The Sentry at Kapalua gets canceled instead of going to another course. Sony Open to start season

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)

BOSTON (AP) — New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with a dispute with his former private chef, police said.

News of the charges emerged after a court hearing Tuesday in Dedham, Massachusetts. Diggs is charged with felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery.

Diggs’ lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations.”

Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.

“The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction,” Meier wrote.

In a statement, the Patriots said they were also standing by Diggs: “We support Stefon,” the team said.

A police narrative in a court filing about the case said a woman came to the Dedham Police Department on Dec. 16 to say that two weeks earlier, while working as a private chef for Diggs, he came into her bedroom and became angry during a discussion about money. The woman told police Diggs “smacked her across the face,” she tried to push him away and then he “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.”

“She said that he was behind her with his arm wrapped around her,” wrote Officer Kenneth J. Ellis. “She said that she did feel like she had trouble breathing and that she felt like she could have blacked out.” Diggs threw her on a bed and said “lies” when she told him she had not been paid, Ellis wrote.

The chef sought payment for a week in November when Diggs was having houseguests and she had to go home, Ellis wrote. The woman “left her position” and the home in Dedham but returned on Dec. 9 to retrieve her property. At that point, she told police, Diggs referred her to his assistant, who told the woman she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before she would be paid. She did not sign it, police said.

The woman was reluctant to file charges until last week, Ellis wrote, when “she let me know that she had changed her mind from a few days ago” and wanted criminal charges.

Diggs, 32, established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023, when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.

After a lackluster stint in Houston last year, Diggs ended up in New England, signing a three-year, $69 million deal in free agency that guaranteed him $26 million.

Diggs has proven a reliable target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye and is a big reason why the team has once again clinched the AFC East title as the team heads toward the playoffs.

Off the field, though, his tenure with the Patriots got off to a rocky start when a video surfaced on social media in May showing Diggs passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat.

It wasn’t clear what the substance was, and an NFL spokesperson said the league would not comment. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said the team would handle that matter internally.

FILE - New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs (8) leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Sunday, Nov 23, 2025, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit, File)

New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs (8) runs against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)