Did The Sentry 2025 fail to challenge the pros? A few hours ago, the PGA Tour kicked off the 2025 season at the Kapalua Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii. Fans witnessed some exciting action right to the very last round as Hideki Matsuyama captured the win on Sunday. But he was met with stiff competition right from the first day with Tom Hoge taking the lead in the first round. That was followed by 3 days of back-and-forth between Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa as they battled for the top spot.

Despite all the exciting action, the tournament was still criticized for being a little too easy for the players involved. One of the major reasons behind that must have been the incredible 5th hole shot on the final day by Taylor Pendrith.

The same was discussed between Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme in a YouTube video of The Smylie Show. Hulme was discussing the conditions of the ground and how it was a little too easy for the players to score high points in the event. That’s when he mentioned “They (the PGA Tour) are already talking about changing the Par 5 fifth (hole) to a par 4,” while also suggesting that the event will be changed from a par 73 per round to a 72. Charlie then questioned Kaufman “What were your reflections on how the course played this weekend? Do you like seeing a score this low?”

The 1X PGA Tour winner confirmed, “The PGA Tour rules officials were meeting about that this morning,” while mentioning that they are summarizing the situation before the event reoccurs next year. He also suggested that the PGA Tour headquarters are seriously considering changing the par 5 to a par 4. Smylie states how “Guys are hitting 8, 7, 6 irons into this hole for a par 5,” before confirming the fact that the hole averaged “below 4.”

Elaborating on how insane that statistic is, the former PGA Tour pro also mentioned that “There was an albatross from Taylor Pendrith on that hole.” Yes, Pendrith did score on the 2nd shot off a par 5.

The duo continued to talk about how ridiculously easy the course was which reflects in the kind of scores all the players achieved. Coming back to the 5th hole, what were the exact statistics from the entire field? Let’s find out.

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The 5th Hole at The Sentry 2025

All the players certainly had an advantage to score a lot of points throughout the course. However, the 5th hole in particular had faced a lot of shocking results. It only got worse in the fourth round after Pendrith scored the albatross to jump up by 3 points. Based on the official PGA Tour website, the 526-yard hole no. 5 was considered the easiest hole on the course, ranking the lowest on the course statistics. The actual average score in the 4 rounds was 4.12, which was 0.88 less than par.

For better context, the lowest average score difference for the Hero World Challenge at the Albany GC a few weeks ago was 0.513. And that was on the 15th hole which was 552 yards long. The only real challenge everyone faced on the Kapalua Plantation Course was at hole no. 1, which averaged above par 4, at 4.110.

Do you also think that The Sentry 2025 was a little too easy for everyone involved? Share your views in the comments section.