Day and Davis play season opener at Kapalua
Jason Day – in the field on two counts – his win in Dallas last year and his FedEx Cup standing – Getty Images
Jason Day and Cam Davis are the only two Australians in the field for this week’s opening event of the 2024 PGA Tour season, the Sentry at the Plantation Course at Kapalua on Maui, the pair earning their place courtesy of their standing inside the top 50 in the 2023 FedEx Cup rankings and, in the case of Day, as a result of his win at the Byron Nelson event near Dallas.
Day finished 28th in the FedEx Cup standings last year while Davis was 48th.
The event, previously known as the Tournament of Champions which involved a line-up of winners of events from the previous twelve months, has been replaced by a field that also includes winners in 2023 but has the addition of the leading 50 players in the 2023 FedEx Cup points table.
The event will be the inaugural staging of a ‘Signature’ event series where a purse of US$20 million is on offer with a first place cheque of US$3.6 million and even 10th place earns US$550,000 and the last placed player in the field of 59 this week will receive US$50,000.
Essentially the ‘Signature events’ is a name change from the newly introduced ‘Designated’ events in 2023
The increased prizemoney in the eight Signature events scheduled for 2024 has clearly been introduced to counter the cash splash on offer by LIV Golf with eight signature events.
With there yet to be a definitive answer or announcement on the supposed agreement between LIV Golf’s benefactor PIF and the PGA Tour, these events are expected to at least appease some of those who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour.
Interestingly the last two winners of the event, Jon Rahm and Cam Smith, are now LIV Golf members and, as such, are ineligible for this week’s event.
Day will play the event or its previous equivalent for the 6th occasion and has been inside the top ten in the restricted fields on three occasions with a best of 3rd in his stellar year of 2015.
Day comes off the back of a win at the teams’ event in Florida in which he paired with Lydia Ko, completing a year which saw him win for the first time in five years when successful at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Davis has played at Kapalua once previously when earning his place in the 2022 Tournament of Champions field courtesy of his breakthrough PGA Tour victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in late 2021.
Davis finished 10th that year including weekend rounds of 66 and 66 to finish nine shots behind his countryman, Cam Smith, whose 34 under par total that week remains the record for 72 holes at the Plantation Course at Kapalua.
Cam Davis plays Kapalua for the second occasion – image Australian Golf Media
