Give everybody an idea of how this came together.

Well, it came together very quick.

Obviously, we thought there was a chance for an event maybe in the fall of 2028, maybe even in March of 2028.

We never dreamt that it could be March of 2027.

It happened very quick, and Craig Kessler did a marvelous job of maneuvering everything for the LPGA.

And then in the end, it was a phone call between Mr. Yanai, who owns the plantation course at Kapalua, and Chairman Chin of Lotte.

And they agreed with the LPGA's direction of moving toward more marquee events on great golf courses following men's golf, that it made sense to go back to back.

The two-tier system that's coming in 2028, what do you like about it?

What is the most shocking aspect of this announcement that came out yesterday?

The discussion really didn't start till last week.

And the decision was made on Friday and it was announced on Monday.

That's all very fast.

I've talked to the commissioner of the LPGA a dozen times this week.

If you look at what the LPGA is doing under the new leadership of Craig Kessler, who's a dear friend of mine and a very good commissioner, they are making two major changes to the strategy for the LPGA.

The biggest one is being they're going to quality golf courses.

But just right now, from where it's been, how would you rate this overall season in 2026? And how do you just feel about where things stand as of today?

The question is, are they ready? Are they hard enough? Are they tough enough? Do you have any just guesses or ideas about what is a tough enough golf course?

Well, as of right now, I would say the answer to that question is no.

I don't think there's a golf course anywhere in the world hardly that could all of a sudden, with two and a half or three months to go, say, oh, we're good enough to host a PGA Tour event.

If they had been, you know, that probably would have been a venue for a PGA Tour event.

Now, having said that, give a little bit of time to a place to – Add some length, particularly to some of the great resort courses in Hawaii.

That can be done.

There's a lot of space on a lot of our courses.

What's the status for Sony? Are they going to be able to handle this increase in costs?

Some really good-looking paychecks that they're going for as they get into the final series.

Well, yeah, they are.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

You know, everybody right now is gearing toward the playoffs, the FedEx Cup playoffs.

But this is likely to be the last one as we know it.

Two things are really going to change.

And the FedEx Cup playoffs are held every year in August.

What's the difference? That's a crazy question to throw at you, but there's Tiger Woods, number one in the world, always at the top, and Scotty Scheffler just kind of not there quite, but still number one in the world.

What are your thoughts on the way they're going?

Well, you know, it's interesting.

Watching the Scottish Open this week, and that's primarily what I'll be analyzing tonight, It just shows me that you don't necessarily need the PGA to work 100% to have a really successful stretch of golf.

And you've got the Scottish Open and then the Open Championship next week in England, which is going to be two really good weeks.

The Scottish Open field is tremendous.

It's not the hugest purse at all and not going to be.

But what it shows me is that even though we're creating a whole new level of golf on the PGA Tour.

Are they going to be playing in San Diego? Do you have an idea where they're going?

But What can you share with our listeners about what this could mean? The fact that we have this happening in January, right? It's a whole new ball game.

Well, yeah, I'll tell you at this point, I just came from the United States Senior Open, which is the biggest event in senior golf.

It was in Columbus, Ohio last week.

It was won by Padraig Harrington, who's 54 years old, who also won a couple of Open championships when he was a younger man.

and also the PGA Championship.

And I will tell you, watching those players now, Stuart Sink, who just I think is 51 or 52, is the guy that he beat on the weekend there in Columbus.

I never once started saying to myself, I'm watching older guys play golf.

But the most

I miss them.

Well, yeah, there's a big question that's going to have to be settled here because I'm under the assumption that what Live Golf is going to do is go bankrupt.

And that's the best way for them to protect themselves and reorganize and maybe come back with a different look.

But what we don't understand at this point is who are the players' contracts with? They could be with two different entities.

They could either be with the Saudi investment fund, which is PIF, which is the one that is dissolving and not going to be supporting it anymore.

And therefore, if you have a contract with PIF, if you wanted to enforce the fact that they owed you money, you'd have to basically go and sue them.

Saudi Arabia, which in the middle of a war and everything going over there, I don't think is going to get you a whole lot of money right now.

Now, the question, it begs, do you think, have you heard whether or not we'll ever get back? I know it's not going to be this coming year, but are we going to get the Sony back or the Century

31, 31.

31, all right.

It's been a very complicated situation.

You know, if you think about what Maui's been through, Dan, in the last five years, we had a big COVID, which everybody else had.

But we also had the Lahaina wildfires in 2023, the worst ever, and now the worst drought ever, all in five years.

which is an awful lot for a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific to endure.

But having said that, we started becoming aware of what potentially was a water problem on Maui early in the year last year.

I wanted to ask you, all of this talk of the PGA Tour getting out of Hawaii, What level of concern is it? Or is it a red? Is it, is a PGA tour getting out of the Hawaii business?

And many people in the States and golf fans in general really just aren't aware of what has gone on with the water dispute and why this tournament is not happening this week at the Century.

It's very disappointing for me and pretty much everybody here on Maui.

You know, we've had a tough five years.

First we had COVID, then we had the Lahaina fire, and now we've got the worst drought in history.

So three big elements all within five years.

We knew that we were heading into a drought cycle early in the year last year.

In fact, I told the PGA Tour at the Players' Championship I was worried about it.

And I'm just curious, Mark, at this point, have you had a chance to speak to many players that have frequently attended, whether it be the Kapalua event or Sony event year after year that they're sad about not being there this coming year?