Steve Palmer's free predictions & golf betting tips for The Sentry

Bet365 are offering new customers £50 in free bets when they bet £10 on Steve Palmer's golf tips.

You can grab your free bets here. We’ve included instructions on how to grab your offer later on in this article.

When to bet on The Sentry

By 5.45pm on Thursday

Where can I watch The Sentry

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 6pm on Thursday

Steve Palmer's Sentry predictions

Sahith Theegala
3.5pts each-way 28-1 Paddy Power

Akshay Bhatia
2.5pts each-way 28-1 general

Recommended Offer

4/5

NEW CUSTOMER OFFER

Bet £10 Get £50 in Free Bets

NEW CUSTOMER OFFER

• Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG)

CLAIM OFFER

Tap for more details. 18+ T&Cs apply

• New offers on a regular basis
• Competitive prices on horse racing

Bet £10 & Get £50 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. #ad

Bet £10 on golf with bet365 and get up to £50 in FREE BETS

Steve Palmer's Sentry preview

The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Maui, stages the PGA Tour's opening event of the year, but world number one Scottie Scheffler will not line up due to a hand injury. The Masters champion crocked himself when preparing Christmas dinner, leaving others to take the spotlight in the Hawaii sunshine.

Xander Schauffele has assumed favouritism but the two-time 2024 Major winner has not competed since the Zozo Championship, which finished on October 27. The Californian had every right to down tools after returning from Japan, so seems likely to be rusty for The Sentry.

Collin Morikawa, who has Hawaiian ancestry and has never won The Sentry, may be more motivated than Schauffele. Morikawa, though, blew a six-shot lead in the final round of the 2023 Sentry and the layout does not play to his strengths.

Justin Thomas and Ludvig Aberg are the most tempting of the market principals. Thomas is a two-time Kapalua champion, but the last of them was in 2020, immediately following the course renovation. The new grasses were still settling, everyone was struggling on the greens and 14 under par was enough to top the leaderboard. Thomas will probably need double that under par to triumph this time and may not hole enough putts to get there.

Aberg was tailed off on his Sentry debut 12 months ago, but closed with a 63 for 47th place. The Swede has made a bright comeback from knee surgery. Thomas and Aberg should contend, but preference is for two American youngsters at bigger odds.

Steve Palmer's top tip

Sahith Theegala 28-1

Racing Post Sport followers backed Sahith Theegala for the 2024 Sentry at 66-1 – and he was beaten by a shot. The reason he was offered at such a juicy price was because he finished tailed off on his Sentry debut in 2023, but first-timers have a terrible record at Kapalua.

The Plantation Course is a quirky venue, with so much roll on the fairways, and it is not easy for Kapalua virgins to judge the target lines off the tee. Only two of the last 25 events at Kapalua have been won by a debutant.

Theegala returned in much more confident fashion for his second Sentry start, beaten only by Chris Kirk, and and the 27-year-old Californian is ideally suited to the venue. With magic touch in his fingers, his short-game skills are top notch, and he is a brilliant natural putter. Theegala is a feel player and a shotmaker, and the crazy dimensions of Kapalua excite him rather than intimidate.

Theegala's main weakness is not a serious issue in The Sentry. He can hit the odd wild drive, but there is significant margin for error off the tee this week. He finished eighth in the Hero World Challenge on his last start as an individual and is hungry for a second PGA Tour title.

While others may be loaded with Christmas rust and lacking motivation so early in the year, Theegala is on the hunt for his first Signature Event success. He almost won the Heritage – another Signature gathering by the coast – in April.

Next best bet

Akshay Bhatia 28-1

January 31 will be Akshay Bhatia's 23rd birthday and the two-time PGA Tour champion appears to have a glorious future ahead. Like Theegala, Bhatia's enormous natural talent has taken him to the PGA Tour, where he made his breakthrough in the 2023 Barracuda Championship.

