Aloha feels more like goodbye for Sony Open. Other PGA Tour events might feel the same way

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Palm trees are about the only similarity between the Sony Open and The American Express, consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour where one course is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the other by mountains and desert.

And now they share something else in common: an uncertain future.

That's true about most things this year as the PGA Tour moves toward an overhaul of the schedule for 2027 (at the earliest). It most likely will look nothing like it has except for the Masters being the first full week of April and the U.S. Open ending on Father's Day.

Aloha can mean hello or goodbye, and there was a tangible vibe of the latter at the Sony Open even without Chris Gotterup saying after his two-shot victory, “Hopefully, I'm not the last champion.”

The Sentry at Kapalua was canceled amid a water dispute in Maui now caught up in lawsuits that probably won't be heard until 2027, well after the Future Competition Committee wraps up its work on a new schedule.

Wisconsin-based Sentry has a title sponsorship contract through 2035 and no one would be surprised to see it associated with another tournament. This is the last year of Farmers Insurance as the title sponsor at Torrey Pines, a tournament that dates to 1952 and has been at Torrey since 1968, a year before the modern PGA Tour began.

There's a lot of moving parts.

“It definitely felt like last week was the last time in Hawaii, which was disappointing because I grew up in North Dakota, live in Texas now, and Hawaii was a great place to go for two weeks to start off the year," Tom Hoge said. “I'm going to miss those trips.”

He was on the practice range Monday at PGA West, and there was no guarantee he would be returning to The American Express next year through no choice of his own. Adam Scott is playing for the first time. As it relates to so much uncertainty, he added with a laugh, "Maybe the last time.”

Everything is in play. Is any tournament that's not a $20 million signature event safe?

“I have no idea how it's going to work,” Hoge said in California, echoing the comments of Tommy Fleetwood, who was 12 time zones away in Dubai ("Where the schedule goes and where the tour goes, I don’t know," Fleetwood said).

Brian Rolapp, the CEO of the PGA Tour who speaks of changes more significant than incremental, has not ruled out starting a new season after the Super Bowl. He has talked about scarcity, simplicity and parity. Golf only has parity.

“Competing with football in this country for media dollars and attention is a really hard thing to do,” Rolapp said during a CNBC forum in November.

The NFL is contemplating adding a game. The PGA Tour is looking to reduce tournaments.

There has been chatter about roughly 20 tournaments for the A-listers, all of them strong fields and big purses, woven together in a schedule that is meaningful and makes sense. It's clear that some tournaments, no matter their history, won't be coming back in a place they once were.

“I did think about it once I heard if a 20-tournament season was a potential thing,” Matt Kuchar said. “Which ones might not survive? There's certainly been talk about Hawaii events going away. This could be the last year for the Sony Open if Hawaii doesn't make the cut. That's a real shame.”

Sony's sponsorship contract ended this year. By all accounts, the company is ready to renew except that it doesn't have a date because no one knows what 2027 will look like.

American Express has a deal through 2028. It has given the old Bob Hope Classic a big boost since taking over in 2020 and this year has its strongest field in years. The tournament dates to 1960. Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus combined for three wins in the first four years.

Where does it fit into the schedule if the season doesn’t start until the week after (or before) the Super Bowl? The final round Sunday is up against the NFL’s conference championships.

“You do that a little bit,” Harris English said about wondering if a tournament will return. “This is my 15th year on tour and there's more gratitude of like, ‘What if this is my last time playing The American Express, or my last time playing Torrey Pines?'

“I've played the Sony Open 13 times, I've played this 10 or 11 times,” he said. “You get used to coming to places, seeing a lot of the same people, eating at the same restaurants. You feel like a little bit of a local.”

English played 27 times as a rookie in 2012. Five of those tournaments no longer exist, two of them in the fall (Las Vegas and Disney), one of them a FedEx Cup playoff event in New York. Change is nothing new.

Players are now equity owners in the PGA Tour and most understand and accept the need to change. Still, there's some nostalgia wrapped into the opening two weeks of the season, and more to come. The tour is looking at market size, crowd size and the financial value. It wants every tournament to mean something.

The tour also added two new events for the fall (a third one, Mexico, moved to the fall), which only adds to the mystery how it will shake out.

