Twofer Tuesday: Sentry Tournament of Champions

Twofer Tuesday eagerly leaves chilly North Carolina for the balmy shores of Hawaii and the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

The SToC has a bit fuller field this year -- 42 players, including the Tour Championship qualifiers -- but otherwise we're looking at the same setup we see every year.

We're back at the par-73 Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, somewhere around 7600 yards in length with fairways about a thousand yards wide. Yeah, we're gonna see everybody blasting the ball out there as far as they can because missing fairways isn't a huge problem.

And we're probably gonna see the usual suspects on top of the leaderboard, simply because there are some players who just seem to find their games at this course.

Since I'm starting a new year of Twofer Tuesday picks, and since we don't know how players will do with such a short layoff and the assorted problems created by the pandemic, I'm going chalk this week.

• My first pick is the defending champion, Justin Thomas. I know he's been disappointed that he didn't convert more leads in 2020 but it's hard to believe he won't put up at least a Top10 at this event. After all, he's won twice and his last two years have resulted in a third and a win. In fact, he just seems to play well in Hawaii (remember that 59 at the Sony a few years back?) so why wouldn't I take him?
• And my other pick (no surprise) is Dustin Johnson. He's a two-time winner and the top money winner in this event, plus he's got eight Top10s in ten appearances. Pardon the pun but he's money at Kapalua.

To be honest, I also like Xander Schauffele but I'm a bit nervous about his energy levels since he's coming off Covid. The virus has proven to be too unpredictable.

GC's prime time coverage starts Thursday at 6pm ET. Since we're expecting some really cold weather here in NC this weekend, I'm looking forward to a few daydreams of warm sunny weather.