And the PGA Tour season opener is upon us. The Sentry 2025 tees off this week in Hawaii. The Kapalua Plantation Course will miss out on a few big names. Scottie Scheffler was forced to withdraw because of a freak hand injury. He had undergone surgery. Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, has skipped the event once again. So has Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry.

But the field is loaded, which is expected when the qualifying criteria require you to be in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup ranking and past season’s winners. A bunch of past winners will tee off this Thursday for the first signature event of the season. Here are five players who stand a chance to break inside the top three if not lift the trophy by Sunday.

Sungjae Im

Not the most obvious choice, but you shouldn’t really ignore a player who has consistently proved his mettle at the Plantation Course. The South Korean star has teed off here only four times, and each time has bagged a top-15 finish, including a T5 last year. He has also gained +2.08 strokes against the field in that period. The two-time PGA Tour winner hasn’t finished outside the top 15 in his last four appearances in the Tour as well. Positive signs.

Ludvig Aberg

Certainly not a veteran of the event, Ludvig Aberg’s lone Sentry appearance came last year. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for the ever-so-charming Swedish International. Aberg could manage only a T47. But the one-time PGA Tour winner has looked solid in his last few tournaments, never finishing outside the top 20 in his last four appearances.

The great quality of this 25-year-old is he can fire on all cylinders. Last year, Aberg ranked 14th in Strokes Gained (SG): Off-the-tee, 21st in SG: Approach to Green, and 22nd in Driving Distance. All that will come to his advantage provided he can tackle the windy weekend of Hawaii.

Justin Thomas

The two-time major winner had a nightmarish 2024 but there are reasons to hope Justin Thomas has taken care of his mistakes in the off-season. The new father on Tour landed in the Bahamas with a 46” driver. And his stats were truly staggering. Thomas outmatched the field in driving distance at 319.1 yards. 79% of his drives towered over 300 yards, the longest was 378 yards. 

What’s more, JT also hit 41 of the 52 fairways at Albany. All in all, his game is coming together, and Thomas is expected to carry that momentum in Hawaii as well. A two-time past champion of the Sentry, Justin Thomas needs no crash course on the Kapalua Plantation course. In 2024, he bagged a T25 here.

Collin Morikawa

The former Open champion is too good to not have a podium finish since last year’s Zozo Championship. And the Sentry is a tournament he loves. It loves the 29-year-old back equally. Collin Morikawa has never finished outside the top ten at the par-73 layout in the five times he played here. Last year, Morikawa netted a T5, and a year before that he was the solo runner-up. 

His true strokes gained (+2.41) at the 7,596-yard layout is better than most. Last season, the 29-year-old was seventh in driving accuracy (70.15%) and 19th in SG: Off the Tee (+0.417). The only sign of trouble is his distance from the tee box. Morikawa averaged less than 300 yards on Tour last year. 

Xander Schauffele

It’s almost as if 2025 The Sentry is Xander Schauffele’s tournament to lose. ‘Almost’ because that’s not entirely the case because of the players mentioned above. But Schauffele has had a phenomenal 2024 only to be overshadowed by a marauding Scottie Scheffler. But the world no.2 has been consistent over the years, and it won’t be surprising if his tenth victory comes early in January. 

He won here in 2019 and has three top-tens since. Last year, Schauffele finished at T10. In the 25 rounds the San Diego alum has played here, his stroke gained stands at a whopping +2.17 against the field according to Data Golf. There is a chance that the two-time major winner might run riot at the Plantation Course this year. 

While that covers our top five, it’d be criminal not to mention Sahith Theegala. Last year’s runner-up has already landed in Hawaii. The Pepperdine alum is a force to be reckoned with, and his short game has improved massively in recent times. The Sentry will tee off on January 2. You can catch the event live on Golf Channel and Peacock.