V Krishnaswamy
The trio with a touch of ‘India’ will tee off in the first week of 2025 at the Sentry Championships in Hawaii. The trio Sahith Theegala, Alshay Bhatia, both India-Americans and Aaron Rai, who is Indo-British finished in Top-30 of the PGA Tour standings and played in the Play-off and Tour Championshps.
Theegala, who finished runner-up at the Sentry in 2024 will be back to try and go one better as the New Year begins in Hawaii in a customary manner.
Theegala, a one-time winner, who was also second at the RBC Heritage and the Tour Championships (in terms of the score) is now ranked 13th in the world and also looking to make an entry into the Top-10 for the first time.
The Indian-American will be joined by another Indian-American Bhatia, who had Top-5 finishes in his last two events in 2024 – he was Tied-second in Dunlop Phoenix in Japan and fourth at the Hero World Challenge won by Scottie Scheffler.
Another player with an Indian connection and making his debut at the Sentry will be England’s Rai, whose parents are of Indian origin.
Meanwhile, Scheffler will miss the season-opened after having hurt himself in freak hand I injury suffered while preparing Christmas dinner. He hurt his right hand with broken glass.
The defending champion is Chris Kirk and is making his sixth appearance at The Sentry and is seeking to become the first player to successfully defend his title at The Sentry since Geoff Ogilvy in 2010
Also in the field is Maverick McNealy, who won the 2024 season-ending RSM Classic for first career TOUR victory in 142nd start and that saw him qualify for The Sentry for the first time
In the absence of Scheffler, the top player is World No. 2, Xander Schauffele, a nine-time PGA TOUR winner who also won first two major titles in 2024 at the PGA Championship and The Open Championship
He is the only player with top-10 finishes in all four majors in 2024. Besides winning the PGA and the Open, he was 8th at the Masters Tournament and T-7 at the U.S. Open. He has not missed a cut on TOUR since the 2022 Masters Tournament.
He is making eighth appearance at The Sentry, highlighted by a win in 2019 and lost in a 2020.
The field also includes Justin Thomas, winner of The Sentry in 2017 and 2020. He recorded six top-10s in the 2024 season, highlighted by a runner-up at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP
The Sentry marks the first of eight Signature Events this season, which include PGA TOUR winners from the previous calendar year and the top 50 members from the 2024 FedExCup standings
The field features four FedExCup Champions, 31 PGA TOUR tournament winners (including 15 first-time winners) and 29 players who qualified via finishing inside the top 50 in the 2024 FedExCup standings.
There are five players with multiple wins during the 2024 season – Nick Dunlap (2), Austin Eckroat (2), Robert MacIntyre (2), Hideki Matsuyama (2), Xander Schauffele (2).
