A new beginning.
The Sony Open in Hawaii kicks off the 2026 PGA Tour season after the cancellation of last week’s Sentry. A 120-player field will take on Waialae Country Club and vie for a $9.1 million purse and 500 FedEx Cup points.
There’s speculation that this could be the Sony Open’s swan song, and the PGA Tour could abandon its Hawaii stops altogether. Sony’s sponsorship deal expires after this year, and the company reportedly won’t renew. New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has talked about adding “scarcity” to the schedule, and there are rumblings about the season potentially starting after the Super Bowl.
But this year, there’s still a tournament to be played. So here’s everything you need to know for the 2026 Sony Open, from its field, course, history, tee times and how to watch.
The field
Many players have been anxiously awaiting the start of the season. Some felt it was worth leaving the continental U.S. for the opportunity to begin their year.
The field will include 20 of the top 50 in the world rankings, highlighted by No. 5 Russell Henley, No. 6 J.J. Spaun, No. 7 Robert MacIntyre, No. 8 Ben Griffin, No. 14 Keegan Bradley, No. 16 Hideki Matsuyama and No. 17 Collin Morikawa.
The 2026 rookie class features 24 players, and the Sony Open will host 22 of them (Marco Penge and Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson are the two absentees).
The field boasts seven past champions: Vijay Singh (2005), Zach Johnson (2009), Russell Henley (2013), Patton Kizzire (2018), Matsuyama (2022), Si Woo Kim (2023) and Nick Taylor (2025). Last year, Taylor won in a playoff against Nico Echavarria after a chip-in eagle on the 72nd hole. It was Taylor’s third straight season with a playoff victory.
There’s also been a lot of chatter around Singh lately. The 62-year-old Hall of Famer exercised a one-time career money list exemption for this season and will play the Sony before the PGA Tour Champions starts its season at Hualalai next week. It remains to be seen, though, if Singh will play more PGA Tour events this season.
And in terms of field sizes, this is a new era for the Tour. Beginning this year, the maximum number of players for a full field tournament is 144, a decrease from 156, and some events, like the Sony, will have 120 or 132. This is to alleviate situations such as limited daylight.
Nick Taylor won on TOUR in a playoff for the third straight year, this time at the Sony Open with a clutch up-and-down for birdie. 🥶🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/31yOTg6iAl
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) January 13, 2025
The course
Many players enjoy starting their season in Honolulu at Waialae.
“I’ve always enjoyed this golf course,” Justin Rose said ahead of the 2024 Sony. “It offers a good test, especially early in the season. Depending—all these golf courses are very weather dependent, but if you get a good strong breeze, there's a lot of cross winds, you have to keep the ball in play. I’ve always felt like it's been a good benchmark early in the season.”
A stop on the PGA Tour since 1965, the course was initially designed by Seth Raynor in the 1920s, but has restored over the years by Robert Trent Jones, Desmond Muirhead, Rick Smith and most recently Tom Doak.
The Sony Open’s layout is a par-70, measuring 7,044 yards, the third shortest of any course this season. It features Bermuda grass, 83 bunkers, four water hazards and an average green size of 7,100 square feet.
In 2025, Waialae was the 31st toughest course on Tour (out of 49), with a scoring average of 68.72 (1.28 strokes under par). Its hardest hole was the 204-yard par-3 4th, ranking as the 115th most difficult on Tour (out of 882) with an average score of 3.19. Its easiest hole, meanwhile, was the 506-yard par-5 9th, the 11th least-difficult on Tour with a scoring average of 4.32 (0.672 strokes under par).
History: A grand introduction
The 2004 Sony Open captured the eyes of the sports world.
That’s because a 14-year-old Michelle Wie was teeing it up on a sponsor’s exemption, a year after Annika Sorenstam became the first woman to play a PGA Tour event in 58 years. Sorenstam, though, was the No. 1 player in the world. A teenager—male or female—playing against the world’s best was a different animal.
“I started playing golf when I was 12,” Sorenstam said of Wie’s Tour debut. “I didn’t break 70 until I was maybe 16 or 17. I can’t relate to what she’s going through, but I can relate to what it feels like to play in a PGA [Tour] event. ... She’s jumping into the lion’s pit.”
Wie, however, almost did the unthinkable, shooting 72–68 and nearly making the cut, missing it by a mere stroke. Still, she beat 47 players in the field and her second-round 68 is the lowest Tour round by a female.
“I think I did good,” Wie said after Round 2. “I struggled and I fought. I made a couple of really good putts. I made two birdies out of three holes, last three holes. I think I did pretty good.”
Wie would play another seven PGA Tour events, including three more Sony Opens, in which she did not make a cut.
How to watch (all times ET)
- Thursday-Sunday: 7–10 p.m. (Golf Channel)
ESPN+ will have coverage during each round.
First- and second-round tee times
Tee times for the first and second round of the Sony Open in Hawaii pic.twitter.com/pf53u5k1za
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) January 14, 2026
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sony Open Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch.
