Critical questions remain unanswered following the PGA Tournament\u2019s unexpected cancellation of January\u2019s Sentry Golf Tournament on Maui \u2014 with it the loss
\nof an estimated influx of
\n$50 million to Hawaii\u2019s economy, including the impact on Maui-based nonprofit organizations and businesses that have come to rely on the tournament\u2019s annual
\nfinancial boost.<\/p>\n
Television coverage of The Sentry Golf Tournament also includes commercial breaks that beam video images of breaching humpback whales, beautiful shoreline and sunny skies to the rest of the country socked in by winter weather.<\/p>\n
In a state that saw disappointing visitor arrivals throughout this year and
\nno bump in summer tourism, Maui has particularly struggled.<\/p>\n
The cancellation of the Sentry tournament, the first stop on the PGA tour, was more bad news derailing expectations of an influx of players, their families
\nand fans to help fill Maui lodgings.<\/p>\n
Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, called the back-to-back Sentry Golf Tournament and Oahu\u2019s Sony Open \u201cno better marketing we have when it\u2019s cold in Buffalo, N.Y. They\u2019re watching it on TV and they want to jump on a plane and experience what they\u2019ve seen. They show beautiful scenery and Hawaii at its finest. It\u2019s a huge miss for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither the PGA nor the Sentry Golf Tournament responded to requests for comment on the future of the event after the Sept. 16 PGA announcement that the 2026 tournament was canceled over an ongoing legal dispute over water that has left Kapalua Golf\u2019s Plantation Course bone-dry.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss out on what’s happening!<\/strong><\/p>\n Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It’s FREE!<\/p>\n The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and Hawai\u2018i Tourism Authority jointly told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that, \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard if the tournament will be held at a site in Hawai\u2018i or another location on the continental US.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Green continues to promote \u201csports tourism\u201d opportunities across Hawaii \u2014 especially on In the days following the Sentry\u2019s cancellation, Green and Keith Amemiya, who heads Green\u2019s sports task force, announced that Hawaii\u2019s first high school surf championship will be held in May on Maui and encouraged residents from all In a statement to the Star-Advertiser about the ramifications of the Sentry cancellation, Green\u2019s office said that he and his administration \u201care exploring numerous sports-tourism opportunities to keep bringing enthusiastic and respectful visitors to the islands.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of his recent Tokyo trip was spent working to attract cultural programming and sports partnerships with companies like Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan\u2019s largest newspaper and owner of the Yomiuri Giants.<\/p>\n \u201cThe LA Rams had a great mini-camp on Maui and contributed generously to the community there through other efforts. That reciprocal relationship will continue for awhile.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, we want to bring UFC to Hawaii. There is, person for person, a higher rate of interest in UFC in Hawaii than anywhere else in the country, except for maybe Nevada.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course we continue to have a very positive relationship with the PGA Tour and we are going to foster that for years to come,\u201d said Green.<\/p>\n The billionaire owner of Maui\u2019s Kapalua Resort has pledged to donate $750,000 to nonprofit organizations who relied on the tournament\u2019s annual influx of But it\u2019s unclear how much \u2014 and how many \u2014 organizations will receive a portion of the donations, or whether they can rely on it going forward.<\/p>\n A representative for billionaire Tadashi Yanai \u2014 who owns Kapalua Resort and serves as chairman and CEO of Fast Retailing Co., which includes clothing retailer Uniqlo \u2014 did not respond to questions over Yanai\u2019s $750,000 pledge, including whether it\u2019s a one-time offer to Maui nonprofits or a longer-term commitment.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s Sentry Golf Tournament donated over $747,000 to local charities, according to DBEDT and HTA.<\/p>\n Hale Makua Health Services has come to rely on the tournament\u2019s annual donations, which was nearly $90,000 last year, to help the nonprofit organization provide long-term care and rehabilitation services, said CEO Wesley Lo.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are a critical service,\u201d Lo said. \u201cWithout us, you don\u2019t have health care, other than the hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n He estimated that Hale Makua has received $1.5 million in donations over the years from the tournament in exchange for providing volunteers and staff to pick up trash and clean up around portable toilets.<\/p>\n Last year, Hale Makua turned out volunteers and staff to fill 92 volunteer shifts for the tournament that added up to 522 hours of volunteer time, Lo said.<\/p>\n The donations from the Sentry Golf Tournament, he said, represent one of its top three fundraising events of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re proud to do it and it\u2019s a good thing for the local community,\u201d Lo said.<\/p>\n With the cancellation of next year\u2019s Sentry tournament, he said, \u201cthere will certainly be an impact on the community. On Maui, we were hoping for some good news.\u201d<\/p>\n The PGA announced that the tournament was canceled because of deteriorating conditions triggered by a lack of irrigation water that continues to leave portions of West Maui in drought TY Management, headed by Yanai, then filed a lawsuit against Maui Land &Pineapple Co., Inc. over J.D. Wyatt, executive director of Ka Lima O Maui \u2014 a nonprofit organization that represents Maui\u2019s County\u2019s largest employer of adults with disabilities \u2014 declined to specify how much in donations his organization receives in exchange for providing the tournament with volunteers who refill water stations and provide child care for players\u2019 But he called the annual donation from Sentry the organization\u2019s second-\u00adlargest infusion of cash each year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to earn our donations,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s really important to us. It\u2019s hard to raise money these days, especially on Maui, where you\u2019re constantly pursuing the same funders. So (canceling the tournament) is a big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n He called the televised marketing campaign during commercial breaks of the tournament\u2019s coverage \u201ca four-day, long commercial\u201d for Maui.<\/p>\n \u201cThey come back from commercial and all of a sudden you have whales popping up and spraying all over the place and images of a snorkel boat in January \u2026 when everybody else Wyatt serves as vice president of the 70-member, Maui Non-Profit Directors organization, where the heads of all the organizations that provide volunteers for the Sentry Golf Tournament are wondering whether the tournament has been lost forever.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Wyatt said, \u201cyou\u2019ve just got to put your head down and find replacements. No one wants to cut services, so we\u2019re just going to have to find those funds.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of his fellow nonprofit leaders are also bracing for what could happen if the tournament disappears permanently.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s gone forever, you can see potentially loss of service,\u201d Wyatt said. \u201cMy board has asked me, \u2018What are you going to do?\u2019 \u2026 There hasn\u2019t been any talk about what may be in the future. So we\u2019re all crossing our fingers. I wish we all knew what things are going to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Critical questions remain unanswered following the PGA Tournament\u2019s unexpected cancellation of January\u2019s Sentry Golf Tournament on Maui \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":316882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[4582,1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-316881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-editors","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115402856546813905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMaui in the aftermath of the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires that devastated Maui\u2019s tourism industry.<\/p>\n
\nislands to attend.<\/p>\n
\nfunding in exchange for cleaning up trash, refilling hydration stations and other duties for the tournament. <\/p>\n
\nconditions.<\/p>\n
\nalleged failure to maintain the more than century-old Honokohau Ditch System.
\nA countersuit was filed
\nby MLP calling the accusations \u201cfalse\u201d and pointing instead to historic drought conditions.<\/p>\n
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
\nwatching is freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n