Hyundai Tournament of Champions
January 6 - 9, 2012
Plantation Course at Kapalua
Kapalua, Hawaii
Par: 73 / Yardage: 7,411
Purse: $5.6 million with $1,120,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Jonathan Byrd

List of Champions & Scores
Results and box score of 2011 Hyundai

Tournament facts:

Course information:

The Buzz:

One of the greatest perks on the PGA Tour for winning is getting to start the year off in Maui. For the average person, they would kill just to get to Hawaii, the winners of 2011 they not only get to come to Hawaii but they get a week at a Ritz Carlton on one of the most lovely beaches in the world. Food couldn't be any better, the scenery is the best for those that like water sports from surfing to snorkeling the Kapalua area is great. Yes this is really hard work and to think, there is no hustle or bustle this week, play bad finish last and you'll still make $65 grand. What a life.

So then when 39 players get the honor of coming to this event, why do 11 players not make the trip? First let's look at those that are injured and has a reason for not being at Kapalua:
Brandt Snedeker had surgery in November to fix a degenerative problem in his hip. The problem got worst when he was in Malaysia in November which convinced him to go under the knife so that he could get ready for 2012. Right now Snedeker is hopeful to be back for the Humana, in 2 weeks time.

Fredrik Jacobson withdrew from the Dubai World Champions and the Shark Shootout saying that he was suffering from torn ligaments in his left thumb. Right now Jacobson hasn't said when he will come back so it may be a bit before we see the Swede who had a breakout year in 2011.

Dustin Johnson went under the knife on November 29th having arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. In the first couple of weeks it was thought that he'd be back for this week but his recovery has been a bit slow and he is looking to come back either at Humana or the Farmers the week after.

Justin Rose gets a pass as his wife Kate gave birth to Charlotte on New Years day. Rose plans on returning to tour at the Farmers at the end of the month, planning on staying home in Florida so that he can give a helping hand to his wife and spend some time with his two kids.

Luke Donald played a full schedule ending his year just 3 weeks ago in Australia. He had a dream year winning both money titles and player of the year honors on the PGA and European Tour but Donald did suffer some problems, first with his father passing away on November 8th and 3 days later his wife Diane had the couples second child, a daughter. So with the European Tour ending late in 2011 you have to understand Donald not playing this week and not coming back until Abu Dhabi at the end of the month.

So now we are left with Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Martin Kaymer and Phil Mickelson. All six have a good excuse, this week just doesn't fit into their schedule. For Schwartzel, he is playing next week at home in South Africa so he gets a pass. As for Clarke and Kaymer they are not members of the PGA Tour and I can see them not going all the way to Maui just for a week. We know about McIlroy, he was dead tired after Dubai and really needed some time off. McIlroy has a problem with traveling too much since he has been going out with tennis star Caroline Woznicki he has been seen at some of her matches around the world, again taking rest time away from him. Still he is just 22 and rich, so you can't feel that bad for him.

As for the two left, Adam Scott has rekindled his relationship with tennis star Ana Ivanovic and since he played late in the year in his native country Australia, he won't be back until Farmers. A bearded Scott was spotted in the stands watching Ivanovic this week at the Brisbane International and with the Australian Open tennis starting next week we know what Scott is doing and it's not playing golf.

Last but not least we have Phil Mickelson and we all know that he isn't a big fan of the hills of Kapalua and hates to play in wind. It's been rumored that Mickelson has explained his reasons to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and has said he would play the event if it was played on some other venue in Hawaii. Many feel that since he is a member of the PGA Tour he should support his tour by playing at Kapalua. But the fact of all this Mickelson is an independent contractor and he feels that playing at Kapalua does hurt his game in events after so we can understand his boycott of this event.

