“I’m confident the tournament will be back in 2027. I can’t say with certainty where.”
The quote above came from Stephanie Smith, spokesperson for Sentry Insurance, speaking to Wisconsin.golf about her company’s tournament — but it felt like a fitting sentiment as uncertainty echoes across the PGA Tour, which currently feels like a league entering a transitional season.
The fact that Sentry is confident about its future on the Tour schedule actually gives it more stability than several of its early season comrades. The Tiger Woods-led Future Competition Committee is asking big questions as it evaluates its tournaments — when, where and, scariest of all, why — and as they deliberate, tournaments sit and wait and wonder where they’ll fit in.
One overarching question seems to be this one: Should the PGA Tour be playing golf in January at all?
The Kapalua question
I spoke briefly to Mark Rolfing — unofficial mayor of Kapalua, and semi-official tournament host — on Thursday morning, what would have been the Sentry’s first round and the kickoff to the PGA Tour season. He was on Maui and gave a big sigh. You couldn’t imagine more perfect weather, he said. Nor could you imagine the Plantation course in better shape. Course designers Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore are on site this week, hoping to make water-saving tweaks to the course. And according to Rolfing, Crenshaw couldn’t believe how good it looked.
“Ben says it’s the best conditions he’s seen in 30 years,” Rolfing said.
Kapalua was scheduled to kick off the calendar year as it has for more than a quarter-century. As tournament host, there’s plenty going for it: Players love it as a family-friendly island destination, and TV viewers love it as a vicarious escape from cold-weather climates. The course is built on the side of a mountain, which means epic seascape views, and there are layers of tournament history to lean on. In sum, it’s a pleasant place to spend time, in real life or via screen.
Instead, this year’s tournament was canceled due to complications around water shortage and water management on Maui. At first, this seemed like a specific one-off. The course has recovered; Rolfing, a visiting writer for GOLF and Kapalua itself all report that Plantation Course has “pristine conditions” as tourists fill the fairways instead of pros. But the water dispute is real and ongoing, the logistical challenges of hosting and broadcasting a tournament on Hawaii remain, and as the PGA Tour, with new leadership and new committees, re-evaluates its schedule for the 2027 season, it may see rising costs, complex politics and extra headaches and run the other way.
To its credit, Sentry hasn’t left Maui behind. One of the more painful points of any tournament-cutting would be the void left for local communities; Kapalua is a particularly clear case given nearby Lahaina is still recovering from devastating fires in 2023. But despite the tournament’s cancelation, a full Sentry delegation was on hand this week to announce $1 million in donations to local charities — and they have more planned for later this year.
Kapalua isn’t off the table for the future; it’s too early to say what’ll happen. Sentry’s deal with the Tour runs through 2035, which means, as Smith says, they’ll be a key part of the schedule in 2027. What’s less certain is when — and where — that tournament will be played.
While we’re in Hawaii …
We haven’t yet started this PGA Tour season, so forgive me for looking past next week’s season-starting Sony Open and wondering instead if it might be … the final edition.
The Sony, which first existed as the Hawaiian Open, has been part of the Tour schedule at Waialae Country Club for a half-century. But the Tour’s deal with Sony as title sponsor expires after the 2026 tournament. And its future is intertwined with that of the Sentry; it’s certainly easier to get headliner talent to Honolulu if they’ve spent the prior week just a couple islands over.
The expiring deal makes it easier to imagine the possibility that the Tour will step away from Hawaii as a tournament destination altogether. There are enough logistical challenges around Hawaii that new leadership looking to cut costs, cut tournaments, cut football season and create greater scarcity could see this as one line item to cut first. But there’s also a potential middle ground — more on that in a minute.
Meanwhile, in the desert …
The 2026 American Express promises to among the best in recent memory. Without the Sentry and with plenty of top players skipping Sony, some of the game’s biggest names — anchored by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler — will kick off their seasons at PGA West, bringing star power to a desert that has welcomed golf’s top talent since 1960.
But what happens next year?
“I honestly don’t know,” tournament executive director Pat McCabe told the Desert Sun late last month. “We have a contract in place with the golf course and the hotel to stage [the tournament] in our week. I think it’s just everything is up in the air.”
American Express has an agreement with the Tour through 2028. But Sony (the week before) and Farmers Insurance (the week after) are each playing the final tournaments on their current deals, which puts the AmEx in a sandwich of uncertainty.
Speaking of which …
What’s next for Torrey?
This is the opposite of a sentimental exercise. Still, it’s tough to imagine that if Tiger Woods is calling the shots, he’d willingly pull the Tour away from a golf course where he has so many iconic moments; he’s won eight times at Torrey Pines as a pro, including the 2008 U.S. Open.
But with Farmers Insurance’s deal running out after this year, there’s understandable speculation about the tournament’s future — at least this version of it.
For years, Woods would kick off his season in La Jolla, making Torrey Pines the beginning of the golf calendar for Tiger fans. Still, tournament director Marty Gorsich sounded confident in comments to a local news station.
“There is definitely talk about some change and it could be some major change. To me that’s exciting, it’s opportunistic. Does that threaten the future of Torrey? I don’t think so,” Gorsich told ABC 10News.
Two visions for the future
It doesn’t take a master dot-connector to surmise that the Tour is interested in dodging football as much as it can. But I’d guess that Harris English’s musings last fall about the Tour starting after the Super Bowl could be a couple weeks off; why not have Sentry played the week before the Super Bowl, when the NFL is on a bye week?
In the Hawaiian solution, Sentry would go to Kapalua the first week of February in 2027 as a standalone kickoff event. This would involve plenty of local politicking, and I won’t pretend to understand all the specific factors involved (though this NLU podcast lays some of it out, if you’re interested), but if they could make it work and lean into Hawaii’s primetime possibilities — something not even the West Coast can offer that time of year — it could feel bigger than ever. Then you could head straight to the WM Phoenix Open, which has worked as a complementary offering to Super Bowl Weekend.
In the mainland solution, Sentry could take over the title sponsorship at Torrey Pines, plugging in as a season-starter as Kapalua and the Tour sort out their future. Torrey has become an iconic (if imperfect) Tour stop. It’s losing its sponsor. Perhaps a new one — plus an A-1 spot on the schedule — would help its return to prominence.
There could be even bigger changes coming, of course. The Tour schedule could ultimately begin in Florida. The deal with Sentry could get more complex. Some West Coast venues could plug in as playoff spots. At the moment, nobody has all the answers — which makes it prime time for speculation.
In the meantime, enjoy the golf. And know that next year, it’ll feel different.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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