Chris Kirk hoists The Sentry winner’s trophy on the Kapalua Plantation Course’s 18th green after winning the PGA Tour opener by one shot Sunday afternoon. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
KAPALUA — Chris Kirk hadn’t been to the Kapalua Plantation Course since 2016 until he arrived last week for The Sentry, the season-opening tournament on the PGA Tour.
He will leave this morning with the winner’s glass wave/whale trophy and a $3.6 million check for a methodical 29-under-par 263 victory that was capped by a business-like 8-under 65 Sunday.
“I think I just love playing golf in Hawaii. I’ve had a lot of really great weeks at the Sony Open. I haven’t quite managed to win that one,” Kirk said after his one-stroke victory. “This golf course is one that I love. It’s so fun to play. It’s just so unique, it’s so different from everywhere else that we play. Some of the crazy lies that you’re hitting off of and you hit one drive that goes 240 and the next one might go 450. It really kind of brings out the creativity in what we’re doing and it’s just a lot of fun.”
Kirk claimed the win by one stroke over Sahith Theegala, the first-round leader who made a mad dash back to contention with a 10-under 63 on Sunday. Theegala lipped out a 10-foot birdie try on 18 that would have given him for the lead at the time.
Kirk did not play much golf leading up to the season opener.
Chris Kirk hugs caddie Michael Cromie after securing his win Sunday.
“I spent a lot of time in the gym, and I spent a lot of time working on my mental game,” the 38-year-old from Georgia said. “I didn’t actually play a whole lot of golf. I didn’t practice that much. So to come over here and to play as well as I did, I’m very thankful and a little bit surprised.”
Theegala was making just his second appearance here — the event included 59 players who were either PGA Tour winners in 2023 or finished in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup playoffs — and he was 33rd out of 38 finishers here last year.
Theegala’s 28-under 264 would have won 21 of the previous 24 times the event played a full four rounds (the 2011 tournament was limited to three rounds due to weather).
Theegala said conditions were prime for scoring this week.
“Honestly, I think if you ask a lot of the guys that have played here a bunch, we had three relatively calm days. The first two days it really was only blowing maybe 15 miles per hour, which out here is pretty calm. It wasn’t gusting more than 25, 30. Yesterday it was windy,” Theegala said. “I think that was kind of a normal scoring day out here and you still saw one or two guys shot, I think there was a 9 under. With three days being calm, you kind of, as a player, even watching it, I thinK you can see how the scores are so low.”
Sahith Theegala chips to the 18th green.
Theegala said that the Plantation Course is quickly becoming one of his favorites.
“It’s a great golf course,” he said. “I think it’s a great track and I think most of the guys would agree that it’s one of the best tracks we play.”
Kirk started the day with a one-shot lead and then went out in 5-under 31 on the front nine. He birdied No. 11 to go 27 under and was up two strokes on Jordan Spieth — who wound up finishing third at 27-under 265 — and Theegala at the time.
Theegala tied Kirk atop the leaderboard at 27 under with a birdie on No. 15, his third straight birdie and fourth in five holes. Moments later, Spieth also birdied 15 to make it a three-way tie for the lead.
Theegala birdied 16 to take a momentary lead before Spieth left a 12-footer for par a couple inches short — his first bogey since No. 3 on Thursday, a span of 66 holes, was costly.
Jordan Spieth raises his putter after sinking a long birdie putt on No. 11.
Spieth found four divots on fairways on the back nine and an errant tee shot on 16 got him in trouble when it plugged into deep grass near a bunker.
“So, 16, I missed my line, otherwise it could have been, I should have had a pretty good look at birdie,” Spieth said. “… The others were certainly tough breaks because they were balls that hit in the fairway and funneled into it. Out here balls funnel into the same spots a lot, it’s not uncommon to be in divots. It kind of stunk that it was three holes in a row, but the plug is what cost me a full shot. I still played the others just fine.”
Kirk left a 12-foot eagle putt a little wide right on 15 and tapped in for birdie to tie Theegala for lead at 28 under. Kirk left an 11-foot birdie putt just to the right of the hole on 16 and stayed tied with Theegala.
Soon after, Theegala lipped out his 10-foot birdie putt on 18 and tapped in to finish at 28 under.
A few seconds later, Kirk shaped his 209-yard 5 iron to 30 inches from the hole on 17 for birdie to take the lead for good, even with his par on the very vulnerable 18th.
Byeong Hun An shakes hands with Spieth at the end of their round.
“Yeah, so, I saw the leaderboard at some point on the back nine, I can’t remember exactly when, and I had it in my mind — most of the day I was kind of chasing 29. Like, ‘let’s finish at 29, and that’s probably a pretty good spot.’ As it was kind of progressing through the back nine, I was like, ‘okay, 29 might be a playoff, so we’re going to try to get to 30,’ and really was disappointed that I didn’t hit a great putt, my eagle putt on 15, after hitting two great shots,” Kirk said.
“Then 16, I thought I hit my wedge a lot closer, and I did hit a good putt on 16, just misread it a little bit. That was two, what I felt like, big missed opportunities, but then still had, ‘okay, we’ve got two holes here, we can make a 3 and a 4 or a 4 and a 3, whatever it may be,’ was kind of what I was thinking. But, yeah, that shot on 17 was crazy, one of the best shots of my career, for sure. Definitely one I’ll never forget.”
Kirk watched playing partner Akshay Bhatia hit first on 17, and he’s glad the situation called for that. Kirk had 7 iron in mind for his 192-yard shot that ultimately led to victory.
“Thankfully, Akshay took a minute trying to — understandably so, trying to figure out this wind that was going all over the place, and so by the time it was my turn to hit, I felt pretty confident the wind had settled back into what it was and just kind of choked up on a 5-iron and hit a great shot,” Kirk said.
“So, I’m very proud, very, very proud of that shot, that I was able to make the right call and that’s — talk about a tough shot to commit to. When you’re about to pull 7 and you end up hitting 5, that doesn’t happen ever. That never happens. So to be able to commit to it like I did and make that good of a swing was an incredible feeling.”
Jason Day watches his drive off the 14th tee.
* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.
Scheffler tees off on No. 14.
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