KAPALUA, Hawaii – NBC/Golf Channel commentator Mark Rolfing arrived in Kapalua in 1977 and started in the cart barn. He’s seen it all at Kapalua Resort, but even he called the lack of wind in the third heat a The Sentinelwhich left the Plantation Course undefended, a rarity.
“It’s what they call the slump,” Rolfing said. “When boats stayed in the ocean and couldn’t move.”
The Plantation Course is a 51-week-a-year resort course with generous fairways and lush conditions that have allowed pros to torch the Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw layout. Birdies were made in bunches and were more abundant than the pineapples that once grew on these grounds. Max Homa shook his head and said he felt pretty good about making three birdies on the front nine, only to look up at the leaderboard and realize he had dropped three spots on the leaderboard.
No one did more damage than the leaders as Hideki Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa torched the Plantation to the tune of 11-under 62. Poor Corey Conners, the third man in the group, was left in the dust with a 69 Matsuyama’s career-low barrage of birdies in the tournament took him to 27-under 192, a new 54-hole tournament record since the. tournament moved to Kapalua in 1999 and tied the Tour mark for par (recorded), joining Nick Dunlap (American Express 2024) and Patrick Reed (American Express 2014). But his work is far from done as Morikawa is hot on his trail, one move behind.
“Collin played well and I kind of kept up with him, so have a good day,” Matsuyama said.
No better example than at par-4 16th when Morikawa, who got off to a 5-under start through his first five holes after an eagle at five, and his caddy JJ Jakovac debated his club choice of an 85-yard sand wedge.
“JJ and I kind of had different views on how to pull off the shot in the first edit,” Morikawa said. “I told him how I was going to hit it, exactly how I did it, and it was nice to get a little tap in for birdie.”
Matsuyama, who is looking for his 11th Tour title, says whatever you can do I can do better and from 63 yards I stole a wedge past the hole and used the backboard to bring it back to within a foot . The course flowed easily, but both players still had to execute and probably left a few shots hanging.
Morikawa, who has never finished worse than T-7 in this event, is looking to win for the first time since the 2023 Zozo Championship and get revenge at the 2023 Sentry when he lost a six-shot lead to Jon Rahm. This looks like a two-man race, unless Thomas Detry, who shot an 8-under 65 and is alone third at 22 under, or someone with even more ground to make up, can mount a charge.
“I shot 8 under today, but it didn’t really feel like I shot 8 under,” he said. “On other courses, when you shoot 8 under, you really feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, I played some unreal golf here.’ I just felt like I was playing golf very regularly.
Detry is aiming for his first PGA Tour title and knows he will likely have to go even lower on Sunday. Perhaps the weather will also play a role. The weather forecast calls for a southerly wind, blowing on the mountain, and will turn the course upside down.
“With all these birdies here, if you make a bogey, it’s almost like losing two shots,” Detry said. His plan for Sunday? “Just keep going,” said the Belgian. “Hole 1 is pretty much a wedge, hole 3 is a wedge in your hand, the par 5 fifth is very short. There are a lot of opportunities early in the round, so if I can get 3, 4 under early, I think I could fight.
Expect Morikawa to continue the pressure as well. He posted his ninth round of 65 or better at The Sentry since 2020, the most of any player. Morikawa struggled last Sunday at the Masters, the RBC Heritage and the PGA Championship, to name a few of the times he found himself in the final group, but failed to lift a trophy . He said he instituted a new philosophy regarding paydays.
“Leave it all there,” he said. “Just do what I can to say, I have 18 holes, I don’t worry about the next tournament, I don’t worry about the season, I just worry about tomorrow, what’s in front of me , one shot at a time, and see how it plays out. But go out there and try to win this thing.
This article was originally published on Golfweek: The Sentry 2025: Hideki Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa separate from the field