A second Tour title came in the Texas Open in April and both his victories have come in playoffs. The cocksure Californian kickstarted his pro career with a Korn Ferry Tour triumph in The Bahamas in January 2022, showing an early liking for island golf. He loves teeing off by the coast, relishing the terrain, the breeze and the shotmaking artistry required at most seaside venues.

Bhatia almost successfully defended his Bahamas title on the KFT in 2023, finishing fourth, then he was second in the Puerto Rico Open on the PGA Tour. His last start provided further evidence of his affection for coastal golf as he took fourth place on his Hero World Challenge debut in The Bahamas.

Prior to the Hero, Bhatia finished runner-up in the Dunlop Phoenix Open on the Japan Tour, then after the Hero he partnered Jennifer Kupcho to third place in the Grant Thornton Invitational mixed pairs event. He finished 14th on his Sentry debut 12 months ago and there is every reason to expect Bhatia to contend on his second visit.

Recommended Offer

4/5

NEW CUSTOMER OFFER

Bet £10 Get £50 in Free Bets

NEW CUSTOMER OFFER

• Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG)

CLAIM OFFER

Tap for more details. 18+ T&Cs apply

• New offers on a regular basis
• Competitive prices on horse racing

Bet £10 & Get £50 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. #ad

Bet £10 on golf with bet365 and get up to £50 in FREE BETS

Course guide for The Sentry

• Course Plantation Course at Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii
• Prize money $20m ($3.6m to the winner)
• Length 7,596 yards
• Par 73 – four par-fives, 11 par-fours, three par-threes
• Field 60 (no cut)
• Highest-ranked players in field (world ranking in brackets) Xander Schauffele (2), Collin Morikawa (4), Ludvig Aberg (5), Wyndham Clark (7), Patrick Cantlay (11)
• Course records - 72 holes 258 Cameron Smith (2022) 18 holes 61 Justin Thomas (2022), Jon Rahm (2022), Matt Jones (2022), Justin Rose (2024)
• Course winners taking part Justin Thomas (twice), Xander Schauffele, Chris Kirk
• When to bet By 6pm on Thursday
• When to watch Live on Sky Sports Golf from 5.45pm on Thursday
• Time difference Hawaii is ten hours behind the UK and Ireland
• Course type Parkland
• Course overview Kapalua is the traditional home of the Tour's curtain-raiser. A power-hitter's paradise, the fairways are like runways. Seven holes are longer than 500 yards. The 680-yard closing hole is a test of strength on a track which has the largest greens on the circuit. Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore renovated the track after the 2019 edition. Fairways, tees and rough were grassed with Celebration bermuda, while the greens became TifEagle bermuda, with the designers hoping to create firmer, faster conditions. The first year after the renovation saw much fewer birdies, but from 2021 onwards this has been a birdiefest again, with Cameron Smith reaching 34 under par in 2022
• Story of last year Chris Kirk edged Sahith Theegala by a shot with a 29-under-par total
• Weather forecast Sunny, warm and pleasant throughout. A breezy Thursday looks set to be followed by three calm days
• Type of player suited to the challenge The huge dancefloors demand sharp scrambling. The roll-call of past winners shows how powerhouses can flourish (Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm), but other recent champions (Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Cameron Smith) underline the importance of a superb short game in a low-scoring event
• Key attribute Touch

Steve Palmer's Sentry key stat

Only two of the last 25 events at Kapalua have been won by a debutant.

Read more from Steve Palmer . . .

• Steve Palmer's 2025 golf Majors acca predictions: Our golf expert has tipped a 6,749-1 fourfold 
• Steve Palmer's 2025 golf specials including a 14-1 tip for the Majors 
• Steve Palmer's Players to Follow on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour in 2025

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.

For those looking for even more extensive golf coverage don't miss Palmer's extra pointers every Wednesday in the Racing Post newspaper.

As well as his tips and insight you will also get expert spotlight comments for all players in our extensive PGA Tour and DP Tour price comparison grids which include course and recent form, plus Palmer's unique attribute icons to help identify the type of players likely to be suited to conditions each week.