The Sony Open in Hawaii could be on the chopping block as the PGA Tour re-imagines the schedule for 2027 and beyond. A lot of great memories have been made at the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae Country Club, the venue for the entire run for a tournament that began in 1965. We’ve seen a 14-year-old Michelle Wie shoot 72-68 and miss the cut by a stroke in 2004 and diminutive 16-year-old Tadd Fujikawa shoot 66 to make the cut in 2007, the second-youngest player to do so on Tour. There have been 16 playoffs in tournament history, including three of the last four years. Most recently, Nick Taylor chipped in for eagle at 18 and birdied the hole twice in a sudden-death playoff to down Nico Echavarria last year.

There have been a few memorable lowlights too. Who can forget the strange and sad saga of Robert Allenby, who claimed that after missing the cut in 2015 his drink was spiked and he was robbed, kidnapped, beaten and dumped in a park. Good times. In case this is the last edition, let’s pour one out for the Sony Open – where winning scores range from 253 to 281 – and offers the best media center view in golf. Make it a mai tai (unspiked, please) and enjoy this stroll down memory lane with a look back at some of the highlights from over the years.

The Hawaiian Open dates to 1965 and the inaugural tournament, held in November, went to a playoff between future Green Jacket winners: Gay Brewer, with his loopy swing, bested Billy Casper to win the first-place check of $9,000. They tied at 281, which is only 28 strokes more than Justin Thomas’s tournament-low 72-hole aggregate 52 years later in 2017.

In 1966, Ted Makalena, a native Hawaiian, won at Waialae Country Club, the course where he learned to play golf as a caddie. The local-boy-makes-good storyline is as old as time and also as good as it gets. He shot 17 under for his lone Tour victory, and beat future Hall of Famer Billy Casper by three to become the first native Hawaiian to win his state championship.

Two years after Makalena won, he died in a drowning accident at age 34. Makalena had been Lee Trevino’s road roommate and one of his closest friends on Tour, "like a brother to me," Trevino said in They Call Me Super Mex, his 1982 autobiography.

Trevino had Makalena’s brother, Harry, as his caddie in 1968. Trevino trailed George Archer and Dick Lotz by a stroke entering the final day. Lotz fell out of contention, but Archer looked in command until he bogeyed the last two holes. Trevino took advantage of Archer's late mistakes and birdied 15 en route to a bogey-free 65 for a seventy-two-hole total of 16-under 272, one stroke off the tournament record held by Makalena. With the ghost of his pal all but hovering atop a cloud, Trevino won by two strokes with the Makalena family in his gallery. He donated $10,000 from his first prize of $25,000 to a trust fund for the education of Makalena's son, Ted Jr.

"The most satisfying win," Trevino later said. "I always tell my friends that Ted and God were under every green, pulling the ball into the hole."

Nicklaus had watched Johnny Miller swipe three straight titles to start the 1974 season and was a late add to the field, saying, “I had an itch to play.” More like an itch to shoot a course-record 65 in the opening round. He didn’t cool off much, building a six-stroke lead going into the final round and posting 17 under to top rookie Eddie Pearce by four. It may not have been the most dramatic Hawaiian Open but it was the Golden Bear laying down the law about who was still the sheriff in town and that’s never dull.

Trailing by one stroke in 1983, Isao Aoki holed a wedge shot from the left rough for an eagle 3 at the last to break the heart of Jack Renner, who was signing his scorecard and thinking victory was his or at worst a playoff if Aoki made birdie. Then he heard the crowd lose their minds. Renner was in a state of shock in scoring. To his credit, he came back a year later and won the tournament in a playoff. But for Aoki it made him the first Japanese player to win on Tour.

“It was my best swing ever,” Aoki said 40 years later.

In 1998, John Huston went stupid low, shooting 28-under 260, and rolled to a seven-stroke victory over Tom Watson. How good was he? He broke the then PGA Tour scoring record to par, beating Ben Hogan's record originally set in 1945.

