Patrick Reed is the USA’s next star and other takeaways from a PGA Tour opener

While you were watching the NFL Playoffs and the National Championship, the PGA Tour opened its year with the annual stop at Kapalua in Maui. It’s technically no longer the start of the season with the new wraparound schedule, but for all intents and purposes, this venue and tournament are still the opener. Here are five things from this year’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

The hole-out for eagle. The tan line. The four-shot deficit with four-holes to play comeback. Joining the regal company of Tiger, Rory and Sergio. Almost everything notable coming out of this opener centers around Patrick Reed:

Earlier in the day as we waited for the leaders to tee off in Maui, I posited that this might be the start of Hideki Matsuyama’s reign as the first-in-line challenger contemporary of Rory McIlroy (Matsuyama was in first and in the final pairing). I still think that’s the case, but a Twitter follower asked if I would put Matsuyama ahead of some of the other top young stars, namely Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Reed. I still like Matsuyama to do major damage this year and for the next couple decades, pushing Rory along the way. But of that American threesome, I promptly responded that I would take Reed, who gets far less pub than Fowler or Spieth.

Reed might be a bit more frosty and less marketable than those two, but he’s more accomplished and his record, to this point, is inarguable. As Jimmy Walker wilted, Reed pounced and buried a 19-foot birdie to cap it. It’s been an amazing run for Reed over the past 16 months. The Ryder Cup success should have a significant impact on a player who was already supremely talented and confident. The season-opening win is likely the first of multiple this year, and expect to see his name on the first page of the leaderboard at the majors.

All things considered, the PGA Tour got just about the best finish for which it could have hoped -- several players pushing for a playoff, and then extra holes between two of the bigger names in a so-so field. Unfortunately, that playoff bumped the broadcast directly up against the first quarter of the National Championship game. So absolutely no one, save for a handful of golf diehards and media members, was watching closely anymore.

The Tour is always going to be in a tough spot during football season, whether it’s the FedEx Cup in the fall or this current stretch. The intent of the Monday finish, one of two planned all season, was to avoid a head-to-head with the NFL playoffs, and this week’s schedule jumped all over the place all four days to try and dodge that as much as possible. Unfortunately, the Friday-to-Monday schedule has now put this event up against the college title game each year. They try to get everyone in the clubhouse and wrap up before kickoff (remember Auburn alum Jason Dufner racing off the course last year?), but that wasn’t going to happen Monday night. As a result, the year’s first playoff, which was already buried against all the pregame programming, went unnoticed.

The PGA Championship last year was, by a wide margin, the most exciting major championship of the season. And that was before the madness of the final hour as Rory finished up in the dark at Valhalla. That course is not overflowing with tradition and critical praise, and the PGA of America didn’t set it up to prevent birdies and protect par. That’s what made it so exciting throughout the weekend. Watching the best players in the world drop darts on top of flagsticks, make birdies, and constantly shuffle the leaderboard makes for a more exciting broadcast and tournament (the U.S. Open had an awesome venue, but we spent most of the weekend talking about Pinehurst’s wiregrass and not the actual golf).

This is far from a major championship setting, but the same can be said for Kapalua. The scoring at least makes it interesting. It’s not a challenging course and definitely has its flaws, but as a season opener, it’s good to get birdies in bunches, major charges up the leaderboard, and constant shuffle and peril at the top of the board. Monday featured two course-record-tying 11-under rounds, 62s from both Jason Day and Chris Kirk. The views from this Maui mountainside as the rest of the country freezes will always sell this venue as a place to start the year, but the way the pros carve it up can make it worthwhile golf.

The 28-year-old Korean has become an established and successful PGA Tour pro, with two career wins and regular contention. He had a strong start to the year in four days at Kapalua, an impressive performance given that Bae is going through the legal process of trying to get an extension from Korean Military Manpower Administration and avoid conscription at the end of this month. Korean men between ages 25 and 35 must have an overseas travel visa to remain abroad. Bae’s ran out at the end of December and he was denied an extension, so he’s obligated to return to Korea at the end of this month. His attorneys are trying to get a three-year extension.

With all that circling the past few weeks, Bae, who has said it’s hard to focus on his game, spent the entire weekend firmly on the first page of the leaderboard. He finished sixth, a final round 70 dropping him out of the hunt for the playoff. With his win during the fall series, and his work this week, Bae would be a prime candidate to make the International team for the Presidents Cup, which is being held this year in Korea. Here’s hoping this is a good start to a year he’s able to play out on Tour.

The biggest name in the field was Bubba Watson, three-time winner in 2014. You might think it was an incredible year for Bubba, and it was, on the course. But his churlishness, a known character trait for close followers of the Tour, went mainstream and hit its saturation point last year. It became a common and very public critique.

The targets of Bubba’s bitching are often the crowd, course, and/or his caddie. The frequent comments at his looper have made the hashtag #PrayForTedScott a regular and weekly movement (thanks to the evangelization from our friends at No Laying Up). So it was startling to see Bubba apologize to Teddy, who still doesn’t make the actual swing, for a poor shot this weekend.

Is this a new, kinder Bubba for 2015? Perhaps.

Of course, he also spent a portion of the weekend yelling at inanimate sand particles: