If this is the highest level of pro golf’s last event here, the PGA Tour is saying aloha with style.

The Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club will host more of the sport’s top performers than usual in recent years, and a legend from the past will tee it up when the first round starts Thursday.

The stars of today who are here include four of the top 10 on the Official World Golf Ranking list: No. 5 Russell Henley, who won here in his pro debut in 2013; No. 6 J.J. Spaun, the reigning U.S. Open champion; No. 7 Robert MacIntyre; and No. 8 Ben Griffin. All four played in last year’s Ryder Cup.

Reigning Sony champion Nick Taylor and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa are also on hand. So are other luminaries like Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau, Brian Harman, Chris Kirk, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Sahith Theegala and Gary Woodland.

In addition to Henley and Taylor, five more former champions are in the field, including Vijay Singh, 62, who won at Waialae in 2005 … around the time some of today’s rookies were born.

Si Woo Kim (2023), Hideki Matsuyama (2022), Patton Kizzire (2018) and Zach Johnson (2009) are the other former champions in this week’s field. Also, Matt Kuchar, who won in 2019, is listed among the alternates.

Don’t miss out on what’s happening!

Singh hasn’t played in a PGA Tour event since 2021 — other than the Masters, which he has a lifetime exemption for since winning it in 2000. The three-time major winner is in the top 25 of career earnings, so PGA rules allow Singh a Tour card for any year of his choice, regardless of age. That doesn’t mean he can automatically play in any tournament he wants, but he has the same priority to enter events as a player with a full PGA Tour card.

Singh’s decision to use this one-year bonus now might be very good timing. The PGA Tour’s new leadership is strongly considering shortening its season from 35 tournaments to 20-25, possibly as early as 2027. Tournaments at Kapalua Plantation Course on Maui and the Sony Open are among those to be cut, according to unnamed sources in a Golf Digest report last month.

Sony Open and PGA Tour officials won’t say if this is a done deal, or if the Tour will change its schedule to start later than January so it won’t have to compete for viewers with NFL playoff games.

Tiger Woods is chair of new CEO Brian Rolapp’s Future Competition Committee.

“We’re trying to figure out what is the best schedule possible so we can create the best fields and have the most viewership and also the most fan involvement and what does that look like,” Woods said at a press conference last month.

The Sentry (formerly Tournament of Champions), normally played the week before the Sony Open, was canceled because of a drought and water rights conflict causing doubt whether the Kapalua course would be playable.

Also, this week’s tournament is the last in the current contract for Sony, which has been the title sponsor since 1999 of what was previously called the Hawaiian Open, and a part of the PGA Tour since 1965.

Two local players are in the 120-player field this week. Corey Kozuma, a teaching pro at Mid-Pacific Country Club, qualified by winning the PGA Aloha Section championship in September. Anson Cabello, a University of Hawaii junior from Maui, qualified in November.

In last year’s Sony Open, Taylor won his fifth PGA Tour event, outlasting Nico Echavarria in a playoff. Taylor improved his playoff record to 3-0. Echavarria is also in this week’s field.

The Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai opens the PGA Tour Champions season on Hawaii island next week. Singh, who has five wins on what used to be called the Senior PGA Tour, is entered in that tournament, too.