The PGA Tour faces the very real—and yet mostly unprecedented—possibility of canceling one of its biggest events, all due to a water issue that has rendered a resort unusable. It's also exposed some of the challenges of playing tournament golf in Hawaii.
Then there's the reality of the PGA Tour now working as a for-profit business. It made a hasty decision to make the Sentry Tournament at Kapalua on Maui one of its signature events, which included a purse increase that the title sponsor was not on board for. There has been fallout from that.
No decision has been made on the season-opening $20 million tournament set for Jan. 8–11 on the Plantation course at the Kapalua Resort on Maui, but a resolution is getting closer.
The scenic venue has been plagued for months with a water shortage that has led to lawsuits and countersuits. Ultimately PGA Tour announced in September that it would not stage the 2026 event there.
The natural assumption was that the tournament would be moved. Perhaps to another location in Hawaii. Or somewhere in California. Or maybe even Florida.
But last week, Hawaii resident and longtime NBC and Golf Channel analyst went on a podcast with The Fried Egg in which he sounded an alarming tone.
“I don’t think there is any scenario where the Sentry can be played in 2026,” Rolfing said. “There’s all these conversations about why couldn’t we play somewhere else. The schedule is basically full. We’re 85 days away from the start of the tournament. It’s just too late. There’s just no time for planning.”
But it’s more than that.
The Tour did move this year’s Genesis Invitational in the wake of the Los Angeles area fires to Torrey Pines due to the unavailability of Riviera Country Club.
The big difference there was Torrey Pines was already built out due to the staging of the Farmers Insurance Open a few weeks prior. The infrastructure was in place. It certainly wasn’t easy but that made a move on short notice more tenable.
For the Sentry, the Tour would need to find a place where it can put together all the infrastructure for a tournament in what is now a little more than two months.
And even with all that, the Tour might have been expected to do so. Why? Because the PGA Tour typically has significant revenue in the form of sponsorship fees and television rights fees per event.
Those fees are the basis for the Tour’s monetary existence. The title sponsorship fee is typically contracted beyond the cost of the purse, depending on the event in the range of 110% to 125%. So a $10 million tournament is likely to bring the Tour in excess of $12 million in addition to the fees paid via the television rights deal.
It is why the Tour worked so hard to play tournaments in 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis. Every tournament missed was a loss of revenue, even without spectators.
Why the PGA Tour May Be Less Inclined to Play the Sentry
But here is where the Tour might not have the same incentive to play the Sentry.
In 2022, when it signed Sentry to an extension through 2035, it did so with a deal that would see purse increases into the $15 million range. Then in 2023, with the advent of the signature event series, the Tour added several $20 million events. The Sentry was supposed to be played for $15 million but the Tour inexplicably decided to raise the Sentry purse to $20 million to match it with the other signature event purses.
There were eight such events this year with a ninth added for 2026 with a return to Doral in Miami.
Nobody was going to protest playing for $15 million. And that extra $5 million had to come from somewhere.
The problem? Sentry didn’t sign on to the added expense. That means the Tour is in essence subsidizing the difference. It isn’t making money on this event as it might somewhere else. In fact, it might be losing money, and when you consider the costs of relocating, it perhaps makes sense that there is a very real possibility the event won’t be played at all.
What used to be called the Tournament of Champions has been played at the Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course since 1999. It brings together PGA Tour winners from the previous year as well as those who finished among the top 50 in the final FedEx Cup standings.
The Tour announced Sept. 17 that the event would not be played at Kapalua due to ongoing drought conditions and a water dispute that the resort is having with local authorities.
At the time, the Tour said it would seek to move the tournament, which was won in January by Hideki Matsuyama.
Now that possibility looks less likely, although its still possible the Tour could come up with another plan to play the tournament.
It’s hard to believe the players would balk at a reduced purse under the circumstances. After all, they are part owners in the new for-profit Tour. Perhaps moving it with less money at stake is better than no tournament at all.
There is also the matter of what to do with players who qualified for the signature event who were not among the top 50 in FedEx Cup points. It might be their only chance to play a signature event. Does the Tour find a way to get those players into a different one?
Then there is the impact on the Sony Open, the second event of the year that is played in Honolulu. A stand-alone event in Hawaii is likely to take a hit in its field and there are other logistical issues associated with staging just one event as opposed to two.
All of these things have undoubtedly been discussed for weeks, with no easy answers.
Inside Jon Rahm’s Interesting Offseason
It was a bit curious—laughable, even—when Jon Rahm said at the BMW PGA Championship in September that he had forgotten about the appeal of his DP World Tour fines, which stand between him and possibly a spot at the 2027 Ryder Cup ... as well as the tour’s ability to impose penalties for players who compete in conflicting events.
In September 2024, in order to play in the Spanish Open as well as keep DP World Tour membership, Rahm appealed the fines he had accrued over the course of the season whenever he played in a LIV Golf event that conflicted with a DP World Tour event.
