The PGA Tour’s Opening Drive begins, fittingly, in Hawaii.
Uplifted by the pervasive “aloha” spirit that focuses on all the good and kind pieces of human nature and the hope aligned with the turn of the calendar to 2025, Opening Drive is knitted into the events and attitudes of The Sentry, contested last week at Kapalua’s Plantation Course on Maui, and this week’s Sony Open at Waialae Country Club on Oahu.
Both tournament directors have embraced the Tour’s desire to create atmospheres that rival Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, the NBA’s tip-off and the NFL’s kickoff, and begin a new campaign with substance and ceremony.
“It’s the first event of the season,” said The Sentry’s director Max Novena. “With the qualification, the boosted purse, the enhanced FedEx Cup points, it is truly a celebration. We are building legacy and tradition. There are a lot of places in the world where you have sun, sea, and sand but there is only one place that has the ‘aloha’ spirit and that comes from the people. They welcome and embrace our players and their families, our fans, our partners and our volunteers.”
“The energy at the Sony Open is palpable and full of surprises when ‘newbies’ meet veterans they have admired and tried to emulate on their shared playing field,” added longtime Sony Open director Ray Stosik. “As the first full-field competition of the year, the Sony Open joins amateurs and professionals who are trying to make good on their resolutions. There is the buoyancy of hope, jitters about the unknown, and the joy of aloha all mixed in a multicultural, international week of festivities at Waialae.”
The Sentry employs a Hawaiian cultural practitioner named Kumo Pono Murray, also a celebrated musician, to assist with its “Opening Drive Celebration,” which includes traditional Hawaiian performances, hula music, blessings, and chants that request permission to play the event and use the land.
This orchestration of spirit occurs just before the players in the day’s first group tee off.
“The players and caddies have their phones out videoing the celebration and ceremony,” Novena said. “It is so unique. They do not do that anywhere else on the PGA Tour.”
“This is a five-, 10-, 15-year program. A town, literally, burnt down. But now it is all about hope and rebuilding.” – Max Novena
This year, The Sentry boasted its largest-ever field of 60 players. The event was the second since the wildfires that devastated Maui in 2023. Sentry Insurance has donated $2 million to wildfire relief and players have donated money and used their platforms to publicly or privately support those in need.
“This is a five-, 10-, 15-year program,” said Novena of the rebuilding process. “A town, literally, burnt down. But now it is all about hope and rebuilding.”
Celebration, rebirth and gratitude were all part of the equation at The Sentry. “Any player that has qualified for the Sentry, it means they have done something right the year before and they are here on Maui to set the tone for what is hopefully going to be their best year on Tour. We feel like that thematic actually pulls through to all of our constituents – our partners as businesses and as individuals and as families, we are all coming together, we are celebrating and feeling really fortunate for everything that’s transpired but we are also setting goals for what we hope is the best year ever.”
The Sony Open, which has been played at Waialae since 1965, encourages good feelings with Aloha Friday during which all on the property are asked to wear brightly colored Hawaiian shirts. Since 1999, the Sony Open’s foundation arm has distributed more than $25 million to hundreds of local charities. Sony is the second-longest supporting PGA Tour title sponsor on record.
“We are the largest charity golf event in the state,” Stosik said. “The tournament has annually contributed to life-changing improvements for many of Hawaii’s most vulnerable and underprivileged. This positive impact resonates deeply with tournament staff, sponsors, and volunteers.”