The PGA Tour is canceling its season opener at The Sentry instead of finding a replacement course for water-deprived Kapalua on Maui, the first time a tournament has been canceled since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Sony Open in Honolulu will be the first tournament of 2026 on Jan. 15-18, the latest start to a year since the PGA Tour was formed in 1969.
The tour and Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance had contemplated other courses to stage the $20 million signature event for PGA Tour winners and those from the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. Instead, they chose not to play it at all.
“I am really proud of what The Sentry has become. I didn't want '26 to be any less," said Stephanie Smith, the chief marketing and brand officer at Sentry who oversees the golf partnership that began in 2018. The sponsorship runs through 2035.
“We didn't want it be just, ‘Find a place for it in the schedule’, or, ‘Find a course for it that could host it.' I wanted Sentry to remain the jewel that it is," Smith said. "I wanted it to be special. When that couldn't come together, I felt we didn't have a choice.
“This is not the outcome we wanted, but unfortunately it's where we are.”
Kapalua had to close its two courses on drought-stricken Maui — the Plantation course has hosted the PGA Tour since 1999 — because of severe water restrictions brought on by a dispute with the company in charge of a century-old water delivery system.
The Sony Open is in its last year of title sponsorship, leaving Hawaii's place on the PGA Tour schedule in doubt after this year.
The tour announced The Sentry being canceled on the same day Kapalua announced the Plantation course will re-open for play on Nov. 10 and tee times could be reserved starting Thursday at a promotional rate of $399. It said two of the 18 greens were still being restored.
The Sentry has been the first PGA Tour event every year since 1999 except in 2001, when the season began in Australia with a World Golf Championship. Several players in the Kapalua field often headed over to Oahu for the Sony Open.
Seven PGA Tour winners, including Aldrich Potgieter and Min Woo Lee, did not finish among the top 50 in the FedEx Cup. The tour said to make up for missing a spot at Kapalua, they will be added to the field in the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head the week after the Masters.
Tadashi Yanai, the Japanese billionaire who owns Kapalua and who founded the apparel brand Uniqlo, Kapalua homeowners and Hua Momona Farms filed a lawsuit in August against Maui Land & Pineapple, alleging it has not maintained the water delivery system.
MLP has since filed a countersuit and the two sides have exchanged accusations since then.
The Commissioner on Water Resource Management in Hawaii two weeks ago notified MLP of alleged violations with the water delivery system with fines that could total $11 million. MLP has until Nov. 8 to respond.
In the meantime, Kapalua's two courses went from emerald green to yellow with the water restrictions, leading to the course closing in September for at least two months to try to save them. The tour announced Sept. 16 it would not be able to play The Sentry at Kapalua.
Smith did not say which other courses were under consideration. A year ago, the Genesis Invitational had to move away from Riviera in Los Angeles because of the deadly wildfires in Pacific Palisades. It relocated for the year to Torrey Pines, which still had all its infrastructure in place from hosting a PGA Tour event three weeks earlier.
“After assessing alternate venues in Hawaii and beyond, the tour determined it would not be able to contest The Sentry in 2026 because of logistical challenges — including shipping deadlines, tournament infrastructure and vendor support,” the tour said in a statement.
The Sentry has one of the longest title sponsorship deal with the tour. Still to be determined is whether it will return to Kapalua in 2027, a year in which significant changes are expected from a revamped schedule.
Tiger Woods is leading a “Futures Competition Committee” to shape the tour. That committee is about to meet for the first time.
Asked about The Sentry's future on Maui in 2027, Smith said, “It's hard to say at this point.”
“We are committed to playing The Sentry,” she said. "We know from our conversations with the tour that The Sentry will be on the schedule. There's so many factors in play right now. What's going on the island? Will the water issue be resolved? Will the course be playable? What about the lawsuits being resolved?
“We've had good conversations,” she said. “We're committed to playing The Sentry again at the level we have in the past.”
