In a surprising move, the PGA Tour has announced that The Sentry will not be contested at its long-standing home of the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort in Maui for the 2026 season. The decision marks a clear break in tradition: Kapalua has been the calendar-year opening stop on the PGA Tour since 1999 (except for one anomaly in 2001).
The PGA Tour attributes the move to worsening drought conditions on Maui, increasingly stringent water conservation requirements, agronomic challenges, and significant logistical hurdles. Tour leadership, including PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, and local stakeholders, including Hawaii Governor Josh Green, Kapalua Resort officials, and the tournament’s title sponsor Sentry Insurance, all agreed the course would not reliably meet PGA Tour standards under present conditions.
“Following discussions with the Governor’s office, as well as leadership from Sentry Insurance, Kapalua Resort and Maui County, the PGA TOUR has determined the 2026 playing of The Sentry will not be contested at The Plantation Course at Kapalua due to ongoing drought conditions, water conservation requirements, agronomic conditions and logistical challenges,” the TOUR said. “Additional event information will be shared when appropriate.”
What Led to the Decision
At the heart of the issue is a severe and sustained drought affecting more than 90 percent of Maui County, leaving over 140,000 residents subject to water conservation mandates. Kapalua Resort itself enacted two-month closures of both its Plantation and Bay courses beginning in early September 2025 as part of efforts to conserve water and begin remediation.
An agronomy team from the PGA Tour conducted a site visit and determined that due to limited irrigation, deteriorated turf conditions, and water restrictions, the quality of the course could not be guaranteed in time for a January tournament.
Beyond the agronomic concerns, logistical realities played a large role in the timing of the decision: staging a major PGA Tour “signature event” in rural Maui demands shipping infrastructure, vendor coordination, and build-out of tournament facilities–none of which can easily be scaled back or postponed without significant risk.
Green publicly supported the PGA Tour’s decision, emphasizing that community water needs must come first. Sentry Insurance, which is deeply invested in Maui as a community partner, also agreed the move was necessary under the circumstances.
“We understand and support the PGA TOUR’s decision, given the challenges related to the ongoing drought,” Stephanie Smith, chief marketing and brand officer and chief golf partnership officer at Sentry Insurance, said.
“We love Maui and the people who make the community such a special place. As we’ve said for years, Maui is a Sentry community not unlike our hometown of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and that remains the case. Our communities are connected. We’ve built meaningful friendships throughout the island, and those relationships are bigger than the tournament.”
Implications for the PGA Tour and Maui
The Sentry is one of the PGA Tour’s nine Signature Events, with a $20 million purse and a field that includes tournament winners from the prior year and the top 50 in FedExCup standings. Losing its traditional slot at Kapalua upends nearly three decades of continuity and alters the early rhythm of the PGA Tour season.
For Maui and the Kapalua community, the blow is both cultural and economic. The tournament has long functioned as a showcase event, bringing top players and global broadcast exposure to Maui, with millions of dollars in local economic impact each year. At the same time, the resort closures and increasingly visible stress on the island’s water infrastructure underscore broader challenges facing golf and tourism in Hawaii–especially under changing climate and resource pressures.
“Since moving to the island in 1999, the tournament has raised more than $9.7 million for local charities. This includes a record-setting contribution of $747,704 from the 2025 event alone. These funds have been critical for organizations like Boys & Girls Club, Hale Makua Health Services, J. Walter Cameron Center, Ka Lima O Maui, Lahainaluna High School Foundation, and more, many of which rely heavily on this support to operate and serve our most vulnerable populations,” Pamela Tumpap, President of the Maui Chamber of Commerce, said.
Moving the event also raises bigger questions about the sustainability of high-profile golf tournaments on remote islands, where logistical burden and environmental vulnerability intersect. If conditions don’t improve or alternative venues are not found that mitigate those vulnerabilities, we may see more disruption across the tour schedule in the years to come.
“This isn’t just about a golf tournament; it’s about sustaining our community, economy and the vital services the tournament’s contributions make possible,” Tumpap added. “We stand with all our partners who will feel this loss profoundly.”
Possible Alternatives
As of mid-September 2025, the PGA Tour has not yet announced a replacement site for The Sentry’s 2026 edition. However, analysts and golf writers are speculating on a few logical venues.
Some of the proposed alternatives include returning to Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in California, which hosted the event prior to 1999 and has the infrastructure to stage a signature PGA event with relative ease.
Other contenders: high-end venues like Shadow Creek or Sherwood Country Club in California, or building a mini-“west coast swing” alternative to the Hawaii-based opener. There has also been speculation that the tour could stay in Hawaii, but shift to another island with better water availability.
According to PGA Tour, “The 2026 Sony Open in Hawaii will be contested at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, while the PGA TOUR Champions’ Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai will be played on the Big Island at Hualalai Golf Club.”
The Tour will need to balance several competing priorities in selecting a new site:
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Infrastructure readiness: a tournament of this scale requires sophisticated logistics, television infrastructure, lodging, transportation, and vendor coordination.
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Course condition and recovery time: venues must be able to deliver a high-quality playing surface in January, often with limited lead time.
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Proximity to Hawaii or at least compatibility with broadcast windows so that the early season rhythm, traditionally anchored in Hawaii, is not entirely lost.
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Financial and community impact: local partnerships, sponsorship ties, and economic benefits need to justify the move, in much the same way Kapalua did for decades.
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