Tony Finau’s caddie Mark Urbanek looking forward to another ‘awesome’ trip to Maui for Sentry Tournament of Champions
By T.J. Auclair · December 29, 2021
You’d be hard-pressed to find a PGA Tour caddie enjoying life more right now than Mark Urbanek.
Urbanek, caddie for world No. 14 Tony Finau, helped guide the long-hitting Finau to his first PGA Tour victory in five years this past August at the FedExCup Playoffs-opening event, The Barclays, which punched their ticket to Maui for next week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course.
In 2021, Urbanek was on the bag for all eight of Finau’s top-10 finishes (including back-to-back runner-up finishes at Torrey Pines and Riviera), as well as a part of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team.
As if things weren’t spectacular enough professionally, it’s been even better for Urbanek personally. He and wife, Morgan, welcomed their first child, baby girl Prescott Avrie, on December 7.
And now, Urbanek looks forward to kicking off a new year in Maui once again.
“Maui is an incredible island,” Urbanek told The Caddie Network. “It has so much to offer from beautiful beaches to a rainforest and a volcanic mountain top which has unbelievable sunrise views. As for the course itself, there’s probably nowhere else in the world where you get lost in between shots staring out into the ocean. Probably 90 percent of the holes have ocean views and at that point of the year it’s whale breaching season. The ridiculous ups and downs just don’t seem so bad when you have a limited field and those views!”
When asked about his favorite memory of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Urbanek had two to offer…
“My favorite memory of Kapalua was the Tiger/Els showdown,” he said, referring to the epic 2000 Sentry Tournament of Champions where Woods notched the 16th win of his PGA Tour career by draining a must-make 8-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole before holing a 40-foot birdie putt at the second playoff hole to defeat Ernie Els.
“As for me personally that I was involved with, I would say when I found a $100 bill in the hazard looking deep for a ball last year,” Urbanek said. “That’s not something you hear about, maybe ever! I would’ve rather found our ball though.”
“Starting the year in Maui alone is enough to look forward to,” he said. “Then you add a winners-only event in the Sentry Tournament of Champions? It’s awesome.”