What gets cut? What gets moved? What becomes less important? These are tough questions on paper, tougher still for those who played in them.

“Everywhere we go, they have that golf course in the best shape it can be in,” Hoge said. “They roll out the red carpet for us. Every week is incredible out there."

On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Tom Hoge hits on the 11th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf event at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt York)

FILE - PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp speaks before a practice round of the Tour Championship golf tournament, Aug. 20, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Adam Scott, of Australia, hits from a bunker on the 13th hole during the second round of the Sony Open golf event at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt York)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors served six grand jury subpoenas Tuesday to Minnesota officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded federal law enforcement during a sweeping immigration operation in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a person familiar with the matter said.

The subpoenas, which seek records, were sent to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, the person said.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The subpoenas are related to an investigation into whether Minnesota officials obstructed federal immigration enforcement through public statements they made, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. They said then it was focused on the potential violation of a conspiracy statute.

Walz and Frey, both Democrats, have called the probe a bullying tactic meant to quell political opposition. Frey's office was ordered to produce a long list of records to a grand jury on Feb. 3, including “cooperation or lack of cooperation with federal law enforcement" and “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.”

“We shouldn’t have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with,” Frey said.

Her, a Hmong immigrant and a Democrat, said she's “unfazed by these tactics” and will stand up for her community.

The subpoenas came as the Trump administration urged a judge to reject efforts by Minnesota and its largest cities to stop the immigration enforcement surge that has roiled Minneapolis and St. Paul for weeks.

The Justice Department called the lawsuit, filed soon after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an immigration officer, “legally frivolous.” Lawyers argued that the Department of Homeland Security is acting within its legal powers to enforce immigration laws.

Operation Metro Surge has made the state safer with the arrests of more than 3,000 people who were in the country illegally, the government said Monday in a court filing.

“Put simply, Minnesota wants a veto over federal law enforcement,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

Ellison said the government is violating free speech and other constitutional rights with its unprecedented sweeps. He described the armed officers as poorly trained and said the “invasion” must cease.

The lawsuit filed Jan. 12 seeks an order to halt or limit the enforcement action. More filings are expected, and it's not known when U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez will make a decision.

Ilan Wurman, who teaches constitutional law at University of Minnesota Law School, doubts the state's arguments will be successful.

“There's no question that federal law is supreme over state law, that immigration enforcement is within the power of the federal government, and the president, within statutory bounds, can allocate more federal enforcement resources to states who’ve been less cooperative in that enforcement space than other states have been,” Wurman told The Associated Press.

Julia Decker, policy director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, expressed frustration that advocates have no way of knowing whether the government’s arrest numbers and descriptions of the people in custody are accurate. U.S. citizens have been dragged from their homes and vehicles during the Minnesota surge.

“These are real people we’re talking about, that we potentially have no idea what is happening to them,” Decker said.

In a separate lawsuit, Menendez said Friday that federal officers can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities.

Good, 37, was killed on Jan. 7 as she was moving her vehicle, which had been blocking a Minneapolis street where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were operating. Trump administration officials say the officer, Jonathan Ross, shot her in self-defense, although videos of the encounter show the Honda Pilot slowly turning away from him.

Since then, the public has repeatedly confronted officers, blowing whistles and yelling insults at ICE and U.S. Border Patrol. They, in turn, have used tear gas and chemical irritants against protesters. Bystanders have recorded video of officers using a battering ram to get into a house as well as smashing vehicle windows and dragging people out of cars.

Police in the region, meanwhile, said off-duty law enforcement officers have been racially profiled by federal officers and stopped without cause. Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley said he has received complaints from residents who are U.S. citizens, including his own officers.

“Every one of these individuals is a person of color who has had this happening,” Bruley said during a news conference.

President Donald Trump last week threatened to invoke an 1807 law and send troops to Minnesota, though he has backed off, at least in his public remarks.

Richer reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit and Sarah Raza in Minneapolis contributed.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, attend a vigil honoring Renee Good on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn., outside the Minnesota State Capitol. (Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

A federal immigration officer looks through a window of a home Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Maplewood, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A protester writes pro BLM and Anti-ICE rhetoric on the window of her car during an ICE protest and celebration of MLK day, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

People arrive for an MLK rally on, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

ICE agents make use of the facilities at a gas station, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)