PGA Championship
The Sentry preview: Big chance for Ben to land first victory
2025 is nearly upon us and it brings with it a new PGA Tour season to get excited about.
As usual, we kick off in Hawaii with The Sentry as 60 players tee it up at the Plantation Course on the island of Maui.
The only par-73 on the PGA Tour circuit, the Plantation Course throws up a unique challenge where distance is not necessarily the key to success, with accuracy when approaching the greens, as well as on them, being at a premium.
We kick off 2025 with two selections who we’re hoping can set the tone for a successful year of golf tipping!
Akshay Bhatia 25/1
Our first selection of the new year comes is a man who has two PGA Tour wins to his name with one of those coming last season, Akshay Bhatia. The young lefty has really come to the fore in the last couple of years and is now one of the top players on the Tour.
That is emphasised by the fact that he sits within the top 10 in the betting for this season’s curtain-raiser at 25/1. A lack of experience at the Plantation Course never tends to indicate success, but luckily Bhatia has a good performance under his belt as he finished T14 here last year.
Bhatia was steady enough with his approach play last year and his putter was one of his main weapons, ranking 33rd in the world with the flatstick. His T14 here last year came despite him only ranking 44th for Strokes Gained Approaching the Green, so if he can improve on that then he can certainly climb further up the leaderboard.
Bhatia is still young so we’re confident that he has improvement to come and he’s more than capable of finishing in the 6 places available with William Hill.
Byeong-Hun An 33/1
Another player who went well in this tournament last year is South Korean sensation Byeong-Hun An. The youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur, Ben An was one of the hottest prospects in golf for a long time, but he’s still yet to win on the PGA Tour.
With the form he’s shown at this course it’s a wonder why he’s as big as 33/1 here, but his lack of winning experience may explain that. We’re ranking course form over winning experience here though, and he has that in abundance.
He finished an impressive fourth here, just three shots back from the eventual winner, Chris Kirk, following that up with a play-off loss at the Sony Open – a tournament which holds strong form lines here.
An ranked 38th in the world for Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green last season and if he can continue to excel in that department he’ll be in good stead to go well here.
He’s already shown that he is more than capable of finishing in the 6 places available with William Hill here and if he improves on last year’s performance then it could be hard for anyone to stop him getting his hands on a first PGA Tour trophy.