The field has 28 players with 12 of them playing for the first time (Chart to the right). Since the Hyundai was first played at Kapalua in 1999 only two first timers, Sergio Garcia in 2002 and Daniel Chopra in 2008 won in there first starts. So of the 28 starters that leaves us with 16 that have played before with only five (Jonathan Byrd - win, Steve Stricker - T4th, Bill Haas - 8th, Ben Crane - T21st and Bubba Watson - T25th) that started in 2011. Here is the list of those that made the most starts in the Hyundai:

  7 starts  David Toms
  5 starts   Rory Sabbatini, Steve Stricker, K.J. Choi
  4 starts   Jonathan Byrd
  3 starts   Sean O'Hair, Ben Crane, Michael Bradley
  2 starts   Lucas Glover, Nick Watney, Aaron Baddeley, Mark Wilson
  1 start     Martin Laird, Bill Haas, Johnson Wagner, Bubba Watson

So in a way, the field isn't loaded with that much experience playing at Kapalua.

So what does the past tell us about this year?:

Course and winner stats for the last four years of the Hyundai

So what does all of this mean?

• The first thing to realize is that the Plantation Course is not a driving course. A good driver has no advantage and there is no advantage to hitting the ball long. The fairways are big enough to land a 747 on them and for those that miss the fairway, the rough is of no worries so frankly this is one of the rare events that driving means nothing. The same on hitting greens, since they are so large averaging 8,000 square feet, you can see that players only miss three greens per round. So when you look at the three charts above, put a lot of energy on the middle one, putting and scrambling
• Putting is the key. In looking at the average first putt, it's about 38 to 40 feet so lag putting and the ability to make putts five feet and under is important. Looking at the four past winners three of the four missed only one putt of five feet and under and in 2010 Geoff Ogilvy made 54 of 54. So we need to look at the field and see, who makes a lot of putts inside of five feet? In looking at 2011 stats, of those in the top-ten of making putts five feet and in only one is playing this week, Bill Haas. Now in looking at the list of those that make the most putts inside 10 feet, Haas falls down to 60th and it's important to note that Bryce Molder leads the list with Steve Stricker 10th. Now in those that make the most putts over 10 feet, Stricker is 8th but leading the list is Lucas Glover with David Toms 7th. In looking at Haas, Stricker, Glover and Toms all of them have contended in the past at Kapalua so they could be guys that fit our profile of players that have an advantage. Do we list Bryce Molder? Again only one player in 13 events have won on their first start so you have to forget Molder.
• Another stat that is important is picking a guy that makes lots of birdies and is high on the par breaker list. Looking at the list of those that led the birdie average, Steve Stricker was the best with Webb Simpson 3rd, Nick Watney 5th and Aaron Baddley T7th. These four also appear on top of the ParBreakers list so we have to look at these four as potential candidates to contend.
• One important thing to look at is a player that ended last year strong. Look at past champions, Jonathan Byrd won the last event of 2010 and then won at Kapalua. Geoff Ogilvy played well in Australia the month before he won at Kapalua and Daniel Chopra won late in 2007 before he won again at Kapalua in 2008. So lets look at the field and find someone that has won lately? Nobody in the field won in December or November unless we count the Shark Shootout in this mix in which Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steel won. Of the fall events, Ben Crane, Kevin Na and Bryce Molder were winners in October but if you have to pick a player that ended his season strongly and could do great at Kapalua, look no further than Webb Simpson

Here are some things to look for this week:

• Kapalua is a very unpredictable place. The Plantation Course was built on the side of a mountain and is exposed to winds off the ocean, so if they get winds of 20 and 30 mph, which is common the scores will climb. Perfect example of this was in 1999 when benign conditions the first three rounds brought the scoring average down to 70.58. But in the final round, trade winds came and the scoring average was 2 and a half strokes higher at 73.00. In 2000 all four days were played in high winds with scoring average being 73.03, while in 2006 a combination 74.893 scoring average made it the fourth toughest course played on the PGA Tour in 2006. But the last three years have seen big changes as conditions couldn't of been better and the scoring average went down to 72.895 making it the 34th hardest course on tour in 2007. In 2008 it played to an average of 70.935 making it the 50th hardest course on tour in 2008 with only four courses playing easier. In 2009 it played to a 70.515 average and was the 47th hardest with only four courses playing easier, while in 2010 with four windless days it played to a 69.884 average making it the easiest course on the PGA Tour. The same last year, four windless days as the course played to a 70.09 average making it again the easiest course on the PGA Tour in 2011.

