What Jordan Spieth hopes to accomplish at star-studded Tournament of Champions

In winning the Masters and U.S. Open, he became the youngest to hold two major titles; the youngest since Gene Sarazen in 1922 to seize two majors in the same year.

“It’s a great way to end a very special year”, Spieth said of winning the Male Player of the Year presented by ISPS HANDA.

This is the strongest field at Kapalua in 10 years, with Spieth and Day at Nos. Where will it lead?

First staged in 1953, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions used to kick off the PGA Tour season but for the third year in-a-row, now that the PGA season runs from October to September, it merely restarts the season after the Christmas break.

Spieth, who emerged as the clubhouse leader in the game of musical chairs that ensued for the top spot in the world ranking last year, made it clear Tuesday that he has penciled the year-opener into his schedule for the foreseeable future.

Jason Day (2) – Day returns after a lengthy absence following his masterful summer.

Ko claimed 56 per cent of the vote from the writers, Spieth claimed 98 per cent of the votes to leave Australian Justin Day in his wake and Maggert claimed 70 per cent of the votes to dominate second-placed Bernhard Langer. Not to mention he was 5th on Tour past year in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, a key metric this week.

Jordan Spieth – Any time you can get the best golfer in the world with odds of +470, you have to take it. Jordan Spieth is somewhat of a stranger to this curse, as his only appearance at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions was a second place finish in 2014.

Ten years ago, Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els were battling for No. 1.

“First and foremost, I want to be healthy and get stronger”, said.

Like Spieth, Ko won five times a year ago, including her maiden major victory at the Evian Championship and a successful defence of her Race to the CME Globe title.

Bubba Watson finished fourth here in 2013 but that’s far and away his best effort and he’s never broken 70 here on day one in four starts. There are only three par-3s on the entire course so length will be important, but the course gives you many downhill tee shots so even you might be a big hitter if you tee it up. Because if qualifying ended today, the 60-man field would have only 25 from the top 50 in the world.

He also plays in next week’s JoBurg Open but is relying on sponsors’ invites to get into the Desert Swing – which takes in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai – but he did receive good news on the invite front with a sponsor’s invitation into next month’s AT& Pebble Beach pro-am next month.

The contrast between the Champion of Champions tournament on the PGA Tour with the South African Open – a dual-sanctioned European Tour and Sunshine Tour event – is quite marked in financial terms. Players want the freedom to cherry pick the key events and it is the PGA Tour which has remained adamant that commitment to its events is an absolute must. They really pulled out all the stops by creating — wait for it — a task force.

The last day of the month sees hostilities open at Hazeltine with the Americans boasting an all-star line up of vice captains; the already selected Woods, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker as well as as, surely, Phil Mickelson. He spent more time talking about his past than the future, saying at one point that anything he accomplishes the rest of his career will be “gravy”.

Day said he felt better the next day, and his 30-foot putt on the final hole came up short that would have put him in the playoff.