After the limited-field Sentry, the full-field golf season has begun for fans. We are close to 2025’s first full-field event featuring 144 golfers: The Sony Open in Hawaii, teeing off from January 9 to 12 at the Waialae Country Club. Apart from being a special event, its course is also among the top choices of events and players.

As a golf enthusiast, you might not know about it, but you must have seen glimpses of it apart from the event itself, in the movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, starring Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, and Sid Caesar. Apart from its unique palm trees surrounding fairways, there is a lot that adds up to the course’s history as well.

The golf course is known for its natural beauty, including the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean on the green on the 7th hole. A unique stand of coconut, monkey pod, and Kiawe trees is placed on the fairway lines. Additionally, the 83 strategically placed bunkers complete the overall experience for the players.

Since the beginning in 1927, the course has been going through changes by the experts. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel and Waialae Golf Course were built to develop the luxury travel trade to Hawaii. It was first designed by Seth Raynor, while later Robert Trent Jones, Desmond Muirhead, Rick Smith, and Tom Doak added their expertise to the course, making it one of the best. Since its inception, Waialae was a course only, where to alter on a few golf players came together to create the original Waialae Golf Club. However, in 1950 the old clubhouse caught fire. Following this, within 24 months, the new clubhouse was built and by 1958 Tennis courts, a swimming pool, and added parking units helped in turning it into the Waialae Country Club.

It is among the only 40 private clubs that host a sanctioned PGA Tour event in the United States. Even GolfDigest ranked the course in the top 15 in 2009 for its Best Courses in Every State list. Membership in this esteemed course costs between $52,000-$67,300 per year.

However, the long-backed history of the course joined the PGA Tour a little later after the 1960s and since then it has been part of the tour calendar year offering new adventures each season.

Waialae Country Club with PGA Tour

The course was officially opened in 1927 but was only available for local players at an annual fee. Later decades, in 1942, Waialae Country Club was incorporated. But in 1965, it became a part of the PGA Tour schedule that held the Hawaiian Open. Until the year 1999, the tournament was known as the Hawaiian Open, which later was renamed the Sony Open in Hawaii. Gay Brewer won the very first Hawaiian Open, while the last was won by Grayson Murray, the Sony Open 2024

Apart from this, the course has some of the crucial records set. The record for the opening round was set by Davis Love III in 1994 during the Hawaiian Open. However, his record of 60 was surpassed by Justin Thomas in 2017 by scored 59.

Not only this, Thomas went on to set a record for 18-holes, 36-holes, 54-holes, and tournament record at the Sony Open. He finished under par 27 with a total of 253 beating Justin Rose.

Hence, the Waialae Country Club holds certain significance not only to the sport but to the PGA Tour as well. With some great names featuring the historic course, this is going to be a great season opener. Fans will love to see their favorites back in the field including Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley, Sahith Theegala, Billy Horschel, Tom Kim, Russell Henley, and many others. Who are you supporting for the 2025 Sony Open? Share with us in the comments below.