Chris Kirk made history on Sunday by making a clutch 5-iron to two feet for a birdie on the 17th hole, nearly a year after he nearly came back to win the Sentry. Kirk finished with an 8-under 65 and a one-shot triumph.
Kirk needed a Sunday round of eight under or better to win the first round of the PGA Tour, and he did so for the third year in a row.
On the back nine of another remarkably quiet day, Sahith Theegala and Jordan Spieth both closed the gap on him.
Theegala shot 63 after missing a 10-foot birdie opportunity on the par-5 last hole. Spieth missed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 18th and finished with a 65 to take a shot back. On the 16th, his tee ball stuck beneath the lip of a bunker, resulting in an extremely unfortunate bogey.
On the hardest hole on the back nine of the Plantation course, Kirk tied the lead when he shot a 5-iron from 209 yards over the canyon to a right pin. The ball rolled out to just over 2 feet for a tap-in birdie. Because of this, he was able to play the 18th hole cautiously, knowing that a par would be sufficient for his sixth career PGA Tour win.
A winner of $3.6 million from the $20 million payout, he finished at 29-under 263, the first of eight marquee tournaments under the new PGA Tour paradigm of large rewards and elite fields.
The 38-year-old Georgian appears to be at ease and would fit right in on the islands. His most notable accomplishment is still his recovery from alcoholism and depression therapy, which forced him to take a six-month hiatus in 2019.
Last year, he took home the Honda Classic, and after the season, he was given the Courage Award by the PGA Tour. There was no better way to begin the year than this one.
Having finished just outside of the top 50 in the world after the previous year, the victory guarantees him a spot in the Masters and enables him to schedule a return trip to Kapalua for the beginning of the following year.
After eight years, he was finally making an appearance at the Sentry.
"I'm so thankful for these last five years. It's been incredible," Kirk said. "I'm enjoying competing, I'm enjoying the work. I didn't have that for a while. It's a constant process and I'm just loving every minute of it."
After teeing off into the native grass in the first round, Akshay Bhatia, who was starting the final round a shot down, never really had a chance. He started with a double bogey, was never in the mix, and never found the ball. He also had to go back to the tee.
Spieth, the 2016 Kapalua winner, maintained his lead throughout the day thanks to his five consecutive birdies around the turn. With birdies at the 14th and 15th holes, he closed the gap with Kirk and Theegala. And after that, one hit virtually ruined his prospects.
On the sixteenth hole, he drove into a bunker that splits the fairways; nevertheless, it plugged directly beneath his face, forcing him to cut out diagonally. His first hole above par since an out-of-bounds tee shot resulted in a double bogey on the third hole of the first round was a 12-foot par putt, which he missed, and he ran out of holes to make up for it.
"It was a full shot [penalty] at a pretty pivotal time," Spieth said. "But I've got to be a little tighter off the tee."
After making a birdie on the 16th hole, Theegala, who was in the group ahead of Spieth, unexpectedly fell three strokes behind due to his bogey. After making that birdie, Theegala led by one stroke.
Kirk's par on the 14th, a reachable par-4, came from a pedestrian pitch that ended up eighteen feet short of the hole, requiring a two-putt. He also squandered a 12-foot birdie opportunity to take the lead on the sixteenth hole.
However, he made the crucial stroke on the 17th, a birdie that comforted him as he played the 18th, which offered a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean and the island of Molokai in the distance.
With 34 birdies in a week, Sungjae Im entered the PGA Tour record books. The previous record for a 72-hole competition was thirty-two, which was most recently achieved by Jon Rahm in the previous year. That exemplifies the nature of the test the Plantation course has evolved into.
Next Up:
The next tournament on the PGA Tour schedule is the Sony Open in Hawaii on the 11th-14th January.