Aloha also means hello: LPGA and PGA Tour Champions both have two events in Hawaii

The PGA Tour lost Kapalua on Maui as a season opener when a water dispute left the Plantation course unplayable, and then it played the Sony Open in Honolulu for the last time to avoid having one tournament in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

But that's hardly the end of professional golf in Hawaii .

Kapalua is back in the fold with the announcement that the Lotte Championship is moving from Hoakalei on Oahu to the Plantation course, which had hosted a PGA Tour event starting in 1999.

The Lotte Championship moves from October to March 18-21, one week after the new Nanea Cup on the Big Island that will have 95 players from the LPGA Tour and 25 players from five colleges competing concurrently in separate tournaments.

"As we continue to strengthen the LPGA Tour schedule, venues with deep-rooted heritage like Kapalua are exactly what we look for,” LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler said.

The LPGA was at Kapalua for one year in 2008, won by Morgan Pressel on the Bay course. The Plantation course has more than 25 years of memories, from Tiger Woods beating Ernie Els in a playoff in 2000 to Hideki Matsuyama setting the PGA Tour's record score to par at 35 under in 2025, the final year it was played.

March also is the last month before the humpback whales — Kapalua is famous for its views of humpbacks breaching in the Pacific — head north toward Alaska.

“Kapalua is an incredible venue to showcase the beauty of Hawaii and everything that makes the islands so special,” said Allisen Corpuz, a Hawaii native and the 2023 U.S. Women's Open champion .

The PGA Tour Champions also has a two-week Aloha swing. It picked up the Sony Championship at Waialae to go along with its Mitsubishi Electric Championship on the Big Island.

The newest team for the indoor golf league TGL at SoFi Center in South Florida is already off to a big start in filling the roster.

The Motor City Golf Club started with Brooks Koepka, a five-time major champion who returned to the PGA Tour this year. This week it announced the addition of Jackson Koivun, who in four months led Auburn to the NCAA golf title, won his first PGA Tour title in his third start as a pro and then went unbeaten in the Presidents Cup .

The Detroit-based club is the first expansion team for TGL and makes its debut early next year.

“With Jackson and Brooks, we have an amazing foundation for what we are trying to build,” said Michael Hamp, the team governor of Motor City.

Meanwhile, TMRW Sports announced an extension of its U.S. media rights with ESPN, which has been the network for TGL since it began two years ago.

The Korn Ferry Tour ends its season with the Tour Championship, and eight of the 20 cards for the PGA Tour in 2027 already have been secured. Blades Brown, who turned pro while still in high school and has contended on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour this year, is at No. 14 and seemingly would be safe to be in the big leagues next year.

Holding down the 20th spot is Cole Hammer, who is just over five points ahead of Yuta Sugiura of Japan. Sugiura originally was in the field for the Baycurrent Classic in Japan , but he withdrew because of his position on the Korn Ferry points list.

Sugiura last week became the fourth player in Korn Ferry Tour history with a 58 or lower.

Also at stake this week is a fight for No. 1. Sandy Scott won in Oklahoma last week to overtake Ross Steelman on the points list by a mere 24 points. The leading player gets into The Players Championship and the U.S. Open next year.

Bernhard Langer is in the field for the Constellation Furyk & Friends on the PGA Tour Champions, marking his return to the Ocean Course at the Hammock Beach Golf Resort.

But it's been a minute.

Langer was 50 when he won the Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach for his third career PGA Tour Champions title. Ginn dropped its sponsorship the following year.

The Furyk & Friends, previously held at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida, moves to Hammock Beach about 60 miles down the Atlantic coast this year. Langer, the last player to win on the Jack Nicklaus design, returns 18 years later at age 69 and goes for his 48th career Champions title. He has not won since the season finale in 2024.

The European tour schedule for 2027 had one curious shift of tournaments. The BMW PGA Championship , the flagship event on the tour, is moving to the week after the Ryder Cup in Ireland.

The flagship event for years was held in May until it was moved to September in 2019. For the next three Ryder Cups — one in Italy in 2023, the other two in the United States — the BMW PGA Championship has been held two weeks before the matches.

The schedule change allows for the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor next year to be Sept. 17-19. It will be preceded by the European Masters in Switzerland and the French Open. It also means 12 very happy — or very sad — Europeans go to flagship events with a hangover, literal or figurative.

It's reminiscent of 2008, when the PGA Tour rearranged its schedule for the Ryder Cup at Valhalla. There were three FedEx Cup playoff events, followed by a week off and then the Ryder Cup. The Tour Championship was the week after Valhalla.

The Americans won, there was a great celebration. And then the top 30 headed to East Lake. That was the year Vijay Singh only had to finish 72 holes to claim the FedEx Cup. It also was the year Kentucky native Kenny Perry showed how little he wanted to be there.

“I don’t want to be here — don’t want nothing to do with this deal,” Perry said that week. ”It's ruined the greatest week of my life coming here. I don’t want to play golf. I want to go home and celebrate. I’m physically tired. I have no focus. I don’t even care. I’m just trying to get my last-place check, post a 72-hole number and go home."

He tied for 24th, collected $120,400 and went home.

Along with having world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler as its defending champion, The American Express will have the Zac Brown Band and Train performing on consecutive nights after the second and third rounds at PGA West in the California desert. ... George McNeill is No. 7 on the Charles Schwab Cup and still needed an exemption to get into the Constellation Furyk & Friends this week. The good news for McNeill? The top 36 at the end of the season are fully exempt for next year. ... Xander Schauffele brought 1-year-old son Victor to the Baycurrent Classic in Japan for grandparents on both sides — his mother and his wife's mother grew up in Japan — to see him for the first time.

Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand needed only 101 starts on the LPGA to surpass $20 million in career earnings. She is $30,163 ahead of Cristie Kerr, who played in 609 tournaments.

“That means I need to pay more tax.” — Jeeno Thitikul on surpassing $20 million in career earnings.

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