HONOLULU — The royal palms at Waialae Country Club, where the golf course runs along the Pacific Ocean, give a peaceful ambiance to the Sony Open in Hawaii, the ideal place for the full PGA Tour membership to start the year.
A new season, though, has brought a small degree of stress in paradise.
The Sony Open effectively starts the chase for a PGA Tour card — and there are only 100 available from the FedEx Cup standings this year, down from 125, marking the most significant change in eligibility in some 40 years.
Camilo Villegas described it as an important year for him, and it’s only January.
“There is a sense of urgency,” said Villegas, a 43-year-old Colombian who began competing on the tour two decades ago. “You’ve got to play when you get in (tournaments), and you have to perform. It’s going to be very compact. It’s going to be a dogfight out there, which is cool.”
Players warming up in the darkness Wednesday morning at Waialae — with floodlights on the driving range but not the putting green — was another reminder of some of the changes. Along with a reduction in cards, the field sizes will be shrinking on the PGA Tour starting in 2026 to make sure anyone with a card gets into a fair amount of tournaments and rounds have a better chance of finishing on time with a smaller number of players on the course.
Optimism, of course, is as great as ever. Villegas won the Bermuda Championship (his fifth PGA Tour career victory) in November 2023 to earn a two-year exemption, and last year was among his best. He knows he has to keep playing well to keep his job, and he was unwilling to even address the possibility he won’t finish in the top 100.
“I am going to keep my card,” he said with a smile.
Hideki Matsuyama has no such concerns as the No. 5 player in the Official World Golf Ranking coming off Sunday’s record scoring performance to win The Sentry at Kapalua Resort on Maui. The schedule has hopped islands to Oahu, and now the 32-year-old Japanese star will try to become the third player to sweep the Hawaii swing, joining Justin Thomas (2017) and Ernie Els (2003).
For everyone else, veterans and rookies alike, it’s only the beginning.
“I would say I’m more excited this year because I felt like I got a lot better last year at playing golf, and I felt like I improved last year,” said Keith Mitchell, a Chattanooga native who is starting his eighth season on the circuit. “And every year you have a card, you have a blank slate to prove your improvement.”
Mitchell missed out on the FedEx Cup playoffs last year by an estimated three shots; had he been three shots better in the final round of the regular season, it would have been enough. He also can look back at 18 other tournaments where he could have picked up a shot or two. Almost every player can do that, of course.
Even with a seven-month season to keep the card, Mitchell, who turned 33 on Tuesday, has been around long enough to realize that getting off to a good start can ease the real pressure that comes later.
“Everybody is at zero,” Mitchell said. “Each week doesn’t feel as monumental as it does the last three or four weeks. The beginning of the season, people play a little more free or relaxed because it doesn’t feel as urgent.”
Mitchell said the putts he makes, the scores he posts, are just as valuable now as they are in the final regular-season tournaments in late summer.
“Theoretically it is,” he said, “but emotionally it’s not.”
AP photo by Matt York / Stephan Jaeger, a Chattanooga resident and Baylor School graduate, watches his shot on the 12th green on the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort last Thursday during the first round of the PGA Tour’s season-opening tournament, The Sentry.He is one of four Baylor School graduates currently on the tour, but Stephan Jaeger — who survived top-ranked Scottie Scheffler at the Houston Open last March for his first PGA Tour win — was the only one in The Sentry, one of the PGA Tour’s signature events with a $20 million purse. Jaeger, 35, is also at the Sony Open, as are fellow former Red Raiders standouts Harris English, 35, and Luke List, 39.
In a rare occurrence despite the quartet’s presence on the tour, the playing partners for each in the first round at Waialae will include a fellow Baylor alum. English and Mitchell will be joined by Canada’s Adam Hadwin in a group set to tee off at 12:10 p.m. Eastern on the 10th hole, while Jaeger, List and Adam Schenk are set for 1 p.m. on the first hole.
Golf Channel will televise first-round action at 7 p.m.
The Sony Open is the start of a three-tournament stretch in which the leading five players become eligible for $20 million signature events in California. Getting in the big events can go a long way for someone trying to keep his job.
Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has even more experience with the optimism and nerves that come with a new season. He made his debut as a PGA Tour member in the Sony Open in 2011. Bradley went on to win the Byron Nelson tournament and the PGA Championship that year, but he also has strong memories of the start.
“It’s a scary feeling,” he said. “I got here my first event, Ernie Els was on the putting green, and that was like a ‘Holy cow’ moment for me. But it’s a real daunting feeling because you worked your whole life to get here, and now you have to play the best golf of your life in order to keep your card.
“I look at the rookies, and part of me is so jealous that they have all of this in front of them. And another part of me is like, ‘Man, they’ve got a lot of pressure on them starting right out of the gate.’ I wish them all the best. It’s a really tough business to be successful in.”