The Sentry Tournament of Champions 2025: Side with Sahith

• The Plantation Course hosts for the 27th straight year

• This is the first of 46 tournaments on the 2025 schedule

• Scottie Scheffler misses the event due to a hand injury

The Sentry 2025 Odds

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The Sentry 2025 Predictions

• Sahith Theegala each-way (1/5, 6 places) at +2800 with BetMGM

• Akshay Bhatia to beat Adam Scott over 72 holes at -125 with bet365

• Nico Echavarria for Top 10 at +700 with BetMGM

The Sentry 2025 Intro

The off-season in golf seems to get shorter and I’m writing this preview with the calendar yet to flip to 2025.

When it does - and just two days in - the PGA Tour opens its 46-tournament schedule with The Sentry, the first leg of a two-week Hawaiian Swing.

The Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort has been the stage for the season opener since 1999.

The no-cut tournament - the first of eight Signature Events - is contested by 60 players: winners from 2024 (31 of them) and those (another 29) who made the top 50 in the FedExCup standings.

Scottie Scheffler is not one of them though after suffering a freak hand injury while cooking Christmas dinner.

Small glass fragments were embedded and he’s expected to be out for three to four weeks.

With Scheffler absent, his closest rival for 2024’s player of the year heads the betting.

That’s Xander Schauffele, who put his name on this trophy in 2019 when firing 23-under.

That total has been beaten in each of the last four years so this is very much a gentle opening to the year for the world’s best.

The course has huge, wide open fairways, dramatic changes in elevation and enormous greens.

Short game wizards have done well here, with creativity needed on and around the putting surfaces.         

Last 5 Winners of The Sentry

Course Notes

• The Plantation Course is a par 73 that measures 7,596 yards

• There are the usual four par 5s but just three par 3s

• The greens are covered in Bermuda grass

• Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Matt Jones and Justin Rose own the 18-hole record (61)

• Cam Smith shot the 72-hole record of 258 in 2022

• Temperatures are just over 80 degrees with winds fairly modest 

Favorites to Win The Sentry

Xander Schauffele (+650) at bet365

After two Major wins in a memorable 2024, Schauffele bids to kick off 2025 on a high and will do so on a course where he tasted victory in 2019. Schauffele finished runner-up when defending in 2020 and was fifth in 2021 but hasn’t quite hit the same heights since with 12-WD-10 the last three years.The only doubt over his chances would be a lack of recent golf.

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Justin Thomas (+1000) at bet365

Thomas was active in the last few months of 2024, finishing runner-up at the ZOZO Championship in Japan and taking solo third at the Hero World Challenge after looking like the winner at one point. Even more convincing is his record here. He’s a two-time winner and also owns two third places and a fifth. He looks due.

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Collin Morikawa (+1200) at bet365

You won’t find anyone in the field with a more consistent record at The Sentry than double Major winner Morikawa. He’s never finished worse than seventh in five visits and his last three show finishes of 5-2-5. The second place is rather tainted though as he held a seven-shot lead during the final round before a collapse allowed Jon Rahm to come flying past. As with Schauffele, a lack of recent action means bettors need to weigh up the fresh v rusty debate.

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Theegala Can Go One Better 

Sahith Theegala sees pictures that most golfers don’t see and that creative streak lends itself to success on this quirky course.

Lots of feel is needed here as players hit off severe slopes onto wildly undulating greens and that plays into the hands of Theegala.

And the proof that he should thrive here was provided in last year’s event when he fired 28-under and just missed out by a shot.

But Theegala will still feel he has a score to settle.

Despite 31 birdies on the week he couldn’t find one on the par-5 closer. Had he done so, a playoff with Chris Kirk awaited.

He returns this year with the confidence boost of having played in the Presidents Cup while a recent eighth place in the Hero World Challenge (fifth after 54 holes) suggests all is well.

Back the American each-way at 28/1 (1/5, 6 places) with BetMGM.

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Bhatia to Beat Scott

For the opening 72-hole match bet of 2025 - a market we did really well in last year - let’s back Akshay Bhatia to beat Adam Scott.

While others have rested up, Bhatia has kept the engine running in the last few months and he’s been in excellent form.

He flew to Japan to finish runner-up in the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament and in December the 22-year-old took fourth at the Hero World Challenge and third in the Grant Thornton pairs event alongside Jennifer Kupcho. 

In addition, the left-hander was second after 54 holes on his Sentry debut last year before finishing 14th.

Scott enjoyed some success here way back but his last two visits in the limited-field event show 29th (2023) and 21st (2021).

He didn’t contest any of the DP World Tour’s Australian events so Bhatia is in a better flow and gets the nod at -125 with bet365.

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Echavarria for Top 10

Nico Echavarria was one of the poster boys of the Fall Series.

The Colombian played in all seven tournaments and banked a win (ZOZO), a second (RSM Classic), a sixth (WWT in Mexico) and an 11th (Black Desert Championship).

That’s quite a run of form but not exactly from left-field given that Echavarria became a PGA Tour winner in 2023 when landing the Puerto Rico Open. 

He ranked 1st for Putting Average in both the RSM and ZOZO and looks very capable of stepping up on his tied 25th here on debut in 2024.

The 7/1 at BetMGM for a top 10 looks generous.

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How to Watch The Sentry 2025

• Tournament: The Sentry 2025

• Location: Plantation Course, Kapalua, Maui, HI 

• Date: Thursday, January 2 - Sunda,y January 5

• How to watch: Thursday-Friday 6 p.m.-10 p.m. (Golf Channel), Saturday-Sunday 4 p.m.-6 p.m. (NBC/Peacock), 6 p.m.-8 p.m. (Golf Channel). And all four days on Sky Sports