Weekend Wrap - Dry Wasatch Edition

Greetings from the Wasatch Front, where snow seems to have morphed into a Rare Earth Mineral.  Oh we did have nine inches late last week with appropriate temperatures, but that's drop in the bucket stuff compared to the volume needed.

The only place where it has snowed consistently this winter is inland British Columbia, where we're headed in about five weeks.  Still plenty of time for the taps to be turned off, just like last year.

First world problems for sure, though they are MY first world problems.... Still not all in on this blogging stuff, but shall we?

Kapalua, RIP? - Remember when our biggest concern was how soft the Plantation Course had become?  At least we still had those gorgeous Pacific Ocean views, right?

Golfweek has a multi-part series on the current issues on Maui, and it is indeed quite the hot mess:

Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course, on the northwest coast of Maui, is the latest battleground in Hawaii to determine who controls the rights to water – the Native Hawaiians who grow kalo

(taro) and other crops, or the golf courses, tourists and real estate developers. Ultimately, the courts could play a deciding factor in the fate of the PGA Tour's The Sentry at the iconic course.

This dispute has been brewing for some time and exacerbated due to the deadly fires of 2023 in Lahaina and historic drought conditions throughout much of Maui in 2025. Water conservation mandates were implemented to prioritize the needs of the local community, placing golf courses at the bottom of the list.

The Hawaii Water Services Commission started sending regular notices of Tier 4 water curtailments in March. Under Tier 4, non-potable water use is exclusively limited to fire protection purposes.

Taro vs. three-putts?  I suppose the folks need to grow their crops....

Faced with limited water received by its supplier – Maui Land & Pineapple (MLP), one of Hawaii’s biggest land developers and owned by AOL co-founder Steve Case – Kapalua’s ownership group, TY Management Corporation – led by Tadashi Yanai, the founder of the company that owns clothing retailer Uniqlo and the second-wealthiest man in Japan – has sued MLP over the water being cut off. MLP has countersued, claiming that water is scarce because of low precipitation in the Pu'u Kukui watershed, Maui's highest peak and one of the rainiest places on the planet, averaging almost 400 inches per year. MLP told MauiNow.com that it is simply following state mandates. Adding to the water battle is an effort by Maui County to explore buying MLP’s water distribution system.

It’s a battle of billionaires and Kapalua Resort’s two courses – Plantation and Bay – are caught up in the fight. But Kapalua’s brown and barren fairways at the Bay Course, which the resort elected to stop watering altogether this fall, “did highlight for the bigger world to see what’s happening here,” said lifelong West Maui resident Lauren Palakiko, who told Hawaii NewsNow that the fight over water in West Maui has been happening for more than a century.

Mark Rolfing, who has called Hawaii home for more than 50 years, spearheaded the original golf course water deal in 1987 when he proposed a joint venture between MLP and Rolfing Development to build the Plantation Course at Kapalua.

Yet all these folks don't seem to get the due diligence thing:

“To make a long story short,” Rolfing said, “after some considerable negotiation, MLP put in 500 acres and Rolfing put in the cash to build the course, and it was a perfect deal with one exception – they had all the water. I didn't have any water. I had a sink in my condo, but I didn't have any water unless they gave it to me.”

See how golf is unifying.  This feasibility study seems about as prescient as the one McKinsey did for His Excellency....

If this dispute is confusing, you’re not alone. “The rainfall isn’t that much different than two years ago and we’ve never had a water restriction before. So, we are wondering why now?” Nakajima added. “The water usage was 50 times what it is now in the days of growing pineapple (and sugarcane).”

The MLP always pumped into the reservoir in the past when the stream was low. The farmers who grow kalo don’t have the money to synch into the wells, and it’s expensive to dig a well and treat it to grow crops and drinking water and any other purpose. The farmers are dependent on rain and any surface water delivered to them.

TY – together with farmers and homeowners such as Hua Momona Farms LLC, Plantation Estates Lot Owners' Association; Association of Apartment Owners of the Coconut Grove on Kapalua, and the Association of Apartment Owners of the Ridge at Kapalua – filed a lawsuit on Aug. 18 in Maui Circuit Court alleging that MLP has been negligent in maintaining its Honokohau ditch system, which supplies water to West Maui. [MLP filed its own countersuit.]

