PGA Tour’s January Season Opener Won’t Be Played At Kapalua

The PGA Tour’s 2026 season-opening event will not be played at its traditional Maui home for the first time in more than a quarter century.

Since 1999, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort has annually hosted the first PGA Tour tournament of the calendar year, formerly known as the Tournament of Champions and now called The Sentry. With stunning views of the Pacific Ocean often televised in prime time for East Coast viewers, the early January event has long been a favorite for fans and players alike.

But on Tuesday, the PGA Tour announced The Sentry would not be played at Kapalua “due to ongoing drought conditions, water conservation requirements, agronomic conditions and logistical challenges.” The Sentry, one of nine $20 million signature events on the 2026 schedule, is supposed to be played Jan. 8–11, and additional event information “will be shared when appropriate,” the Tour said.

Water Shortage

On Sept. 2, Kapalua Resort closed both the Plantation Course and Bay Course in an effort to “restore turf health after prolonged irrigation restrictions,” according to an announcement on its official website. A decision to reopen Nov. 1 or at a later date was supposed to be announced Oct. 15. “We look forward to welcoming you back to the courses as soon as conditions allow,” the resort said.

Kapalua’s golf courses deteriorated over the summer due to a lack of sufficient water, which led to the resort’s owner, TY Management Corporation (headed up by Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai), suing Maui Land & Pineapple, a publicly traded land holding and operating company. 

Last week, Maui Land & Pineapple Company announced a strategic review was underway “to identify options for the potential sale or lease of the company’s water source and infrastructure assets.” However, no timetable for concluding its evaluation was set, and there was no guarantee that TY Management acquiring a water supply center would have led to Kapalua still being able to host the PGA Tour in January.

Maui Land & Pineapple previously owned Kapalua’s premier golf courses, but it sold the Plantation to TY Management in 2009 for $50 million, and the Bay in 2010 for $24.1 million.

Backup Plan

If the PGA Tour doesn’t cancel The Sentry, it could consider holding back-to-back events in Honolulu at Waialae Country Club, which will host the Sony Open Jan. 15–19. Last season, Torrey Pines hosted the Genesis Invitational, in addition to its annual stop, the Farmers Insurance Open, after the Southern California wildfires forced the tournament to move away from Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

The 2024 edition of The Sentry was also temporarily in jeopardy due to the wildfires that hit Maui in 2023, but Kapalua ultimately ended up hosting the tournament as originally planned.