The PGA Tour fields could change from Who’s Who? to Who’s That?

HONOLULU (AP) — Activity on the practice range at Waialae used to be predictable. Instead of watching players swing, it was more common to look to the side to check who was on the bag.

So was this year’s case at the Sony OpenDespite it being the 11th tournament in the PGA Tour’s final season wraparound.

The tour changed from an elite event (Sentry Tournament of Champions at $15 million) to a regular event (“Sony Open” at $7.9million).

It might even be the first glimpse at the future of the PGA Tour.

Only 19 of the 38 players who completed at Kapalua flew the 22-minute flight to Maui from Honolulu. However, no one was in the top 10 for the world ranking. The four players from the top 20 — Jordan Spieth, Tom Kim, Billy Horschel and Sungjae Im — all missed the cut.

This is how the PGA Tour might look in the future. In response to LIV Golf’s threat, the PGA Tour has created a schedule that features the best names as much as possible. We don’t know what it will do to the other tournaments.

Still a lot to do before 2024. Along with when tournaments will be played — this could be a major shakeup — the key decisions are the size of the field, whether there will be 36-hole cut and access for the lesser names who play great golf.

The worst-case scenario was easy to target with the Hawaii swing.

One tournament was open to only PGA Tour winners and those who had made it to East Lake’s Tour Championship. There were 39 golfers in the field. Shane Lowry (and Ry McIlroy) from Ireland skipped. Three of four of the top four players had won three of five majors over the past five days.

The other had 144 players — the rounds didn’t finish on Thursday and Friday because of darkness — and several of them have yet to leave their mark on the game.

It was a “Who’s Who” at Kapalua and a “Who’s That?” at Waialae.

Those who were able to watch the leaderboard between the NFL wild-card games Saturday evening would have seen nine of the top fifteen have never won on PGA Tour. Only Si Woo Kim and Chris Kirk had won more than one time.

Oddly, both tournaments were captivating and featured comebacks.

Jon Rahm won at Kapalua Despite trailing Collin Morikawa (two-time major champion) by six shots on nine back, Collin posted a score of 63 on the last day.

Kim recovered his three-shot deficit against Hayden Buckley in three holes. He missed a par-3 fourth hole birdie of 4 feet. The final 30 minutes were filled with good entertainment. Buckley putted a 15-foot birdie on the 16th to win the lead. Kim heard the cheers coming from 200 yards away and knew it was either birdie, or bust. chipped in To tie him, you can reach 30 feet behind the 17th green.

Kim flushed a 5-iron out of the fairway bunker, which ran onto the front green. It was a par-5 18th. Buckley couldn’t move from a difficult spot just short and right of green.

Kim was 21 years of age when he began his career. won The Players Championship in 2017 The strongest and most deep-rooted field of golf. This one felt no different.

“No matter what field it is, it’s so hard to win on the PGA Tour,” Kim said after collecting his fourth tour title. “Still has a lot of good players, big name or not. Still all the players really good out here.”

The American Express is this week in the California desertIt has five of seven of the best players in the entire world, so no one will be talking down to the idea of a two-tour system. Patrick Cantlay and Scottie Scheffler are Masters champions. They will each have a chance of reaching No. The world’s No. 1 golfer.

For the players who aren’t getting a little extra under the table — the unofficial term is “cocktail party,” not appearance money — some habits die hard. The desert has always been a good way to start the new year. Because of the weather, it is often as close to indoor golf as you can get.

Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach will both have their share of stars until the PGA Tour concludes the West Coast Swing, which includes elevated events in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.

Matt Kuchar at the Sony Open was just as guilty as anyone of not knowing some players, even though he had played three times against fields that were sat out when the stars sat out.

“I feel like I get until at least through the West Coast before I feel mostly familiar with getting the names right and the faces right,” Kuchar said. “It’s exciting to see the new crop every year come up and try to figure out which of the guys are going to be here to stay and which of the guys are going to maybe not stay on top of the tour.”

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