“That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water,” according to the complaint. “Plaintiffs bring this case against MLP because MLP has abused the trust of residents, farmers, and businesses in Kapalua and parts of West Maui, all of whom are now being starved for irrigation water by MLP.”

And I was sure they were going to blame it on SUVs....

While that Rolfing guy knows everything about Hawaii, he clearly can't know this:

“We've got a pretty big fight going on here between TY and Maui Land and Pine,” Rolfing said, “and I don't know how it's going to get resolved. I know who's got the most money, and it's not Maui Land & Pine.”

Of course, the "When" might be even more critical than the "How", but doesn't seem like this is a one year issue.

This follow up is provocative and won't make anyone feel better about the decisions, but it's a hard place to engage in post hoc analysis:

PGA Tour canceled The Sentry back in September. Was that too early?

What is left unsaid because Rolfing isn’t the type to point fingers is this: Could Kapalua owner TY Management Corporation, led by Tadashi Yanai, the founder of the company that owns clothing retailer Uniqlo and second-wealthiest man in Japan, Troon Golf, the operator of the resort’s courses, or the Tour, have done more and sooner? Given that 16 holes of the Plantation course re-opened for play on Nov. 10 – and it has been deemed in “tour-caliber condition” to hold the tournament this week – did the Tour make a premature decision?

Nakajima chuckled at this question because he’s been asked it so many times. He explained the various factors, including that the Hawaiian Islands are one of the most remote island chains and that everything for the tournament build-out had to be on boats by Oct. 1. No one knew if they would have the ability to water the course at all. [Kapalua eventually opted to take its water rations from the Bay Course and give it completely to the Plantation and let the Bay go.] “They waited to the last minute and made the only call they could,” Nakajima said. “I don’t blame them at all.”

Shack had some schedule-related thoughts:

Instead of season-opening golf from scenic and entertaining Kapalua, where the course is fully recovered from this summer’s water dispute, there is no opening tournament this week. Under the guise of not being able to make a limited field event work at Kapalua because of the murky water situation, the PGA Tour cancelled this week’s playing of The Sentry and seems on the cusp of ending its season-opening Hawaiian events starting in 2027. Other traditional stops, including some that built the Tour and which appear to be doing fine, may be in jeopardy even after modifying formats to accommodate players. Later in the year, tournaments played after majors may be moved, creating dead weeks on the schedule even when those are some of the most watched of the year thanks to residual major buzz.

The assorted people looking to deliver an 11% return for the Tour’s private equity investors have been dropping oldies-but-goodies: they’re ripping off Band-Aids, carving fat, and looking to deliver scarcity, paucity, simplicity, parity, or any other natural forms of Viagra for the money-is-everything types. Besides ignoring one of their buzzwords—the simplicity in knowing there will be a final round of high-level golf every Sunday afternoon—the masterminds seem oblivious to the value of a steady weekly schedule.

You've heard me make this point countless times, although mostly about the LPGA's TV contracts.

And Geoff includes this warning shot over the bow of SSG:

Killing off events like The Sentry at Kapalua may do all sorts of strange things to the big picture well-being of the Tour’s “product.” Stuff that money folks would never understand or care about until it impacts the bottom line.

Some players turn up in Maui to knock off the rust and prepare for the season. Some go there to find out how they will fare on a certain kind of hilly course with 92 days before The Masters. And some players turn up ready to compete. Throw in some Humpbacks, tropical vibes, brilliant backdrops, drives that roll 125 yards, and Kapalua leaves everyone feeling ready for another year.

Throwing the Tour’s schedule into the wood chipper also risks the health of an already strained relationship with core fans and tournaments. While the PGA Tour’s week-to-week flow might seem bloated and wasteful to people from other sports with fixed venues, each tournament feeds into the next. Players build momentum. Fans get into a viewing rhythm or get excited about the circus coming to their town. It’s just good marketing.

