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Revealed Jan 07, 2024 • 4 minute learn
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KAPALUA, Hawaii — Almost a 12 months after Chris Kirk made all of it the best way again by successful, he took one other large step Sunday with a clutch five-iron to 2 ft for birdie on the seventeenth gap that led to an 8-under 65 and a one-shot victory in The Sentry.
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It was the third straight 12 months the winner at Kapalua posted a Sunday spherical of 8 underneath or higher and Kirk required no much less to win the PGA Tour’s season opener.
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Sahith Theegala and Jordan Spieth every caught as much as him on the again 9 of one other surprisingly calm day.
Theegala missed a 10-foot birdie likelihood on the par-5 closing gap and shot 63. Spieth, whose tee shot on the sixteenth plugged underneath the lip of a bunker and led to a most premature bogey, missed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 18th and shot 65 to complete an additional shot again.
Kirk was tied when he hit a five-iron from 209 yards over the gorge to a proper pin, the ball rolling out to simply over two ft for a tap-in birdie on the hardest gap on the again 9 of the Plantation course. That allowed him to play the 18th conservatively, figuring out a par can be sufficient for his sixth profession PGA Tour victory.
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He completed at 29-under 263 and earned $3.6 million from the $20-million purse, the primary of eight signature occasions within the new PGA Tour mannequin of huge purses and elite fields.
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Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., was the highest Canadian, ending seven photographs again at 22 underneath and in a tie for 14th. Hamilton’s Mackenzie Hughes tied for twenty fifth at 20 underneath, whereas Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., have been two strokes again and completed tied for thirty third. Nick Taylor of Abbotsford completed at 11 underneath, tied for 52nd.
The 38-year-old from Georgia appears as relaxed as anybody, a very good match for the islands. Kirk’s best win stays his restoration from alcoholism and melancholy, which led to him stepping away for six months of remedy in 2019.
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He gained the Honda Basic final 12 months and the PGA Tour honoured him with its “Braveness Award” on the finish of the season. There was no higher option to begin the brand new 12 months.
The victory assures him a spot within the Masters — he was simply outdoors the highest 50 on the planet on the finish of final 12 months — and permits him to ebook a return journey to Kapalua to start out subsequent 12 months.
He was making his first look at The Sentry in eight years.
“I’m so grateful for these final 5 years. It’s been unimaginable,” Kirk stated. “I’m having fun with competing, I’m having fun with the work. I didn’t have that for some time. It’s a relentless course of and I’m simply loving each minute of it.”
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Akshay Bhatia, who began the ultimate spherical one shot behind, by no means had a lot of an opportunity after sending his opening tee photographs into the native grass. He by no means discovered the ball, needed to return to the tee, began with a double bogey and was by no means within the combine.
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Spieth, who gained in 2016 at Kapalua, stayed within the hunt all day together with his 5 straight birdies across the flip. He caught as much as Kirk and Theegala with birdies on the 14th and fifteenth. After which his probabilities all however ended with one swing.
His drive on the sixteenth discovered a bunker that divides the fairways, but it surely plugged proper beneath the face, leaving him no likelihood however to cut out sideways. He missed a 12-foot par putt — his first gap over par since an out-of-bounds tee shot led to double bogey on the third gap of the opening spherical — and didn’t have sufficient holes left to atone for it.
“It was a full-shot (penalty) at a fairly pivotal time,” Spieth stated. “However I’ve received to be a bit of tighter off the tee.”
Theegala was within the group forward of Spieth and made birdie on the sixteenth and Spieth’s bogey abruptly dropped him three photographs behind. Theegala had a one-shot lead with that birdie.
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Kirk made par from simply in need of the reachable par-4 14th, with a pedestrian pitch that got here up 18 ft in need of the outlet for a two-putt par. He additionally missed a 12-foot birdie likelihood on the sixteenth to regain the lead.
However he delivered the important thing shot on the seventeenth, a birdie that gave him consolation taking part in the 18th and its spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and the island of Molokai on the horizon.
Sungjae Im managed to get into the PGA Tour report books with 34 birdies for the week. The earlier report for a 72-hole match was 32 and set thrice, most not too long ago final 12 months by Jon Rahm. That illustrates what sort of take a look at the Plantation course has grow to be.
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