Pre-Tournament Information – 2026 Sony Open in Hawaii
This week’s Sony Open and the opening event of the 2026 PGA Tour is also a first under a number of major changes brought in by the PGA Tour.
Those changes are listed below and include the fact at 2026 season-end only the top-100 of the FedEx standings will earn automatic 2027 membership, and not the top-125.
As well, the Sony Open is a number of events reduced to a field of 120 basically to avoid poor light ending play early.
And in a big shake-up, the Sony Open is among six events affected by changes to Open Championship qualifying changes. Indeed, the Sony Open has lost this opportunity for those non-exempt players to contest golf’s oldest major.
FIRST @SonyOpen OF THE YEAR & A FIRST OF MANY MAJOR @PGATOUR SEASON CHANGES …
Including only Top-100 at season-end to retain full Tour rights
Read: https://t.co/gtycO58CDU
Sony
✅ @TOURMISS pic.twitter.com/9fOoFOjjlU
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) January 13, 2026
Player Interviews
Wednesday, January 14 (all times local)
Following 8:49 a.m. (9-hole) Pro-Am – Nick Taylor
Following 9 a.m. (9-hole) Pro-Am – Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa
- Father, Blaine, is a Japanese-American from Hawaii; grandparents once ran a restaurant in Lahaina
- Will make his third start at the Sony Open in Hawaii (T21/2020, T7/2021)
- Qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs for the seventh consecutive season in 2025 and advanced to the TOUR Championship for the sixth straight year, finishing in a tie for No. 19 in the FedExCup standings
- Recorded four top-10s last season in 21 starts, highlighted by a pair of runner-up finishes at The Sentry and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard
- Selected as a captain’s pick to represent the United States at the 2025 Ryder Cup
Nick Taylor
- Defending champion will make his 10th start at the Sony Open in Hawaii; last four starts at Waialae Country Club (T11/2021, T7/2023, T7/2024, 1st/2025)
- Seeking to become the first player to successfully defend at the Sony Open since Jimmy Walker in 2015
- Won the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii in a playoff over Nico Echavarria, earning his fifth PGA TOUR title
- With the victory, moved to 3-0 in playoffs and recorded his third consecutive season with a TOUR victory; was the only Canadian to win on TOUR in 2025
- Became the 11th international player (12th win) to win the Sony Open in Hawaii
- Qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs and advanced to the TOUR Championship for the second time in 2025, finishing T19 in the FedExCup standings
Sony Open in Hawaii notes
- The Sony Open in Hawaii is the first event of the 2026 FedExCup Regular Season
- The field features:
- 20 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, highlighted by World No. 5 Russell Henley, No. 6 J.J. Spaun, No. 7 Robert MacIntyre, No. 8 Ben Griffin, No. 14 Keegan Bradley, No. 16 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 17 Collin Morikawa
- Players in field who qualified for the 2025 TOUR Championship: Russell Henley, Corey Conners, Keegan Bradley, Chris Gotterup, Ben Griffin, Brian Harman, Harry Hall, Robert MacIntyre, Collin Morikawa, Nick Taylor, Maverick McNealy, J.J. Spaun, Jacob Bridgeman, Hideki Matsuyama
- Four FedExCup Fall winners: Steven Fisk (Sanderson Farms Championship), Michael Brennan (Bank of Utah Championship), Ben Griffin (World Wide Technology Championship), Adam Schenk (Butterfield Bermuda Championship)
- 2022 Sony Open in Hawaii champion Hideki Matsuyama, the winningest Asian player in TOUR history (11 wins), is one of seven former Sony Open winners in the field; the others: Vijay Singh (2005), Zach Johnson (2009), Russell Henley (2013), Patton Kizzire (2018), Si Woo Kim (2023) and Nick Taylor (2025)
- Past FedExCup champions: Vijay Singh (2008), Billy Horschel (2014), Jordan Spieth (2015)
New Member Notes
- The 2026 new member class includes 22 rookies and two first-year members; among those 24 players, 22 are in the Sony Open in Hawaii field (not in field: Marco Penge, Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson):
Player
Zach Bauchou
Chandler Blanchet 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Gainesville, FL/USA
Dan Brown
Davis Chatfield 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Attleboro, MA/USA
A.J. Ewart
Emilio Gonzalez
Kensei Hirata
Jeffrey Kang
Johnny Keefer
Christo Lamprecht
S.T. Lee
Haotong Li*
Keita Nakajima
Pontus Nyholm
John Parry
Kristoffer Reitan
Marcelo Rozo
Adrien Saddier
Neal Shipley*
Jordan Smith
John VanDerLaan
