Sentry TOC: Harris English, Ryan Palmer Continue to Surprise

The Sentry TOC has a pair of surprise leaders in Harris English and Ryan Palmer. Can either of these two hang on and win this week in Hawaii?

The field at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions is loaded with a number of the best players on the PGA Tour. But through 54 holes, it is a pair of surprises, Harris English and Ryan Palmer, who are leading the 42-player field.

English has been at the top of the field all week long. He shared the first-round lead with defending champion Justin Thomas after both players shot 65 on Thursday.

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English came back with a 67 on Friday to take a two-shot lead through 36 holes. English shot a 66 on Saturday and is at 21-under par. He’s still in the lead but now he has company at the top.

That company comes in the form of Ryan Palmer, who had a huge round on Saturday to jump into a share of the lead with 18 holes to play. Palmer shot 67 on Thursday and again on Friday to sit two shots behind English at the halfway point of the event.

But on Saturday, Palmer shot the lowest round of the week so far at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. It started with a birdie on the first hole to get Palmer into red figures. He would add birdies on the fifth and seventh holes to shoot a 3-under 33 on the front nine.

Palmer’s back nine started with two pars before he got red hot. Starting on the 12th hole, Palmer recorded five birdies in a row to go from 3-under to 8-under.

After a par on 17, Palmer finished his round with a birdie on the 18th to finish his outstanding round. A 9-under par round of 64 gave Palmer a share of the 54-hole lead.

English and Palmer will take a one-shot advantage over Collin Morikawa into Sunday’s final round. However, others are lurking, not far back.

Thomas is four shots behind at 17-under par, while Patrick Cantlay is 16-under. Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm are probably too far back, at 14-under, to catch up on Sunday.

The surprising duo of English and Palmer are looking to make a splash in Hawaii this week. English has won just twice in his PGA Tour career in 249 starts. He’s the 29th-ranked player in the world this week.

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Palmer has just four wins in 426 PGA Tour starts in his career. He’s currently ranked 30th in the Official World Golf Rankings.

It would be a surprise to see either of these players win against such a strong field. But that appears to be the direction that the Sentry TOC is headed in.

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