Mackenzie Hughes tees off on the first hole during the first round of The Sentry, the PGA Tour season opener, on Thursday at the Kapalua Plantation Course. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

KAPALUA — The last two champions were not at The Sentry this past week as it played to a dramatic finish at the Kapalua Plantation Course.

The prevailing feeling — and overwhelming sense of hope — was that problem may be a thing of the past, perhaps as soon as the 2025 event here.

Mackenzie Hughes was the final golfer into The Sentry’s 59-player field as he moved into position when defending champion Jon Rahm was suspended for joining LIV Golf for a reported $500 million. Also missing was 2022 champion Cameron Smith, who joined LIV Golf several months after his victory at Kapalua.

As a member of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council, Hughes said at his Wednesday press conference that professional golf needs some fixing.

Hughes finished tied for 25th at 20-under 272. He said the riff between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the upstart league funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is damaging the game.

Rolfing

“The LIV threat came along and all of a sudden we started to double the purses, and we’re asking sponsors to double their investment, and we’re giving them the same product,” Hughes said. “Fans also, I think, are left wondering, like, ‘do guys even love playing golf anymore, or are they all just concerned about money?’ All these guys going to LIV have made it pretty clear that it’s all about money. I mean, growing the game, but also money. So, to me, that’s disappointing.”

On June 6, the PGA Tour announced a framework agreement to use PIF money going forward. The deadline to finalize things passed on Dec. 31, though that deadline has been extended. The PGA Tour also announced it is now also seeking funds from Strategic Sports Group, a collection of professional sports teams owners led by Fenway Sports Group.

The PGA Tour board — six players, including Hughes, and five independent directors — has been working diligently to further negotiate a potential partnership in the new PGA Tour Enterprises. The new for-profit company was at the heart of the framework agreement announced June 6 among the PGA Tour, European tour and the PIF.

Hughes is now part of the elite group invited to all eight “Signature” events on tour that, like The Sentry, now carry $20 million purses.

“Now that I’m qualified for these events, I mean, obviously it would be silly for me not to play in these events. They are great opportunities. But, like, I just don’t think it’s right,” he said. “I don’t think that — again, we have the same product that we had in 2019, yet we want this, like, increased investment, not just increased, but increased in a big way. I just think that the product, I mean, while I think it’s great, it’s the same product. I just think fans are kind of left scratching their head thinking, like, what is going on?

“They also don’t know where certain guys are playing and there’s spats between the LIV and the PGA Tour, and it’s not unified in any way, shape, or form. There’s negotiations going on that are unclear, they have been dragged on for a long time.”

Hughes said the bottom line is simple.

“The fan just wants to watch golf. I think you watch sports for an escape from other nonsense, but I think golf has brought a lot of nonsense onto its plate, and now you don’t get just golf, you get a lot of other stuff going on. It’s a bit of a circus,” he said.

Mark Rolfing, a 39-year veteran golf broadcaster, said that the picture is starting to clear up.

“Well, let me start by saying that 2023 was probably the strangest, weirdest, most kind of wacky in professional golf at the highest level that I’ve ever seen in my career,” Rolfing said Saturday. “There’s never been a year like this. There were times during the year when I almost gave up mentally. It was weird, I found myself almost feeling like I was falling out of love with golf because I was so frustrated.

“More as a fan, I was so frustrated with the way all the top players were acting and the sponsors. Just everybody with all these money issues and who’s going to be playing where and nobody stopping and realizing just how good we have it and let’s not foul this thing up. It just felt that so much was happening that was fouling things up.”

Rolfing is encouraged by what is happening now, mostly things he sees and hears behind the scenes.

“I think the tide is starting to turn, I will tell you that,” he said. “I have a much better feeling about it now than I did even two weeks ago and the main reason is I’ve been able to talk to almost all of the players in this field and spend some time individually with guys and I’m starting to understand the direction that I think we’re headed.”

Rolfing said that he sees a golf world where the best players in the world will all play together again, outside of the majors.

“I think the only way to do that is to totally look forward and not look backward,” Rolfing said. “If we look backwards and say, ‘How are we going to compensate guys who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour?’ I don’t think we’ll ever get there. Where if we say, ‘Hey, the guys who defected early on should have to really pay a price before they come back.’

“I think we’re going to make progress. … We’ve got to look ahead.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

Mackenzie Hughes tees off on the first hole during the first round of The Sentry, the PGA Tour season opener, on Thursday at the Kapalua Plantation Course. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo Rolfing

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