Matsuyama won shooting 35 under. Morikawa came in second at 32 under. 24 players shot 20 under or better. That is insane. I'm not sure I've ever seen a winning score like that before.

What you may see this week is a bunch of golfers at the range pausing at the top of the swing and shanking the **** out of the ball. I'd stand at the left end of the driving range for a while.

It's all relative. Same course for all the players. If people are upset at the scores to par then take the 5 or 6 easiest holes and make them par 4 or par 3. Still same course and the strokes won't change. But the score to par will be 20 to 24 lower.

Short, easy course with favorable topography. Only defense is the wind and being dry (roll out into trouble). It rained right before it started and winds were unusually non-existent.

Video game like scores.

It was enjoyable to watch.

I don't want to see it every week, but watching the field tear up a course is fun. Just like it is great to watch the field struggle at a US open or Open Championship.

AgLA06 said:

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Short, easy course with favorable topography. Only defense is the wind and being dry (roll out into trouble). It rained right before it started and winds were unusually non-existent.

Video game like scores.

It was enjoyable to watch.

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Doesn't it play like 7,600 yards? Not exactly short.

There just isn't much fairway trouble with simple greens and if the wind isn't blowing hard, these guys tear it up. Kapalua is always gettable for them. But it isn't short.

Lol, yes 7600 yards

widest fairways on tour, no wind, and massive elevation change that allows for a hole to have an AVERAGE tee shot of over 400 yards....they'll keep breaking records out there.

Not sure why they are still lengthening courses when the obvious answer is bring things in. If you want 8 under to be the winning score...make the fairways tighter, grow the rough, and defend the greens with bunkers or slopes that reject missed shots.

Aggie95 said:

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widest fairways on tour, no wind, and massive elevation change that allows for a hole to have an AVERAGE tee shot of over 400 yards....they'll keep breaking records out there.

Not sure why they are still lengthening courses when the obvious answer is bring things in. If you want 8 under to be the winning score...make the fairways tighter, grow the rough, and defend the greens with bunkers or slopes that reject missed shots.

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But the sentry (as the not-cut, season opening tournament with a smaller field) doesn't want scores that low. Every week doesn't have to be the US Open.

Agreed that Kapalua can absolutely be demolished by these guys when the wind isn't coming in off the ocean. But it isn't short. There's plenty of uphill holes as well. Fun course if you're ever on Maui. Great restaurant off of 18 as well.

Wind is technically going out towards the ocean though...crossing/help on 1 and down on 18

Kidding with you obviously...texags doesn't have an "aktually" emoji

That's fair as the typical wind. When I played it there was a strong wind coming in off the ocean. I didn't know that wasn't typical but makes sense.

The Milkman said:

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Aggie95 said:

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widest fairways on tour, no wind, and massive elevation change that allows for a hole to have an AVERAGE tee shot of over 400 yards....they'll keep breaking records out there.

Not sure why they are still lengthening courses when the obvious answer is bring things in. If you want 8 under to be the winning score...make the fairways tighter, grow the rough, and defend the greens with bunkers or slopes that reject missed shots.

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Or instead of *******izing courses... just roll back the technology on balls and take away the 460cc driver heads.

That being said... Kap is a resort course. Its not supposed to be hard.

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agreed, just talking the tour in general. Outside of the majors, the winning scores are pretty absurd.

Rolling the ball and technology back won't have much of an impact, but I agree that too is out of hand. Bryson is supposedly working on a driver that no matter where on the face he hits the ball , it will produce the same spin rate. He is also working with some new irons that are self-correcting as well. Professional golfers should have to hit the middle of the club face to produce a good shot.

They playing the red tees or what?!?!?!

Aggie369 said:

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Lol, yes 7600 yards

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I see y'all don't understand the topography.

The average drive at the Sentry is almost 30 yards longer than tour average. It plays as a short course for the pros.

AgLA06 said:

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Short, easy course with favorable topography. Only defense is the wind and being dry (roll out into trouble). It rained right before it started and winds were unusually non-existent.

Video game like scores.

It was enjoyable to watch.

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That makes sense. It's still incredible to see scores like that. Matsuyama broke the 72 hole PGA record.

There are a handful of holes that play super downwind and are downhill yes

I've played there probably 5 times
Every time in 20-40 mph wind

The wide fairways allow those dudes to stomp on driver everywhere. I've hit 380 yard 3 woods. Doesn't mean the course is short, if the wind flips it would play pretty dang difficult

Buck Compton said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Short, easy course with favorable topography. Only defense is the wind and being dry (roll out into trouble). It rained right before it started and winds were unusually non-existent.

Video game like scores.

It was enjoyable to watch.

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Doesn't it play like 7,600 yards? Not exactly short.

There just isn't much fairway trouble with simple greens and if the wind isn't blowing hard, these guys tear it up. Kapalua is always gettable for them. But it isn't short.

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It's 7600 yards but plays more like 6700 due to elevation and slopes. It had the longest par 4 in PGA history (538 yards of something) and the tee shot average for the week was like 411 yards. There are a lot of holes if you hit the right shot you can some crazy roll out. Even Rolf was like if you're an amateur and want to hit a drive 300 come out to Kapalua.

Not a short course for the pro's. The 18th was well over 650 yards. But the drive there is 380+. Comparatively an easy course. I played the week before the tournament and the greens were not treacherous at all. Plus as said above it rained before round 1.

Mr.Bond said:

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Make the rough 6+ inches and make hazards (bunkers) actual hazards again

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This is the easiest way to slow down scores. Stop raking bunkers. Hell, players aim for bunkers as a miss because the majority of the time you get a good lie.

Or stop allowing the players/Tour to dictate set up. Kapalua is the only place on tour with different sand because it's so expensive to try and ship their standard sand. They don't let pin locations happen on slopes more than a certain degree. They mandate the allowable window of stimp speed.

If players had to learn to adjust and play a truly different set of conditions each week that would also challenge them.