Time will tell if the Tour goes through with some of the more extreme ideas floated. Or whether their media partners are willing to pay more for less “inventory.” But for serious fans and players who use Kapalua to find out where they stand, it’s concerning that new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and his bosses at the Strategic Sports Group may cede multiple weeks with little regard for the circadian rhythm of players and fans.

In a way, this is a tad unfair, given an unexpected issue forcing the Tour's hands.  But the concept that a non-golfer like Brian Rolapp and a man of uncertain motivations will be dramatically reimagining the Tour's schedule doesn't fill this observer with confidence.

Frisco Blues -  It turns out that Brooks Koepka isn't the only guy making changes in order to spend more time with his family....  Just to be clear, I assume it's not to spend more time with Brooks' family.  From Geoff:

Derek Sprague informed the PGA of America board in December of his plans to step down to

spend more time with his family. The news of a brief tenure could have been dumped on any number of primo days for burying the story, and Sprague’s quick departure certainly qualifies by adding another strange chapter since the PGA’s move from Palm Beach Gardens to Frisco, Texas in August 2022.

“At my daughter’s wedding last month in upstate New York, it became clear that my family needs me nearby to assist with the care of my mother and mother‑in‑law,” said Sprague in a press release. “Focusing on family has become my priority, and the best decision for me is to step away from my role as CEO and return home to be with them.”

After nearly six months of searching for a new leader, the PGA of America revealed Sprague as its choice to replace Seth Waugh on December 20, 2024. He began work from the Frisco headquarters on January 18th, 2025.

This comes fresh off the PGA of America's face-plant at Bethpage.

The more interesting bits are Geoff's hints at trouble in paradise, not that Frisco, TX has ever been called by that P-word.

A two-time Section Merchandiser of the Year for Public Facilities in the late 90s, Sprague was chosen in one of the PGA of America board’s every decade-or-so push to have a CEO who knows what it’s like to settle club championship disputes, clean out golf cart ashtrays, and fold every variety of sweater. Sprague had never run anything bigger than a golf course, moving from the GM job at TPC Sawgrass to an organization with 30,000 members, multiple important championships, and complex financial issues.

Sprague was thrown into an already tough situation caused by the PGA of America’s move to Frisco and the ensuing brain-drain induced by shedding most of the Florida staff (or other embarrassments). There were signs of financial stress, ensuing C-level departures, and multiple moving parts outside the organization. But Sprague also inherited the CEO title with the sport thriving in ways unimaginable just a decade ago.

Ted Bishop is looking so much better with the passing of time....

 But Geoff has brought receipts:

But shed no tears for Sprague if this departure turns out to be performance-related. He inherited fantastic media deals for both the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. He knew exactly what he

was getting into after serving as the organization’s president from 2014 to 2016, along with the usual smorgasbord of committee roles, honorary appearances, and countless hours devoted to working on PGA Sectional matters. And he was replacing former Deutsche Bank Americas CEO Seth Waugh, a more savvy operator in the golf and business communities who signed off on the move to Frisco. That’s proven to be a mess after appearing to shed more stability and wisdom than anticipated. And it’s saddled the organization with a facility appearing ill-equipped to host major championships. The new headquarters also seem to have cost the organization millions more than expected, despite being billed as an all-expense paid move to “the Silicon Valley of golf.”

Sprague came out swinging against 2028’s new equipment testing rules before he’d even figured out where to position his paper weights. He peddled easily provable falsehoods about the PGA’s supposed lack of involvement in the process. Sprague was practically pushed aside by president Don Rea during May’s PGA Championship press conference. And then he oversaw a complete fumbling of the totally predictable fan issues at September’s Ryder Cup. Days after it mattered and the circus had left town, Sprague acknowledged the issues publicly and sent an apology email to Rory McIlroy and his wife Erica, a former PGA of America employee.

It's really quite the organization.  One blessed with an abundance of assets, those 30,000 hostages to begin with, plus the legacy championships they retained after the split with the PGA Tour.  But, alas, Edifice Complexes are expensive.....

Wither LIV - Not as if I really care, but this was part of Alex Myers's latest installment of The Grind (which we've not sampled in an eternity):

WE’RE SELLING

LIV Golf: The Saudi-backed league had its worst off-season ever. First, rumors that LIV had

signed Korean players Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim turned out to be false. And then the league lost one of its biggest stars in Brooks Koepka, who walked away ahead of what was supposed to be the fourth and final year of his contract.

