The PGA Tour announced Wednesday that its annual opening event, The Sentry, will not be contested in 2026 due ongoing drought conditions in Maui, Hawaii, where the Plantation Course at Kapalua is located. In lieu, the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu will serve as the league’s first tournament of the 2026 season from Jan. 15-18.
“Since it first became a possibility that the PGA Tour would not be able to play at The Plantation Course at Kapalua due to the ongoing drought conditions on Maui, we worked closely with our partners at Sentry to assess options for contesting The Sentry in 2026,” PGA Tour chief competitions officer Tyler Dennis said in a statement. “While it is unfortunate to arrive at this decision, we are appreciative of the collaboration and dedication from Sentry Insurance, a tremendous partner of ours.”
The Tour announced in September that the tournament was not going to be held at the Plantation Course and looked at other options to hold the tournament. Those options included other venues in the Aloha State and elsewhere, but it was ultimately deemed not plausible given the infrastructure and vendor support needed to put on a tournament.
The Sentry was the Tour’s season opening event from 1986 to 2013 and since 2024 when the circuit returned to a calendar-year schedule.
Those qualified for The Sentry include the top 50 in the 2025 FedEx Cup standings as well as winners from the previous season. The players who finished inside top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings qualified for all the signature events in 2026, while the winners who planned to play in The Sentry — and were only in the field via that win — will now be added to the field at another signature event in the RBC Heritage.