The Sony Open becomes the seventh tournament to start the year since the tour began.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - A Kapalua Ridge Villas sign is viewed on Oct. 3, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Mengshin Lin, File)
FILE - Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, hits on the 13th hole during the final round of The Sentry golf event, Jan. 5, 2025, at Kapalua Plantation Course in Kapalua, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
Iran's top judge hinted at fast trials and executions for those who were detained in nationwide protests against the country's theocracy, even as activists said Wednesday that the death toll rose to levels unseen in decades with at least 2,572 people killed so far.
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the comments about trials and executions in a video Tuesday, despite a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would “take very strong action” if executions take place.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said the number of dead climbed to at least 2,571 early Wednesday. The figure dwarfs the death toll from any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
After Trump was informed on the number of deaths, he warned Iran's leaders that he was terminating any negotiations and would “act accordingly.”
Details of the crackdown began emerging Tuesday as Iranians made phone calls abroad for the first time in days after authorities severed communications countrywide when the protests broke out.
Here is the latest:
Major Middle East governments were discouraging the Trump administration from waging a war with Iran, fearing “unprecedented consequences” in the volatile region, an Arab Gulf diplomat said Wednesday.
The Cairo-based diplomat, who was given anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, said major governments in the region including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabai and Pakistan have been “in constant contact” with the U.S. administration over a potential American strike on Iran that could explode into a “full-blown war.”
Such a war will “certainly” have dire repercussions “not only on the Middle East but also on the global economy," he said.
Samy Magdy contributed from Cairo.
Iranian state television said Wednesday’s mass funeral in Tehran would include 300 bodies of security force members and civilians. The funeral is expected to take place at Tehran University under heavy security.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which is tracking the death toll, said more than 2,550 people have been killed, 2,403 protesters and 147 government-affiliated.
Twelve children were killed, along with nine civilians it said were not taking part in protests. More than 18,100 people have been detained, the group said.
Gauging the demonstrations and the death toll from abroad has grown more difficult and The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll given the communications being disrupted in the country.
Melanie Lidman contributed from Jerusalem.
Trump’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran could impact India, an expert said, as New Delhi already faces existing 50% U.S. trade levies due its purchases of Russian oil.
Abhijit Mukhopadhyay, a senior economist at the Chintan Research Foundation in New Delhi, said the bigger risk is not India-Iran trade, but India’s access to the U.S. market as its exports to Iran are modest.
India mainly exports rice, tea, sugar, pharmaceuticals and electrical machinery to Iran, while importing dry fruits and chemical products. Textiles and garments, gems and jewelry and engineering goods are likely to be the most vulnerable sectors, he said.
Trump’s latest move also could affect India’s investments in Iran including the strategically important Chabahar port, which gives India a trade route to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe while bypassing Pakistan, Mukhopadhyay said.
Iran’s judiciary chief signals fast trials and executions for those detained in nationwide protests.
Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei made the comment in a video shared by Iranian state television on Wednesday.
He emphasized the need for swift action, saying delays would lessen the impact.
His remarks challenge Trump, who warned Iran about executions in an interview aired Tuesday.
Trump stated the U.S. would take strong action if Iran proceeded with executions. The situation highlights escalating tensions between the two countries over the handling of the protests.
Dozens of Pakistani students studying in Iran have returned home through a remote southwestern border crossing, a Pakistani immigration official said Wednesday.
Federal Investigation Agency spokesperson in Quetta city, Samina Raisani, said about 60 students crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday through Gabd border in Balochistan province with valid travel documents.
More students were expected to return through the same crossing later Wednesday, she said.
Mudassir Tipu, Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, said Tuesday that Iranian universities had rescheduled exams and permitted international students to leave the country.
The satellite internet provider Starlink now offers free service in to people Iran who have access to the company's receivers, activists said Wednesday.
Mehdi Yahyanejad, a Los Angeles-based activist who helped get the units into Iran, told The Associated Press that the free service had started. Other activists also confirmed in messages online that the service was free.
Starlink has been the only way for Iranians to communicate with the outside world since authorities shut down the internet Thursday night as nationwide protests swelled and they began a bloody crackdown against demonstrators.
Starlink did not immediately acknowledge the decision.
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
