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KAPALUA, Maui >> A majority playing at this week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions will be at next week’s Sony Open in Hawaii, with one of them standing a good chance at winning the first full-field event of 2016.
Led by two-time defending champion Jimmy Walker, 22 of the 32 golfers roaming the wide-open fairways of the Plantation Course will have to deal with the narrow alleys of Waialae Country Club beginning with Thursday’s first round.
Unfortunately for Oahu golf fans, none of the six top-10 professionals in the field this week will take part next week, including Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed. Day committed early on, but withdrew last week.
That’s not to say the Sony is lacking in star power. World No. 11 Adam Scott, sans his long putter, is in the field, as is British Open champion Zach Johnson, who is No. 13 worldwide. In all, eight of the world’s 30 best golfers will be teeing it up and 14 of the top 50.
If history tells us anything, the winner of the Sony often played the week before on Maui. Local fans will get to see three-time major winner Padraig Harrington and past U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell at Waialae for the first time. Harrington, who is playing in the island chain for the first time, said he didn’t fly 24 hours from Ireland to compete in only one event in the 50th state.
Other past major winners in the field are former U.S. Open champs Webb Simpson and Lucas Glover, three-time major winner Vijay Singh and Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, who has a PGA Championship on his resume. Keegan Bradley, who won the PGA Championship in 2012, is also back at Waialae.
Love and Singh are playing in select Champions Tour events and aren’t the only seniors in the field. Fred Funk will also play next week.
In all, there are 73 golfers in the field, accounting for 280 PGA Tour wins, led by Singh with 30, Love (21), Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker (12 each) and Scott with 11 tour victories. There are also nine past Sony champions in the field dating back to Jerry Kelly, who won here in 2002.
On a side note, Australian Robert Allenby will return to Honolulu after last year’s strange encounter in which he said he was robbed and kidnapped. His caddie at the time, Mick Middlemo, backed the story, but after he was fired by Allenby before the Canadian Open last summer changed his tune. He believes Allenby fell down after eating at a Honolulu restaurant, cracked his head and a homeless man found him and stole his wallet.
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