The PGA Tour’s season opener isn’t happening in 2026—and it’s not just about the drought.

The announcement came on Wednesday: The Sentry won’t be played at all in 2026. Not at Kapalua, not anywhere. The tour looked at alternative venues across Hawaii and beyond, but between shipping deadlines, vendor coordination, and the logistical nightmare of staging a $20 million signature event on short notice, they couldn’t make it work. The Sony Open in Honolulu becomes the season opener instead.

But here’s the thing everyone’s missing: this isn’t really about Mother Nature. It’s about two corporate giants pointing fingers while one of golf’s most iconic courses dies in the crossfire.

The Century-Old System Nobody Maintained

At the heart of this mess is the Honokōhau Ditch System—a century-old network of tunnels, ditches, and reservoirs originally built to bring water from the mountains to dry West Maui for pineapple and sugarcane. Now it supplies water to Kapalua Resort, the Maui Department of Water Supply, and local farms.

In August, Tadashi Yanai—yes, the Uniqlo founder and richest man in Japan who owns the Kapalua golf courses through TY Management—filed a lawsuit claiming Maui Land & Pineapple (MLP) has completely failed to maintain the system. The suit cites U.S. Geological Survey data showing the watershed gets more rainfall than Seattle and Portland, arguing water isn’t scarce because of drought—it’s scarce because the infrastructure is broken.

The lawsuit revealed that damage from Hurricanes Olivia and Lane in 2018 destroyed key water intakes, and the state didn’t permit their restoration. That’s seven years of deteriorating infrastructure while everyone watched.

The Water Wars Get Ugly

MLP fired back in September with a countersuit, accusing the golf courses of using over 11 million gallons in June alone—during a Tier 4 restriction that prohibited ALL irrigation. They claimed TY Management put sprinklers on in June, knowingly using millions of gallons meant for fire protection.

TY Management says they followed every mandate and that MLP is deflecting from years of neglect. MLP accused TY of running a defamation campaign and even setting up a website with false information.

Meanwhile, over 90 percent of Maui County is experiencing significant drought conditions affecting more than 140,000 residents. Water conservation mandates prioritize community drinking water—as they should.

What This Really Means

Kapalua has hosted The Sentry since 1999 and served as the tour’s season opener from 1986 to 2013, returning to that role in 2024. Those sweeping ocean views on the 18th? That first tournament of the year ritual? Gone, at least for 2026.

The real casualties here aren’t just the players who’ll miss out on $20 million in prize money—it’s West Maui’s economy, the Lahaina recovery efforts still ongoing after the wildfires, and local charities like the Cameron Center. The PGA Tour and partners delivered over $747,000 to local nonprofits at last year’s event.

Seven players who won in 2025 but aren’t in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings—including Min Woo Lee and Karl Vilips—will now get added to the RBC Heritage field in April as a consolation.

Looking Forward

Sentry Insurance remains committed through 2035, and they’re “optimistic about the future.” But optimism doesn’t fix broken infrastructure or resolve billionaire legal battles.

Both golf courses at Kapalua closed in early September to save what they could of the turf. Adding another layer to this drama: TY Management and homeowners filed a second lawsuit accusing MLP of “sneakily” trying to seize control of the Kapalua Resort Association by annexing nearly 2,000 acres to gain supermajority voting power.

The drought is real. Climate change is real. But when you peel back the layers on why The Sentry really isn’t happening, you find something messier: decades of deferred maintenance, corporate warfare, and a community stuck in the middle watching paradise literally dry up.