PGA Tour ends 56-year tradition with 2027 | Golf News

For the first time in 56 years, the PGA Tour will probably be absent from Hawaii in 2027.

The announcement arrived Monday confirming that both the Sentry at Kapalua and the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club have been eliminated from the schedule, bringing an end to one of skilled golf’s most cherished traditions and delivering a major setback to the islands that have welcomed the tour’s season-opening occasions since 1971.

The Sentry’s demise had been anticipated. The event was called off last January when drought situations on Maui prompted the grass on the Plantation Course at Kapalua to die, stemming from a contentious dispute over a century-old water distribution system. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau ‘mentioned choices’ for LIV exit before indignant Mexico City outburst

The possession battle involving Kapalua operator Troon Golf, Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai and Maui Land and Pineapple, which filed a countersuit claiming violations of water restrictions, could not be resolved in time to protect the event.

Two Kapalua employees members have been informed Monday that the tour would not be coming back. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who has been open about his ambition to restructure the schedule and relocate the season opener to the West Coast, validated the choice.

The Sony Open’s circumstances differ but carry equal weight. The event originated in 1965 and has been held without interruption at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu since 1971, establishing it as one of the tour’s most traditionally important competitions.

The event relied closely on its connection with Kapalua – the two-week Hawaii swing had been established since 1999, offering gamers with justification to make the prolonged journey to the Pacific. Without Kapalua to assist that partnership, the Sony Open’s sponsorship, already in its concluding 12 months, couldn’t be prolonged under the same situations.

The tour is presently in discussions about changing the Sony Open into a PGA Tour Champions event, according to Sports Business Journal, to be mixed with the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Big Island. That chance represents a important downgrade from its current standing, as a Champions Tour classification means significantly diminished tv coverage, smaller fields of competing stars and virtually definitely diminished income and business appeal for the local neighborhood that has backed the event for more than half a century.

There is, however, one development that might ease the impression, at least for a number of years. Tiger Woods, now 50, not too long ago turned eligible for the PGA Tour Champions, and his participation at a Sony Open in its new configuration would create a degree of pleasure that few occasions on any tour might rival.

Whether Woods decides to compete in Hawaii or elsewhere on the Champions circuit stays unsure as he continues to navigate the aftermath from his latest DUI arrest, but the prospect provides the event’s conversion an intriguing wildcard. Torrey Pines in San Diego is widely thought of the most possible next vacation spot for The Sentry, following stories that Sentry executives attended this 12 months’s event there. The departure of Farmers Insurance as sponsor at Torrey Pines this 12 months, without a renewal, has left a important emptiness. Sentry’s present contract runs through 2035.

Stephanie Smith, the company’s chief advertising and model officer, spoke warmly of Maui while stopping short of revealing future plans.

“We have said from the beginning, we love Maui and Maui is a Sentry community not unlike our hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin,” she said. “We cherish the friends and partnerships we have formed over the past several years. Our commitment to the island runs deep, and we remain committed to being active in the community.”

Hideki Matsuyama claimed victory at the last Sentry, breaking a PGA Tour document with a beautiful 35 under par efficiency. Meanwhile, Chris Gotterup took the title at this 12 months’s Sony Open, which stepped in as the new season opener.