Sudarshan Yellamaraju 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Visakhapatnam, India/CAN
*First-year member; not an official rookie because player has made seven or more starts in a previous season on TOUR
PGA TOUR season notes
- The 34-event FedExCup Regular Season schedule features the 52nd playing of THE PLAYERS Championship in March, the four major championships and eight Signature Events
- Eight Signature Events are on the schedule: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, RBC Heritage, Cadillac Championship, Truist Championship, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and Travelers Championship
- The 20th edition of the FedExCup Playoffs will take place in August and will feature the top 70 players in the FedExCup standings qualifying for the first FedExCup Playoffs event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship (August 13-16) at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee; those players will be exempt for Full-Field events and THE PLAYERS in 2027
- Fifty players will then advance to the BMW Championship (August 20-23) at Bellerive Country Club in Saint Louis, Missouri; those players will be fully exempt for the following season and qualify for all Signature Events in 2027
- Thirty players will then advance to East Lake Golf Club (August 27-30) for the TOUR Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, with the FedExCup Champion being crowned
- After the TOUR Championship, the 2026 FedExCup Fall will feature an eight-event slate that plays a critical role in finalizing eligibility for the 2027 PGA TOUR Season
- Biltmore Championship Asheville (September 17-20)
- Bank of Utah Championship (October 1-4)
- Baycurrent Classic (October 8-11)
- Butterfield Bermuda Championship (October 22-25)
- VidantaWorld Mexico Open (October 29-November 1)
- World Wide Technology Championship (November 5-8)
- Good Good Championship (November 12-15)
- The RSM Classic (November 19-22)
- The 2026 FedExCup Fall calendar is highlighted by the 16th edition of the Presidents Cup, featuring the United States Team against the International Team, which will be contested September 24-27 at Medinah Country Club in Chicago
PGA TOUR Competitions – Changes for 2026
Exempt Status
- Exempt status for 2026 changes from top 125 to top 100 on the prior season’s final FedExCup Fall Standings
- Players finishing between Nos. 101-150 will have conditional status and be broken into three different categories on the Priority Ranking: 101-110, 111- 125 and 126-150; these three categories will have varying levels of access to Full-Field Events
Field Sizes
- Beginning in 2026, the maximum number of players in a Full Field Event will be 144 players*, down from 156; due to circumstances such as limited daylight, some events will have field sizes of 120 or 132
- *The American Express, played on three courses, and the Genesis Scottish Open, co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, maintain a field size of 156
- THE PLAYERS Championship field size will be 120 beginning in 2026
- These reductions in field sizes will have a positive impact on Speed of Play through a better flow of play on the golf course
Sponsor Exemptions
- Sponsor exemptions restricted to players in the DP World Tour/Korn Ferry Tour/Q-School category as well as those restricted to PGA TOUR members have been removed and reallocated to the next eligible members on the Priority Ranking (NOTE: There are no changes to unrestricted sponsor exemptions, which are typically a standard of four)
Open Qualifying
- Open Qualifying spots have been eliminated for Full-Field Events with fields of 120 and reduced to two for fields of 132
- Fields of 144, which make up the majority of Full-Field Events, maintain four Open Qualifying spots
- There are no changes to Open Qualifying for Opposite Events and the FedExCup Fall, which maintain four spots
- In total, there are six events affected by the changes to Open Qualifying (reduction of 17 spots over the course of the season):
- Sony Open in Hawaii (field size 120, 0 OQ spots)
- WM Phoenix Open (field size 120, 0 OQ spots)
- Cognizant Classic (field size 120, 0 OQ spots)
- Valspar Championship (field size 132, 2 OQ spots)
- Texas Children’s Houston Open (field size 132, 2 OQ spots)
- Valero Texas Open (field size 132, 2 OQ spots)
DP World Tour/Korn Ferry Tour, Q-School
- As a result of these changes, players who receive their cards via the Korn Ferry Tour/DP World Tour/Q-School have exempt access to Full-Field Events:
- DP World Tour – 10 cards available (no change)
- Korn Ferry Tour – 20 cards available (down from 30)
- PGA TOUR Q-School – 5 cards available (rather than top five and ties)