The fines and suspensions for doing so vary, and the DP World Tour has not made them public. But it is believed Rahm owed in excess of $1 million, and those fines would have piled up more in 2025 and will next year as well—if he remains a member.
Rahm can clearly pay the fines and LIV Golf has been paying them for others—a practice that will end following this season. But as a matter of principle, the Spanish star who has two major titles has said he won’t pay them and doesn’t want LIV paying them, either.
“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said last year. “I think I’ve been outspoken about that. I don’t intend to pay the fines, and we keep trying to have a discussion with them about how we can make this happen.”
Rahm appealed almost immediately after saying that, and then entire situation has been kicked down the road more than a year—all of which allowed him to play the required events this year and also be eligible for the European Ryder Cup team.
Rahm’s contention is that the DP World Tour wants him in its events, that sponsors want him.
The DP World Tour’s stance is it has rules—and it won a 2023 case against the likes of Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood via a UK arbitration panel that said the tour was within its rights to impose penalties.
Tyrrell Hatton played under similar circumstances, all of which puts the DP World Tour in an interesting spot.
With the appeal apparently to be heard soon—nobody has officially said when—there is a real possibility that the players lose and face paying the fines. Does the DP World Tour relent and back off? If so, what of all the others who have paid the fines? And if Rahm and Hatton win? Again, does that open the door to the others who paid?
For now, Rahm plans to sit back and relax. He said he will not play again until LIV Golf’s Riyadh event in February. He is not planning on playing the two season-ending DP World Tour events nor an early-season tournament in Dubai where he competed this year.
“I’ve never had three months off, but I’m looking forward to it,” Rahm told Spanish reporters after the Spanish Open. “Other athletes have it, and we’ll see. I’m lucky to be able to go home now, have a preseason, be a father, be with my family. And well, if I see that it’s too much, then maybe I won’t do it next year, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Rahm’s Year Is Over, and Ends Without an Individual Win
With no more golf to be played, Rahm will finish 2025 without an individual victory for the first time since 2016, the year he graduated from college and turned professional. Rahm’s 2025 season included 15 top-10 finishes, including in three major championships. He was a big part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black, where he went 3–1 in the team matches. And his Legion XIII squad won the LIV Golf team championship while Rahm claimed his second consecutive season-long LIV individual crown—which came with an $18 million bonus.
Given the current situation, it is quite likely Rahm gives up his DPWT membership in 2026, which may allow him to play some limited events on sponsor invites.
Considering how important the Ryder Cup has been to Rahm and other Spanish greats who came before him, this issue looms large.
“The most emotional, the most special thing has been the Ryder Cup,” Rahm said in Spain. “The only week that has a chance of matching this Ryder Cup on an emotional level will be the Spanish Ryder Cup in 2031 [at Camiral in Barcelona]. It would be special, but as tough as the New York Ryder Cup was and ending up winning, I find it difficult for another week to match it.”
A Perk for the Ryder Cup Winners
It is unclear when the stipulation was put in the DP World Tour regulations—the two-tournament season-ending playoff series was only put in place in this form last year—but there an invite category for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Nov. 6–9, for those who made the European Ryder Cup team.
Given all the angst over pay for the American side at this year’s Ryder Cup, this is a bit of an interesting twist—although getting an invite to the $9 million event is hardly a windfall.
And yet, for those who had not otherwise qualified for the tournament, it does have a guaranteed no-cut purse and the winner will pocket more than $1.5 million. Plus, it offers the opportunity to move into the top 50 and play in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
The field is comprised of the top 70 players in the season-long Race to Dubai standings. But if you were in the Ryder Cup and outside of the top 70, you are added to the field.
So far, the rule applies to Jon Rahm—who will not play—Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka.
Tommy Fleetwood was on that list until he won the DP World India Championship on Sunday, his eighth career DP World Tour victory. It moved him to 25th in the standings. And it seems he was unaware he was in the Abu Dhabi field anyway.
“We said at the start of the week, I’ve had such a great year, but there was a couple of things that disappointed me, and my run on the DP World Tour was one of those things,” Fleetwood said. “Just not being where I want to be in terms of the Order of Merit and things and how I’ve played when I have played this tour, that was something that was bothering me.
“This means a lot, this win. It means I can carry on and I can play Abu Dhabi and Dubai and there’s still opportunities left.
“I’m really looking forward to getting home and practicing and preparing for those last two events and seeing what we can do in those, as well. I really wanted to qualify for those last events, and there was that sort of added pressure as well. Even today, you’re trying to win the tournament, but I also know that I need a good finish, as well, to continue that going.
“Very happy that that’s done, and I can look forward to the next couple events.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as One Shocking Option Is Possible for the 2026 PGA Tour Opening Event.