The PGA Tour has undergone a number of changes in recent times with the schedule being one of those key changes.
A few years back, the schedule ‘officially’ kicked off in September with the Fortinet Championship before drawing to a close with the TOUR Championship almost a full year later.
Now, things are a tad different, with the season getting underway in January and then carrying on in the main until the TOUR Championship in September again, with a series of ‘lesser’ events continuing into December.
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For the last few years, The Sentry in Hawaii has hosted the season opener. But with that cancelled for 2026 it is The Sony Open on January 18th that will get us underway.
Still, it’s worth taking a look back at those opening day winners and seeing if it had any impact on success for the season ahead.
The winners of the last five season-opening PGA Tour events
2025 – Hideki Matsuyama
Former Masters winner Matsuyama was a big success at The Sentry in 2025 as he shot a whopping -35 to win the event with a record score.
However, that was as good as it got for Hideki in 2025 and by his own high standards, he struggled really.
He will expect to do more in 2026 and could well be a dark horse for another major after improving towards the back end of the season.
2024 – Chris Kirk
Much like Matsuyama this year, Chris Kirk got off to a winning start but then never got near the level again.
In fact, Kirk’s next best finish in 2024 was a T9 right in the final few events of the season. He missed the cut in big events like the PGA and the Genesis, although a T16 in The Masters was a nice enough finish.
2022 and 2023 – Max Homa
Max Homa’s career has hit a big brick wall in the last couple of seasons but in 2022 and 2023, he looked like being someone who could go onto win multiple events.
2022 saw him win the season opening Fortinet Championship and he won again that year at the Wells Fargo.
In 2023, Homa repeated the trick on the opening day before again winning in the same season, this time at The Farmers.
However, since then, Homa has gone in reverse and despite competing at The Masters in 2024 with a fine third place finish. Whether or not 2026 will see Homa return to form is a big question but if he doesn’t, he’s going to be in the realms of serial underachiever.
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2021 – Stewart Cink
Now a member of the PGA Tour Champions, Cink has had quite the career on the PGA Tour and as recently as 2021, he was still winning.
Coming off the COVID pandemic, Cink won the season opener but proved it was no fluke by winning a second event in the same season at the RBC Heritage.
Since moving to the seniors, Cink has managed to impress further as well, winning three times and continuing to be a contender among the over 50s.
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