It will be interesting to see whether Chris Gotterup proves to be the final winner of the Sony Open in Hawaii following the American’s victory on Sunday.
Waialae provided a superb stage for the opening event of the 2026 PGA Tour season. Of course, The Sentry was cancelled due to problems in Maui.
There is a question mark hanging over whether the PGA Tour will return to Hawaii in 2027.
Robert MacIntyre comments on Waialae after the Sony Open in Hawaii
There is an expectation that the schedule will change quite dramatically in the coming years. There are likely to be a number of events knocked off the calendar.
The Sentry and the Sony Open in Hawaii are certainly two tournaments that face an uncertain future. The ratings for golf events in January suffer due to the NFL playoffs. And Sony’s sponsorship of the event ends this year.
Meanwhile, it is a huge undertaking for the tour to host the two tournaments. So it is no surprise that some are worried for their futures.
One person who would seemingly be very disappointed to not get to play the Sony Open again is Robert MacIntyre.
Speaking after finishing fourth on Sunday, the Scot insisted that he is a huge fan of Waialae.
“This is one of my favourite golf tournaments of the year to be honest. This is one of the best golf courses we play all year. Any one of the guys out there can play this golf course on their day,” he said.
“You don’t have to bomb it. You can be short. It’s just a proper test of golf, more like what we would play in Europe when we go to Valderrama, Belgium. Just, yeah, you got to shape the ball. Obviously the breeze gets up, but, yeah, this is a great start. A lot more to come.”
The PGA Tour needs to find a way to keep Waialae on the schedule
Obviously, logistics will have to be considered as the PGA Tour streamlines the schedule. But it would be a real shame if the Sony Open disappeared from the calendar.
There are arguably too many golf courses on the schedule that do not possess any sort of personality. They simply ask players to hit their drives as far as they can, while there also seems to be a real reluctance to build par threes that measure under 200 yards.
Waialae was able to ask plenty of questions. The likes of Keegan Bradley and Collin Morikawa missed the cut, while Vijay Singh did play on the weekend.
MacIntyre shot a 63 one day after Nick Dunlap posted a 77.
It is not yet clear what direction the PGA Tour will go in with the future schedule, but it does appear that many players would pick a number of tournaments to go before the Sony Open in Hawaii is axed.
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