2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions: Top 10 power rankings at Kapalua

It’s not as great an achievement as if the Tournament of Champions was a full field event, but four five top-11s in five starts is still impressive from Webb Simpson.

He made his triumphant return to Kapalua last year after ending a nearly five-year win drought, finishing T-8th (70-72-72-65). Simpson’s highwater mark was T-3rd (68-68-69-68) in 2012 and T-3rd (66-71-68-70) in 2014.

Simpson enters the week riding seven consecutive made cuts with T-37th at the RSM Classic in November his latest result. That was his worst result since July as he’s since got four top-10s including T-10th at the Masters.

Simpson doesn’t have the length that some players use to their advantage at this event. With that said, there’s plenty of distance to be gained on the ground for a crafty player like him to use on Kapalua’s sloping fairways.

Speaking of fairways, Simpson hits tons of them. Albeit in a small sample size of 15 measured rounds, the Wake Forest product’s hitting a whopping 74.28% percent fairways to rank eighth on the PGA Tour. That comes on the heels of finishing 18th last season at 67.31%.

Just as important as hitting fairways at Kapalua is finding the right portion of the large, sloping greens. Simpson ranked 23rd in proximity from the fairway (29’4”) and was inside the top 30 on all shots in a few different categories between 100-150 yards. Even shorter hitters will have short clubs on approach, so Simpson can make some hay this week.

This will be a fun week for him and his family to kick back, but Simpson’s going to contend for a long-awaited victory on the island.