January is a difficult month as it’s back to reality from the spirit of the Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations.  I also equate January with depression (when I lived in England, we called it “the gloom.”)  and decided to take a business trip to China to try to avoid the boredom.

The 2026 PGA Tour has arrived with a whimper as the initial tournament held at Kapulea’s Plantation Course (The Sentry) had to be cancelled due to course conditions there.  The Sentry featured all the winners of the preceding year’s tour events in one event.    The course reopened to the public in November after a terrible situation with water distribution,  but could not be prepared in time for the Sentry.  Water distribution on Maui is a huge issue, and solutions are not apparent which has led to litigation and the potential for the elimination of the Hawaiian PGA Tour stops if not resolved.  Water is being allocated to the Plantation Course with none allocated to the adjoining Bay Course, which has caused the closure of that course to tourists.

The first event of 2026 became the birdie infested Sony Open at Wailea CC, which is duck soup for the professionals.  The course is tailor made for the long hitter and the big stick of  Chris Gotterup, simply blasted his way to victory on a course that has less rough than a baby’s bottom.  It’s a driving and putting contest and Gotterup was clearly the class of this limited field.

Professional golf is beginning to resemble a bad soap opera on Tru TV or perhaps “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”  Social media posts are delivering a plethora of misinformation regarding tour players from the PGA and LIV.  Rory McIlroy was so upset at how he was treated at Bethpage Black during the Ryder Cup that he vowed he would never play the PGA Tour in the US.ever again (really??).   Of course, LIV was facing financial ruin with many of its players intending to move back to the PGA Tour.  The financial ruin part is a true hoax as the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund has enough money, grit and oil to last for centuries.  By the way, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau all re-signed with LIV.  LIV still has no relevant TV exposure and golf fans have not related or can even understand the nature of the competition in LIV.

Then there is the defection of Brooks Koepka from LIV to rejoin the PGA Tour.  Disclosure of the terms of Koepka’s liberation was as transparent as the minutes of a Federal Reserve meeting.  There is considerable buzz among PGA Tour players as to how this happened and what Koepka had to do to regain his Tour Card.  Other LIV defections were suggested resulting from the misinformation surrounding LIV’s finances but this has also decidedly a false narrative.

What seems to be curious is that the great LIV players that head back to LIV do not perform well in major championships.  Johnson, Rahm, Garcia and Cam Smith all major event winners while on the PGA Tour, have been bystanders at the majors.  I believe the issue is that LIV competitive golf is team golf and perhaps country club golf with little pressure but lucrative paydays.  The ability to perform well in major championships requires a geometric escalation of mental acuity to persevere in these pressure-packed situations.  Only Bryson DeChambeau has been able to meet the challenge as not only has he performed well in major championships, he has become LIV’s poster child and the best asset of the LIV Tour.

The January doldrums also produces the indoor TGL league in the sumptuous $50M simulation facility in Florida.  Tiger’s team, the Jupiter Links GC, continues to underperform in TGL’s second season.  The league is certainly a lot of fun and pretty cool but could use a bit of juice in the broadcast booth.  This week, Justin Rose recorded an albatross into the TGL screen.  He’s never had an albatross on the golf course but he holed a simulated 2 iron on a par 5 hole in the 1/20 match.  Tiger has 2 of these on the golf course in his career.