Photo: © Harry How/Getty Images The view of the 18th hole at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, making it one of the prettiest sights in golf.

• Long range forcasts call for a whole week of not only perfect weather, very little winds each day which almost seems like a physical impossibility for the area. If the conditions are dry with no wind the course will produce record scores like it did in 2003 when Ernie Els shot 31 under. Last year saw low scores across the board for all the players as Jonathan Byrd and Robert Garrigus shot 268, seven off the record score of Els. So with easy conditions, look for something between what Els did in 2003 and what Byrd did last year.
• The weather forecast couldn't be better for the week and with no Kona winds it will be a very delightful week for the players at Kapalua
• Scores can go in either direction, Kapalua is the Jeckel and Hyde of the PGA Tour. To show how different things can be look at how tough 2006 was at Kapalua. Only 27 under par rounds where shot. Before 2006 at the Hyundai in the previous seven years the least amount of under par rounds was 49 in 2000 and the most was 128 in 2003. Last year in easy conditions 105 under par rounds were shot, the same easy conditions in 2010 produced 97 under par rounds while in 2009 101 under par rounds were shot.
• In 2009 with calm conditions, 101 rounds where shot under par as Geoff Ogilvy won with a 24 under par total as 31 of the 33 players were under par. In 2010 Geoff Ogilvy shot 22 under to win again but of the 28 players that teed it up, all of them were under par making it one of the rare breeds of events that everyone was under par. Last year 30 of the 32 finishers shot under par
• Talking about Ogilvy, in 2010 he became the ninth consecutive foreign-born winner of the Hyundai: 2008, Daniel Chorpa; 2007, Vijay Singh; 2004-2006, Stuart Appleby; 2003, Ernie Els; 2002, Sergio Garcia. But Byrd broke that streak last year becoming the first American to win since Jim Furyk in 2001. So Byrd becomes the fourth American that has won at Kapalua (the others, David Duval, Tiger Woods & Jim Furyk). So could we have another American winner? Possibly when you consider of the 28 in the field, 22 are from America so the odds are in USA's favor. One country not to rule out is Australia, if you count Vijay Singh who was from Fuji, seven of the last 8 winners are from that region so maybe that is a good omen for Aaron Baddeley.
• In 2008 when Chopra won, he broke one of Hyundai's biggest records. That is of the previous 16 winners, all of them made it to the season ending Tour Championship. Chopra only made it as far as the Deutsche Bank Championship and in money terms only made $540,000 after earning $1.1 million at Kapalua as he didn't have another top-ten and only finished in the top-25, three times the rest of the year.
• In 2006 Stuart Appleby shot 71-72-70-71. How rare is it to shot all four rounds in the 70s and still win? Very rare, before that going back to 1970 it had been done just 14 times, the last being back in 1992 with Tom Kite winning the U.S. Open. Oh for those wondering how many events of the 14 weren't majors, seven of them were non-majors and the last time someone shot four rounds in the 70s and won a non-major was Mark McCumber in the 1985 Doral Open.
• So what kind of a player will win this week? One that has ability to play well on Bermuda greens, hits the ball a long way and plays good in windy conditions. Over the years first-timers have won twice, first in 2002 with Sergio Garcia and in 2008 with Daniel Chopra. Now if you really want to pick a winner, with no wind, hard fairways from the lack of rain that make short hitters look like King Kong, the widest fairways on the PGA Tour in which 747s can land on, look for short hitters to prevail. Also check out those that make lots of birdies and don't be surprised if a Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson, Nick Watney and Aaron Baddley who were in the top-ten of the birdie average last year could rule the roast this week.

• Previous
• For the Hyundai T of C picks, next page