Will tour say 'aloha' to Hawaii swing?

Islands have long meant hello to new PGA Tour seasons, but it could soon be goodbye

Waialae’s famous “W” palms and Hawaii might take the “L” on future tour schedules (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

The PGA Tour’s nearly unprecedented decision to cancel a tournament is leading to some angst over whether the tour will have a future in Hawaii at all — or if it even wants one.

Last week, the season-opening signature event at Kapalua on Maui was officially nixed, a month after the tour said The Sentry tournament would be not played at the Kapalua Resort’s Plantation course due to on-going drought conditions that were exacerbated by a water dispute on the island.

All that seemed a fair enough one-off and that the tournament would be logically moved to some other location.

But the PGA Tour decided against that, too, and called the whole thing off. With the Sony Open in Hawaii’s sponsorship deal expiring after the 2026 event at Waialae Country Club, the future of the PGA Tour on the islands is in serious danger.

While Sentry has a deal with the PGA Tour through 2035, there are already rumblings that it will move its sponsorship and that the tour will simply wait to open its season in 2027 until later in the month.

The latter idea has gained further traction due to new CEO Brian Rolapp’s comments earlier this year about “scarcity” and the need for more meaningful tournaments. Having come into his new job from the NFL, Rolapp is also keenly aware that the Hawaii tournaments that typically start the year — despite their scenic vistas and allure to snowbound viewers on the mainland — get killed in the television ratings.

While NFL wildcard and divisional playoff games that are on the schedule at the same time as the Sentry draw more than 30 million viewers on average — up into the 40 million range for the divisional round — the two Hawaii events this year did less than 500,000 each on Golf Channel.

It’s quite possible the PGA Tour, as part of a new regime that appears intent on contracting instead of expanding, might cede the early January schedule and start later in the month as the NFL playoff field narrows and the competition is less suffocating.

While that makes some sense, it is also hard to believe it would want to leave paradise off the schedule entirely.

The Sentry, now a $20 million signature event that has previously been known as the Tournament of Champions, has been played at Kapalua and started the year since 1999. The Sony Open has been on the schedule since 1965.

Mark Rolfing — the longtime Golf Channel and NBC broadcaster who has long been associated with Hawaii where he resides and has served as an ambassador of sorts for the Kapalua event — has called on Hawaii governor Josh Green to get the various parties together to solve the legal issues regarding water usage.

He told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that in order for the event to continue there, that is a first step. It then needs to be followed by PGA Tour leadership leaning into its history, including Tiger Woods, who is now on a committee appointed by Rolapp to study future playing ideas for the tour.

“Tiger never played Waialae, but he played Kapalua, and he loved the Grand Slam on Kauai,” Rolfing told the newspaper. “I think Tiger will support history, and the idea that you can’t just walk away from tradition.”

But Rolapp has said that while he wants to appreciate history, he doesn’t want to be bound by it. And he made clear that some changes will be coming quickly, likely as soon as 2027.

“The NFL has 17 regular-season games and I’ve heard (Rolapp) say he believes creating scarcity creates demand,” Rolfing said. “When I heard that, it makes me think changes at the beginning of he year, because that’s when there is the most flexibility.

“The Masters, the U.S. Open are set. The big changes can happen at the beginning and end of the year. Where would two (in Hawaii) fit, or maybe one?”

It’s possible one or both could be slotted in the fall, where the PGA Tour appears intent on keeping playing opportunities for its members who don’t qualify for a condensed schedule of events that lead to the FedEx Cup playoffs.

It has already announced a new event to be played in Austin, Texas, next year with a report that another could be headed to Asheville, N.C. Those might simply be replacing possible departures for the Sanderson Farms (Mississippi) and Procore (Napa, California) events. Still, this week is one of three open weeks on this season’s fall schedule (there was one in September ahead of the Ryder Cup and another in October between the Japan and Utah events). It’s possible the PGA Tour subtracts and adds in different places.

As for the beginning of the year, you could see a situation where the tour waits to begin at Torrey Pines — a possible landing spot for Sentry — and schedules around NFL football with Saturday finishes. The off week between the NFL conference championship games and the Super Bowl has always been a boon for golf — Pebble Beach has that spot — and the WM Phoenix Open actually wants to be played the week of the Super Bowl as a lead-in to kickoff on Sunday.

It will be interesting to see if there is any further contraction. Could the PGA Tour be headed toward built-in off weeks during the FedEx Cup season, particularly during the crowded summer months filled with major championships?

All of it is seemingly up for consideration, with the fate of Hawaii’s future potentially on deck first.