Using a belly putter for the first time on Tour, Paul Azinger cruised to a seven-stroke win in 2000, his first time in the winner's circle in more than seven years after beating cancer. "All the people out there who've been diagnosed with cancer," he said, "I guess I'm living proof now that your life can return back to normal."

It also was his first win since his pal Payne Stewart had died in a plane crash a month earlier. “That was really an uplifting moment after just such devastation in the off-season,” Azinger said. It also turned out to be last victory on Tour.

Tournament staff poses with winner Ernie Els at Waialae Country Club Sunday, January 18, 2004 at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Ernie Els had an incredible stretch at Waialae from 2003-05. It began with a white-hot performance the week before at The Sentry, blitzing the field at Kapalua with a stunning 31-under performance and then putting himself right in the mix for a win the following week at the Sony Open. Els had to duke it out with 21-year-old Australian prodigy Aaron Baddeley, who was making his Tour debut as a member. Baddeley forced a playoff by sinking a 10-footer for birdie at the 72nd and was inside Els for birdie at the second playoff hole. But Els took care of business, holing a 43-foot putt from just off the green to taste victory and would do so again the following year in another playoff over Harrison Frazar.

Vijay Singh edged Ermie Els by a stroke in 2005, preventing the Big Easy from a three-peat at Waialae. Els didn’t go down without a fight, closing with two birdies and an eagle at the last in the last three holes for 62, but Singh, the world No. 1 at the time, birdied the last for 65 to avoid a playoff and pick up his 25th career Tour title.

Russell Henley is awarded the Sony Open in Hawaii trophy from Sony Open tournament director, Kiyoshi Shikano (L) after winning in the final round at Waialae Country Club on January 13, 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Russell Henley's PGA Tour debut was better than most in 2013. He closed with five straight birdies for a three-stroke victory over Tim Clark. He became the first Tour rookie in a decade to win in his first start. Henley told Golfweek he ate California Pizza Kitchen all week and enjoyed the balcony view from his Hampton Inn overlooking Waikiki Beach. "I was unbelievably nervous," he said, "just felt out of my element and every putt was going in from everywhere and I just kept doing it." Did he ever.

In 2017, the wind didn't blow and Waialae was vulnerable to low scoring — none more so than by Justin Thomas, who shot a first-round 59. In doing so, he became just the seventh player in PGA Tour history to post that magical figure. Thomas had won the week before at The Sentry and cruised to a seven-stroke win at the Hawaiian Open for the double, posting a record-low 27-under 253 that erased Tommy Armour III’s 72-hole record of 254, set in 2003 in the Valero Texas Open. “I was really nervous this morning,” said Thomas. About what, we have no idea.

First, he shot a pair of 63s on the weekend to make up a five-stroke deficit and force a playoff and then Hideki Matsuyama ripped one of the best 3-woods (from 276 yards!) you’ll ever see in your life – to 2 feet – to edge Russell Henley. It was the Japanese star's third title in his last 17 Tour starts. “It was a perfect number for me for a cut 3-wood, 276 yards left to right, follow wind,” Matsuyama said. “I knew the green was soft enough to hold it, and I was able to pull it off.”

Last year, Matsuyama won The Sentry to complete the Hawaiian Swing Slam.

UNREAL SHOT. 😳

Hideki delivers a beauty from 277 yards out on the first playoff hole! pic.twitter.com/qT8ByiAVrm

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 17, 2022

Grayson Murray celebrates after making his winning putt during the first playoff hole on the 18th green during the final round of the Sony Open in Hawaii golf tournament at Waialae Country Club.

In 2024, Grayson Murray sank a long birdie putt at 18 to survive a three-man playoff and win on the PGA Tour for the first time in six years, five months and 22 days. Then he delivered an inspiring press conference, where he talked about his shortcomings and battle with depression and alcohol. Murray had one of his best days and sadly just four months later he died due to suicide.

There you have it, a baker's dozen of classic Hawaiian Opens since 1965 and here's hoping this week lives up to the ones that have come before it.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: These are 13 of the best Sony Hawaiian Opens in history