After more than 70 years, the usual Sentry Tournament of Champions (The Sentry, more recently) that kicked off the calendar year on the PGA Tour by bringing together the winners of tournaments from the previous season is not on the schedule. The severe drought and water use restrictions at the Plantation Course in Kapalua, a fixed venue since 1999, and the logistical issues in finding an alternative led to the cancellation. Therefore, the first stop of the American circuit in this 2026 will be from today until Sunday at the Sony Open, at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
With a prize fund of 9.1 million dollars, it will be the first opportunity of the year to see some of the best players on the tour. Although for now, the big stars, including the Number One in the world, Scottie Scheffler, the Masters winner, Rory McIlroy, who starts the season playing the Dubai Invitational of the DP World Tour, or the ‘rescued’ Brooks Koepka will not be present. But it will be a good opportunity to see in action 20 of the top 50 players in the World Ranking.
Among them, number 5, Russell Henley, number 6, J.J. Spaun, number 7, Robert MacIntyre, and number 8, Ben Griffin. Logically, all of them appear among the candidates for victory along with names like Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama, and Collin Morikawa, from the world top 20, or some tournament winners in the recent FedExCup Fall, the autumn calendar after the playoffs, such as Steven Fisk, who won the Sanderson Farms Championship, Michal Brennan, who won the Bank of Utah Championship, and Adam Schenk, champion of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
In the ‘field’ there are seven golfers who already know what it is to win this Sony Open. Nick Taylor defends the title he won last year. Before him, players like Si Woo Kim, in 2023, Hideki Matsuyama, in 2022, Patton Kizzire, in 2018, Russell Henley, in 2013, Zach Johnson, in 2009, and Vijay Singh, in 2005, achieved it. Seven former winners in total who will seek to add a second title in Hawaii to their record. Without losing sight, of course, of FedEx Cup winners like Billy Horschel and Jordan Spieth, in addition to the aforementioned Singh, who will also fight for the first victory of the year on the circuit.
Morikawa, whose grandparents and great-grandparents were born in Lahaina, on Maui, another Hawaiian island, just over 160 kilometres from the tournament venue, returns to the Sony Open at a very special moment. “It’s very hard to see what has happened in recent years with the fires and the loss of Front Street. For someone with such strong ties to Hawaii, you never want something like that to disappear forever,” he acknowledged last night in his official press conference.
Collin is ambitious and is not content with winning once but wants several victories in this 2026 that begins. And for the first to be in the place “where it all began” for his family would undoubtedly be special both because of the circumstances and because, in his opinion, it is a different event from those usually played during the rest of the season on the PGA Tour: “It’s a very fun tournament and a very different course from those we play the rest of the year. This week you can tell that everyone, including the rookies, comes with a lot of desire. On this course, with wind, you have to make a lot of birdies.”
One of those who will try to prevent Morikawa‘s victory will be Nick Taylor, who defends the title: “Returning to a course where you have already won generates very good feelings, but I try to stay in my world. There is media noise, but if I stay true to my process and on a course that feels comfortable to me, things end up sorting themselves out. Last year there were many moments in the final round where I honestly didn’t think winning was an option. I stayed patient, let the round come to me, and the chip for eagle on the 18th gave me a chance. Then the ‘playoff’ was crazy.”
The Canadian did not want to miss the opportunity to talk about the possibility of the PGA Tour stopping scheduling tournaments in Hawaii: “It’s a place I would miss a lot, not just this tournament, but the state of Hawaii in general. It has always been a fantastic way to start the year. This year we probably won’t take it for granted. Nothing is decided yet, but if things change, it will be something we will definitely miss.”
Just in case, he will try to repeat victory to reach six in total in his career on the circuit, surpassing some of the big favourites of the week like Russell Henley, with one win and no less than ten top 10s last year; Ben Griffin, with three titles in 2025 (only Scheffler, with six, won more); Hideki Matsuyama, a regular in the tournament and who after a hectic autumn closed last season by winning Tiger‘s tournament; J.J. Spaun, leader after 54 holes last year in this event before falling one shot short of the playoff; or the aforementioned Morikawa, who plays ‘at home’.
