Hideki Matsuyama opened the PGA Tour season in record-breaking style last weekend at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii.
The Japanese star will ride a wave of birdies to Honolulu this week as he tries to make it a two-week sweep at the Sony Open in Hawaii, beginning Thursday at Waialae Country Club.
Matsuyama won The Sentry on Sunday with a 35-under-par 257, the lowest 72-hole score in relation to par in PGA Tour history. He became the seventh player to win both of the tour's Hawaii events, having previously captured the Sony Open in 2022.
"I'm very happy. I wanted to definitely win both tournaments in Hawaii," Matsuyama said through a translator. "So, I'm very happy to be able to do that."
He will be the man to beat this week thanks to his current form, his past success at Waialae and the fact that he is the only top-10 player in the field.
The week got off to a somber start, though, as the tournament will be played without its 2024 champion, the late Grayson Murray.
Four months after Murray won his second PGA Tour title at the Sony Open, he died by suicide at age 30. The tour and Murray's family organised a celebration of life ceremony for him earlier this week at the site of his final victory.
Murray defeated Keegan Bradley and South Korean Byeong Hun An in a playoff last year by draining a 38-foot birdie putt.
"Weird feeling (during a practice round) playing the 18th hole for me. Last time I was there, I was there with Grayson," Bradley said. "Really sad. Really a horrible thing. Hopefully we can honour him, his legacy here for a long time."
Matsuyama is one of six PGA Tour winners in the field this week, including Si Woo Kim of South Korea (ranked No 65 in the world) and Russell Henley (No 17).
The Sony Open will feature mostly a mix of youngsters, newcomers and some veterans making their first starts of the season after The Sentry had a limited field of 59 players.
Gary Woodland, for example, hasn't won a tournament since the 2019 US Open and is entering his last year of exemption on tour. His 2024 season was focused on working his way back from surgery to remove a brain lesion.
"I'm as optimistic about my golf game as I've been since I won the US Open in 2019," Woodland said Wednesday. "One, I'm starting to feel better. Two, I understand what I need to do, slowing my brain down, slowing my heart rate down."
Twenty-five PGA Tour rookies are making their first starts. Joining them on a sponsor's exemption is World No 1 amateur Luke Clanton, a 21-year-old Florida State golfer who notched four top-10 finishes on tour in 2024. If Clanton places in the top five this week, he will have earned enough points for an automatic tour card via the PGA Tour University pathway.