PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the tour remains committed to playing its season-opening event in Maui amid the devastation to the island from recent wildfires.

The Sentry (formerly known as the Tournament of Champions) is currently scheduled to kick off the 2024 campaign during the first week of January. However, earlier this month a series of wildfires engulfed the island of Maui, killing at least 115 people with another 800 missing. The fires were spread out over 17,000 acres of land and caused over $6 billion in damage.

The ongoing tragedy seemingly puts the Sentry in doubt. Not only for the island’s capability of providing the resources to host the event, but the perceived optics of playing a golf tournament for millions against the ongoing struggles from the fires. But Monahan, speaking on Tuesday at the Tour Championship, said the tour hopes to be a “source of inspiration for the great people of Maui and Lahaina by the time that we get to Maui in January.”

“Absolutely,” Monahan later said when asked if the tour will host the event in Maui. “But I think at this point there’s so many unknowns, and we want to be respectful of the challenges. We want to help be a part of the revitalisation. There are a lot of considerations. We’re committed, you know, if we’re allowed to, if we’re invited, if we’re embraced, given all that needs to be accomplished, we will be there 100 per cent.

“The PGA Tour, when moments like this happen, this is when we’re at our best. So we don’t have the answer to that right now, but we want to do everything we can to make certain that that’s a moment for the people of Maui that is entirely helpful and inspiring. And I would also add that our partner in Sentry has been there every step of the way and is doing some pretty remarkable things right now alongside our team and we’ll have more to add on that front. But we are hopeful to be there.”

Founded in 1953, the tournament’s field was historically restricted to winners from the previous year. A change was made in 2021 to invite all those who made the Tour Championship due to the abbreviated 2020 Covid-19 season, and in 2023 the field now includes the top 30 players from the final FedEx Cup standings who qualified for the previous year’s Tour Championship in addition to the previous calendar year winners. Additionally, with the tour revamping its fall season, the 2024 edition of the Sentry will mark the official opening of the new season.

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The restaurant in Lahaina, Hawaii, has long been out of business, but now the building that housed the Morikawa Restaurant is gone, too.

Wednesday’s deadly wildfires that destroyed Front Street at the popular tourist destination on Maui and killed at least 36 people hit Collin Morikawa harder than many people looking on from afar. Morikawa’s fraternal grandparents were born in historic Lahaina Town, and, yes, the Morikawa Restaurant, believed to have been in existence in the 1950s and 1960s was owned by his family. He still has relatives who live there, while many others have moved to Oahu.

“It’s devastating what we’ve been able to … what we’ve been seeing. The before-and-after photos are just heartbreaking, knowing that my entire dad’s side of the family grew up there,” Morikawa said on Thursday after completing his opening round in the St Jude FedEx Championship. “My grandparents were born in Lahaina. We had the restaurant out there. That’s what the photo was. We went there as kids. It’s a special place. It’s amazing how many things you take for granted really in life, and when you see that, it’s just heartbreaking.”

?#WATCH: As Satellite Imagery Reveals Devastation from Maui Fire as multiple Buildings, and Lives Lost
⁰?#Maui | #Hawaii
⁰The Maui Fire destroyed the town of Lahaina, causing significant devastation. Satellite imagery shows the before and after pictures, highlighting the… pic.twitter.com/KxdKdKUBfZ

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) August 11, 2023

A native of Los Angeles, Morikawa remembers visiting Lahaina, and, of course, he’s asked about his ties to west Maui every January when he competes in the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Resort, where earlier this year he finished runner-up to Jon Rahm.

He said he woke up to the news and saw the devastation and knew that the building where the restaurant was located — he thinks it was most recently a jewellery store — was razed. Fire officials said more than 270 structures were damaged or destroyed, including a 200-year-old church.

Morikawa believed that his extended family members were all right, but “to see how many people have passed away from that, yeah, it’s … I’m at a loss for words”.

But not at a loss for finding a way to help.

Over the course of the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs, Morikawa is donating $1,000 to charity for every birdie he converts. He logged six on Thursday in a five-under 65 that left him tied for third, two strokes behind Jordan Spieth. The money, he said, will go to Maui United Way and World Central Kitchen, “to help out not just people in Maui but obviously hopefully people in Hawaii because it’s everywhere”.

 

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Winless since the 2021 British Open, Morikawa, 26, likes to think of the gesture as giving him extra motivation.

“Yeah, look, I want to make a lot of birdies for them,” he said. “One of our friends texted me, and they’re like: ‘OK, $100,000.’ I’m like, shoot, 100 birdies in three tournaments? I don’t know if that’s ever been done. But it would be a great feat to say the least.”

He hopes his peers will follow suit, and he plans to ask his sponsors to help, too, seeing how the PGA Tour has a tournament annually at Kapalua’s Plantation Course.

“It’s one of the best places in the world we travel to year in and year out to go to Kapalua, play golf there,” he said. “I’m going to be pushing hard to make those birdies, and hopefully everyone else can reach out and help out as much as they can.”

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“I kind of thought if we had a car maybe drive as far away from town as possible,” he said. “We were inside away from the windows trying to gather information.”

His caddie, Michael Greller, gathered his wife and their three-month-old and thought about doing the same.

Charles Howell III called a friend in the Navy based in the region and the friend told him they were scrambling as well. A few minutes later the friend messaged back saying it was a false alarm.

“At breakfast you could hear the collective [buzz] of [everyone’s] phones,” Howell said. “I kind of froze. We didn’t know what to do. We sort of looked at one another. Part of you thinks you grab a MaiTai, go to the beach and grab a front-row seat. Part of you thinks what are you going to do?”

That was the consensus among most players. No one quite sure what to do.

Matt Every was having breakfast in downtown Honolulu and headed across the street to a golf course, figuring the opening space would be the safest place to be.

Chez Reavie looked out the window of his hotel and saw people running down the street but stayed put with the rationalization that there was nowhere to go.

It took 38 minutes before another alert was issued saying it was a false alarm.

Tony Finau was playing with his kids on his bed when his phone buzzed. He thought it was an Amber alert.

“I popped up and the whole mood changed,” he said. “It was a blessed day. It put in perspective what could happen. Golf was the last thing on most people’s mind when we’re looking at a situation like that.”

Later in the afternoon, he went on to make a hole-in-one, on the par-3 17th. It was the 11th of his life and first on the PGA Tour.

Said Finau: “The roller coaster of emotions was pretty crazy.”

The PGA Tour issued this statement: “In less than four minutes from the initial call from tour staff in Hawaii, we were able to verify that the alert was a mistake and communicate that information to tour leadership and players/staff in Hawaii. Although the incident was understandably upsetting to all involved, we have confirmed there were no injuries to our staff or players, or any further issues of concern.”

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