That is a huge blow to a league that initially lured five of the PGA Tour’s most popular players away. Of those five, Brooks has bounced and Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson have become mostly irrelevant. Two years ago around this time, LIV was celebrating the huge signing of Jon Rahm, but now it’s losing a five-time major champ. And it’s left with Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, who also has a contract running out this year, as its two remaining big guns. By the time I finished writing this paragraph, a report came out that LIV had signed Thomas Detry and Elvis Smylie. That’s something. But LIV still better re-sign Bryson or it’s really in trouble.

Well, worst off-season YET.

I'm not all that interested in Brooks' application to return to the PGA Tour, but do enjoy the irony it exposes.  Brooks' major-focused career prior to LIV exposed the soft underbelly of the Tour, to wit, it's lack of control over those pesky four events that matter.  His limbo status further explicates that, as he's exempt into all four majors, so what else actually matters?

But, while I'm not going to dive into this in any depth, you'll agree it's a fun header:

Bryson DeChambeau’s tricky contract situation is Greg Norman’s creation

Norman would enjoy listening to DeChambeau work through that hypothetical. It was back in 1994 that Norman petitioned the PGA Tour to let him compete in a non-sanctioned series of international matches, alongside Nick Price and against other two-man teams. That two-man, roving match concept has grown quite popular in these years of streaming golf content, particularly and unsurprisingly by LIV players who take their own marketing very seriously. That mindset is what Norman believed in. He loved the idea of golfers texting each other, not unlike NBA players do, to consider joining forces. He reveled in offseason discourse, stirring up the belief that a “big name” could jump from the PGA Tour at any moment, even if that rarely came to fruition. He had to love it when Koepka’s then-coach Claude Harmon took a victory lap in 2023, comparing his stud striker who just won the PGA Championship to Justin Verlander signing a 2-year, $90 million deal with the New York Mets. What’s important now is it seems to work both ways.

In other sports that would be called tampering, but there is no penalty for it in pro golf — partly because these two sides agreed to stop suing each other two years ago, but also because the rules of golf free agency are still being written, and they’ll likely be different for different people. It will surely benefit Koepka that he was never part of the aforementioned lawsuits. (See: The PGA Tour’s immediate, non-statement statement about Koepka. They’ll be happy to welcome him back.) DeChambeau likely won’t be afforded the same cheeriness, but he will have Koepka indirectly working on his behalf, charting some sort of journey in life after LIV.

In a matter of months, that path should be clearer. Just as DeChambeau will continue leading — in the final year of his contract — the most commercially viable LIV franchise. All of it is leverage of some sort in the system Norman created. He just probably never imagined it working this way.

Quite the mess, though it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of bonecutters.....  Really, Bryson has made himself the indispensable man, they can't hardly let him go while maintaining any pretense of viability.  So it's hard to see the Saudis having any leverage, except them being, in the immortal words of Phil, Bad Mo-Fo's.  Interesting negotiation, eh?

Exit Strategy - Mine, that is.... Just gonna riff off this week's Tour Confidential, which is thin gruel indeed:

After several weeks off, the 2026 PGA Tour season kicks off on Thursday with the Sony Open in Hawaii. Last week, we touched on some bold predictions for this year, so this week, we’ll jump into the second part of our season preview. Scottie Scheffler has won the PGA Tour Player of the Year award the last four years, so are you taking Scheffler or the field in 2026?

Josh Schrock: I’m going to take the field. Scottie just continues to get better, but eventually he’s not going to win everything. At least, I think.

Sean Zak: It would be a bit stunning not to see Scheffler win three times in 2026. That feels like his floor! So who is gonna beat that? Rory McIlroy could take the crown, sure, but it would have to happen in the biggest events. If Jon Rahm was a PGA Tour golfer, maybe I’d feel differently, but he’s not. So I’ll take Scheffler against the field.

