world, but the top of men's golf is all about majors, and Thomas still has only one of those, while No. 1 Brooks Koepka and No. 2 Rory McIlroy have four apiece (and Spieth has three).

It's still three months away from Augusta, where Thomas has never so much as finished in the top-10. For now, though, he will try to complete the Hawaiian double for the second time in his career at this week's Sony Open, having won both events in 2017.

That kick-started Thomas' breakthrough five-win year, which also included his lone major at the PGA.

At the very least, Thomas has started off this year exactly the same.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele is a top-10 golfer and one of the world's best, but he had a chance to take down someone even better than him. "I should've won the tournament. I know it. Everyone knows it," he told reporters at Kapalua. Aside from the bitter sting, this should have no bearing on Schauffele going forward. He consistently does well in the biggest tournaments, and it would surprise no one if he won a major this year, even before Thomas did.

Patrick Reed
The headline for Reed is not that he finished co-runner-up, but that a fan yelled out "cheater" after he hit a putt on the third playoff hole (Reed missed it, but the fan yelled after the ball left Reed's putter). This kind of thing could happen to Reed wherever he goes. How he handles it will go a long way toward determining the success of his season, because his golf of late has been at a really high level. 

Rickie Fowler
Fowler made an early statement that his 2020 will be better than most of his 2019. He tied for fifth, which was better than all but three of his finishes in 2019, and his best showing since May. Fowler had only one top-10 the last half of the year, as he fell from inside the top-10 in the world all the way outside the top-20. He's no longer the best golfer to have never won a major, but it's not because he's won a major. We should get another indication as to the state of Fowler's game pretty soon, when he defends his title at Phoenix at the end of this month.

Joaquin Niemann
Niemann opened with a 7-under 66 to take the first-round lead and wound up tied for fifth, a great showing against some of the world's best golfers. After winning the season-opening Greenbrier to get to Kapalua, Niemann is now on the verge of cracking the top-50 in the world for the first time. He's up to 53rd. And remember, he's still only 21.

Dustin Johnson
Johnson's worst stretch of golf in years came in the second half of last year, as he slipped from No. 1 in the world to No. 5. He didn't have a top-10 after finishing as runner-up in both the Masters and PGA. His ailing knee was certainly an issue, and he had had offseason surgery. Besides the Presidents Cup, this was his first event since last season. So it was a good sign to see him tie for seventh at Kapalua, closing with a 69 to climb the leaderboard. Another good sign: Johnson finished second in the field in strokes gained: putting.

Collin Morikawa
Morikawa tied for seventh with Johnson and is now up to No. 55 in the world. This was his sixth worldwide top-10 since turning pro last year, and he has yet to miss a cut. Morikawa's arrow is pointing straight up. He is in the field for this week's Sony Open, and another top-10, or better, would surprise no one.

J.T. Poston
Poston tied for 11th after a disappointing Sunday saw him fall from a tie for fourth. Still, it was a good showing against a top-flight field. Since winning the Wyndham in August, Poston has made 8-of-9 cuts with five top-25s. He is up to No. 67 in the world.

Lanto Griffin
Griffin notched his seventh top-20 already this season, tying for 13th to move closer to cracking the top-100 OWGR (he's 109th). Of note, Griffin hit the longest drive of the week, a whopping 429-yarder on Thursday. More importantly, he finished sixth in strokes gained: tee to green and second in scrambling. If he keeps doing that, there will be more top-20s on his ledger.

Sebastian Munoz
The Sanderson Farms champ had a decent week – he tied for 17th – that could've been so much better if not for two holes on Friday. Munoz closed with a double-bogey and then a triple, derailing what had been an excellent tournament to that point. On Sunday, things started to go sideways again, as he bogeyed three of the first four holes on the back nine. But Munoz hung tough and closed with three birdies in the last four holes, showing some good fight.

Brendon Todd
Todd was on quite a roll at the end of the fall season, winning two in a row and then tying for fourth at the RSM. Even though his return from golf oblivion made quite a story – Todd is now 61st in the OWGR – the reality is that the fields are now getting much tougher, and high finishes will be fewer and farther between. Todd tied for 29th at Kapalua.