Harris English Wins at Kapalua

It wouldn’t be the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua without a playoff! Harris English ended a 13 year PGA Tour win drought in a playoff over Joaquin Niemann at the Plantation Course at Kapalua on Sunday.

English, who held a lead throughout most of the week on Maui, found himself down a stroke to Niemann on the 18th hole. He hit a remarkable approach shot with a 3 iron and ultimate nailed the birdie putt to force the playoff.

As mentioned, it was the end of a significant Tour win drought for English. He joins Stewart Cink (11 years), Martin Laird (seven years) and Brian Gay (seven years) as players to break win droughts of over seven years this season. We’ve also seen Robert Streb win again after a six-year drought.

On Wednesday for Pro-Am day, English teamed up with Kapalua General Manager Alex Nakajima, his lovely wife and Troon Co-COO Mike Ryan. After seeing the success English had this week, that might be a sought after crew to team up with next year!

Here are some things to know from the week that was at The Plantation Course:

• Harris English birdies the first playoff hole (par-5 18th) to defeat Joaquin Niemann to win the Sentry Tournament of Champions; win comes in his 193rd start since his last PGA TOUR win
• English picks up his third PGA TOUR title in his 250th start at the age of 31 years, 5 months, 18 days
• Niemann, winner of the 2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, picks up his first runner-up finish on TOUR
• Both English and Niemann failed to win in 2020, but qualified for the Sentry Tournament of Champions via thev2020 TOUR Championship – a result of changes to the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic
• The cumulative scoring average (69.315) is the second lowest at The Plantation Course since 1999 (69.159/2003)

Congratulations yet again to the team at Kapalua for being a remarkable host for the Sentry Tournament of Champions. The course received rave reviews from some of the game’s top players who were especially impressed with the conditions a year removed from the big renovation project with Coore and Crenshaw of 2019.