Jack Hirsh: Yeah, it’s tough to bet against Scheffler. Last year, we were wondering how he would top a seven-win season. How about by winning six more times and doubling his major total to set up a potential Grand Slam completion on Long Island this summer? Depending on how I feel on a given day, I sometimes think Rory McIlroy can be the better player at his best, but he’s just not on every week like Scheffler is now. You just can’t bet against that kind of sustained greatness.

In golf you always have to take the field.  That doesn't mean that against Scottie you have to like it....

If Scheffler doesn’t win, who will? Or who will be the runner-up to him?

Schrock: I’ll take Tommy Fleetwood. Now that the PGA Tour monkey is off his back, he wins three times, including a major, and wins the POTY.

Zak: I think Xander Schauffele returns to world-beating form, so I’ll push my chips in on him. His floor was never really that low in 2025 despite working through some injury issues. He raises it this year.

Hirsh: I’m on the Fleetwood hype train as well, but I still don’t think (even if he wins the Masters like I expect him to) he will top McIlroy.

Tommy Lad is a an easy guy for whom to root, but don't we think it's an obvious short sale?

Last year, Ben Griffin started the season winless but won three times on the PGA Tour and earned a Ryder Cup pick. Who’s your pick for breakout player in 2026?

Schrock: I want to say Luke Clanton, but the results since he turned pro have been rough. He still has a lot of potential, but for a breakout player, I’ll go a different direction and pick Michael Thorbjornsen to win multiple times in 2026. I’d also look out for Marco Penge, who has one of the best swings in golf and is fresh off a three-win 2025 on the DP World Tour. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him stay hot and win once or twice on his new tour if the game stays in form.

Zak: Rasmus Hojgaard! I’ll plant my flag behind him as the better twin, with all due respect to Nico. He’s won and contended on the DP World Tour plenty; enough that you’d expect him to do it on the PGA Tour. My dart throw is that he bags a win in the spring and maybe another in the fall.

Hirsh: Does Cameron Young count? I know he got hot at the end of the season, finally got in the winner’s circle, and was the LLVP (Least Least Valuable Player) for the Americans at the Ryder Cup, but I see him carrying that momentum to at least two more wins this season.

Cam Young?  Thanks for digging deep....

J.J. Spaun made one of the most memorable putts of the season last year to win the U.S. Open and claim his first major. Which major-less player will win their first in 2026?

Schrock: I’ve already picked Fleetwood to win a major, so we will stay there. All eyes will be on him at the Open, but I think he gets it done at Shinnecock in June.

Zak: Gonna put my faith in Viktor Hovland and his endless hunt. The talent is there. Here’s hoping everything falls into place during the weeks that matter.

Hirsh: Fleetwood wins the Masters. Ludvig Aberg is the Champion Golfer of the Year. Did I stutter?

Tommy does have the lovely memory from Shinny, but still...

And the 2026 Rookie of the Year will be…?

Schrock: Give me Penge. I love the swing and the demeanor. He wins twice.

Zak: We’ll keep the Norway vibes high and go with Kristoffer Reitan. DataGolf ranks him 39th in the world right now, which is about 40 spots higher than I would have expected. He hits it plenty far and putts it great. He can win in the weeks when his irons are above average.

Hirsh: I like Penge a lot, too, but I’ll go with Johnny Keefer, the KFT player of the year. He nearly won $1 million on that Tour last year and then finished T7 at the RSM at the end of the year. Sky is the limit for the Baylor kid.

Yeah, can't say that I know enough about these kids.  With the limited field sizes of the Money Grabs, the kids need to make their moves early in the year, to Aon themselves into the mix.

And your final wildcard bold prediction is…?

Schrock: Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler both return to the winner’s circle in 2026. Spieth will win at Pebble Beach in February, while Fowler gets it done at the RBC Heritage.

Zak: Sepp Straka, major champion.

Hirsh: The trio of 40-somethings, Justin Rose, Gary Woodland, and Adam Scott, win three times collectively, and each one has a T5 in a major.

You want me to care about T5's in majors?  But, Josh, I assume you're predicting KF wins for Spieth and Rickie?   Because anything more than that would indicate that you have trouble moving on...

Have a great week.  I doubt I'll bother blogging again this week.  I travel home on Saturday, so best guess is we'll catch up to wrap the Sony on Monday.