Photo by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR
How can fans tune into the Sentry? Here is the one-stop shop on how to watch first 2024 PGA Tour event.
The PGA Tour is back, as the first event of the 2024 season is here! Their offseason was very short, with the new PGA Tour Fall schedule. But the new season kicks off with a very important tournament.
The Sentry, formerly known as the Sentry Tournament of Champions, is able to hold the tournament in its usual location, Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii. Despite the tragic fires in 2023, the course is ready for some of the PGA Tour’s greatest players.
Usually, just the winners from the previous season play in this event, but things have changed. As part of the new Signature Events, it’s still a limited field, but bigger than before. Now, it is made up of the winners and the Top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings.
The Sentry Information:
Where: Plantation Course at Kapalua in Kapalua, Maui, HI (Par 73, 7,596 yards)
When: Jan. 4-7th
Purse: $20,000,000 / First Place: $3,600,000
FedEx Cup points: 700
Format: Four-day, no-cut, 72-hole stroke play competition
Defending Champ: Jon Rahm
How to Watch the Sentry:
Fans can tune into the action this week on Golf Channel and NBC. With the tournament in Hawaii, fans will get evening golf to enjoy. Hawaii is six hours behind Eastern Standard Time, so remember that when looking for coverage.
The first two rounds will be on Golf Channel, and the final two rounds will share coverage with NBC for the earlier tee times.
Here is the full schedule for network coverage:
Thursday, Jan. 4: 6-10 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Friday, Jan. 5: 6-10 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Saturday, Jan. 6: 4-6 p.m. ET (NBC); 6-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Sunday, Jan. 7: 4-6 p.m. ET (NBC); 6-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
How to Stream the Sentry:
Peacock and ESPN+ will stream the event. ESPN+ will have featured group coverage, while Peacock will simulcast the broadcast all four days of the tournament.
Coverage can be streamed on Peacock here.
The Sentry Preview
Defending champion Jon Rahm will not play. The No. 3 player in the world left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf on Dec. 7. He reportedly signed for somewhere in the neighborhood of a half a billion dollars to captain his own team.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
While he isn’t in the field, that doesn’t mean the tournament won’t be star-studded. It is full of the PGA Tour’s best. No. 1 in the world, Scottie Scheffler, and No. 2 Rory McIlroy are playing along with No. 4 Viktor Hovland.
Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth, Ludvig Åberg and Max Homa are also teeing it up this week.
Hovland and Scheffler are the favorites for the week, as they both ended their 2023 seasons with solid performances. The former Texas Longhorn earned his third victory of the year at the Hero World Challenge as he finally got over the hump in the Bahamas.
This year marks his third trip to Maui. Last year, he finished T7, improving from his T13 in his 2021 debut.
Hovland was a part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team in 2023 and won back-to-back playoff events at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship to take home his first FedEx Cup title.
The Norweigan couldn’t complete the three-peat at the Hero, but his 63 on Sunday was the best of the week for that field. This week marks his fourth straight appearance in Maui as he looks to crack the Top 17 for the first time.
No longer a rookie, Åberg took the world by storm in 2023. He won at the RSM Classic, which secured his spot in this week’s event. The former Texas Tech Red Raider has finished T14 or better in eight consecutive events. It’s his debut in Maui, and this track tends to bite hard at those first-timers.
Any of the 59 men competing could take it home this week as the 2024 PGA Tour season will finally get underway.
The Sentry Tee Times Round 1 (ET)
To Be Announced
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
