The PGA Tour\u2019s new philosophy of less meaning more could simply mean less \u2014 or quite possibly, nothing \u2014 for Hawaii after this week\u2019s Sony Open in Hawaii tournament.<\/p>\n
The combination of scarcity marketing concepts and scarcity of water may lead to the end of the Hawaii Swing, which has traditionally started the calendar year for the PGA Tour every January since 1999 at Kapalua on Maui and Waialae Country Club on Oahu.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s final round at the Plantation Course would have been today.<\/p>\n
But, there was no tournament on Maui, and this week\u2019s Sony Open at Waialae could be the final edition of what was first called the Hawaiian Open in 1965.<\/p>\n
This is partly due to drought and water rights issues on Maui, coupled with potential changes in PGA Tour scheduling that would result in fewer events.<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Green and other government officials were part of meetings last week to try to re-sell Hawaii to PGA leaders and sponsors. Several people involved in these discussions either declined to comment or did not return phone messages seeking comment. Also, as of Saturday afternoon, the PGA Tour had not responded to an email request for an update.<\/p>\n
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The Kapalua event is estimated to have a $50 million annual economic impact on Maui. Direct revenue generated by the Sony Open is estimated at $100 million per year, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, plus about $1 million a year to Friends of Hawaii charities.<\/p>\n
These numbers do not include visitor industry impact of national and international TV coverage of sunny skies in Hawaii during January.<\/p>\n
Golf broadcaster and Hawaii golf advocate Mark Rolfing was interviewed on the Golf Channel on Friday. He did not talk about the meetings he helped organize specifically but did address some questions about the PGA Tour\u2019s future or lack of one in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
He noted that the January events might become a thing of the past because of competition for viewership with other golf events and the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NFL playoffs have expanded. We\u2019ve got TGL (Tomorrow\u2019s Golf League, a new indoor league featuring the game\u2019s biggest stars) running all through January, and that group will expand,\u201d said Rolfing, who added that the DP World Tour has three lucrative golf tournaments in the Middle East in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think there\u2019s some hope,\u201d said Rolfing, suggesting the PGA Tour season could still start in Hawaii, either before or after the Super Bowl in February. \u201cBut the No. 1 issue is solving the water delivery issue, which is not yet solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future of the Sony Open in Hawaii also remains unresolved. The tournament starting Thursday is the final one in the current contract with Sony, which has been the title sponsor since 1999. No announcement regarding the Sony Open would be made until the end of this tournament, Rolfing told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month.<\/p>\n
Negotiations could continue until April, another source said.<\/p>\n
That could all be moot, though, based on strategic planning for a shorter PGA Tour season, starting as soon as 2027.<\/p>\n
New CEO Brian Rolapp and Tiger Woods met with players at last month\u2019s Hero World Challenge in the \u200bBahamas to show them a blueprint of a new condensed schedule, according to a recent Golf Digest article. The proposed schedule did not include the Hawaii events, according to unnamed sources in the article.<\/p>\n
Hawaii has the advantage of year-round weather for golf. But that might not matter if the Tour is condensed to 20-25 events. The Kapalua and Waialae tournaments could be cut because of high costs for personnel and equipment transport.<\/p>\n
Part of the strategy is that fewer events would mean more of the sport\u2019s biggest stars would compete in a higher percentage of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the NFL, they play 17 games plus playoffs, and a couple preseason games. They\u2019ve created scarcity,\u201d Rolfing said on The Golf Channel on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the idea of a shorter schedule. Give the guys some time off,\u201d he added. \u201cBut there are going to be some tournaments that are going to be hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t forget about the smaller tournaments. That one\u2019s been played (at Waialae) since 1965 (as the Hawaiian Open).\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Sony Open, Hualalai Golf Club on Hawaii island will host the Mitsubishi Electric Championship on Jan 22-24 to open the Tour\u2019s Champions (age 50-plus) season. There is also no word yet on this event\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PGA Tour\u2019s new philosophy of less meaning more could simply mean less \u2014 or quite possibly, nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[6813,427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-401774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-editors","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}