PGA Tour Champions tourney at Hualālai celebrates 30 years, with inaugural champ Hale Irwin as ambassador

With heavy trade winds presenting a challenge at the new Hualālai Four Seasons course, three-time U.S. Open winner Hale Irwin said his strategy was to make sure he hit shots that left himself with a big margin for error.

And, “to at least get out of a hole without catastrophe.”

It worked. Irwin shot a 209, 7-under par in 1997 to win the inaugural Professional Golfers’ Association Champions tournament held at Hualālai.

“I was playing some of the best games of my life at that time,” said the now 80-year-old Irwin during a recent interview with Big Island Now.

This week, the tournament now known as the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It runs Thursday through Saturday on the par-72, 7,107-yard-course, and has a $2 million purse.

Irwin, who also won the tournament in 2007, last teed off at Hualālai in 2021. But he has continued to return as an ambassador for the season-opening event for the PGA Tour Champions, which is for professional men golfers 50 and older. And, he will be back again this year.

But through the decades, a lot has changed. Irwin recalled during the first tournament at Hualālai, the course was new, and the grass was firm. There were no homes at the West Hawaiʻi resort and the clubhouse was not finished, so “your locker room was your condominium.”

“Mastercard was the sponsor then, and we had people from all over the world in the Pro/Am. We had someone from Switzerland, Indonesia and Japan.”

The tournament started with 17 professionals, and this year’s pro field is set at 42, including last year’s winner, Ernie Els of South Africa, the former No. 1 player in the world with 80 professional victories, including four majors. Els shot 18-under par last year at Hualālai to beat out Bernhard Langer, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Alex Cejka.

When the tournament first started, tournament manager Kelly Fliear said a competitor had to win a PGA event to golf at Hualālai for one year.

“That was their reward; they qualified to come to Hawai‘i,” Fliear said.

That requirement has since changed. If a competitor wins a regular event of the 27-event PGA Tour Champions schedule, they get two years at Hualālai, Fliear explained. If they win one of the majors, like the U.S. Senior Open, they get five years at Hualālai or the British Senior Open.

But some things haven’t changed much.

“I don’t think there’s another tournament course that has the same stunning views like Hualālai, where you have ocean views at every hole or humpback whales jumping,” said Brady Miller, president of the PGA Tour Champions. “On hole 17, you can feel the sea spray on your face.”

The Rotary Club continues to supply volunteers, as it has for 30 years, and Fliear said the PGA team has always focused on celebrating and integrating Hawaiian culture with the annual event.

With new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp wanting a downsized schedule beginning in 2027, two longtime PGA Tour tournaments played in Hawaiʻi in January are in jeopardy — The Sentry on Maui and the Sony Open on Oʻahu.

Fliear said title sponsor Mitsubishi Electric and the Hualālai Resort have agreements in place for the tournament for the next five years.

“We’re very fortunate we’ve been able to play there,” Miller said. “It’s been a great partnership.”

Fliear said there have been great moments in the tournament over the years along with several legends who have teed off at Hualālai, including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.

Fliear remembers in 2002, John Jacobs holed a double-eagle on the par-5 10th. He finished runner-up with a score of 205, behind the champion, Tom Kite, who shot a 199.

“A double-eagle is more rare than a hole-in-one,” Fliear said.

In 2014, Langer of Germany birdied five of the last six holes to pull away from Fred Couples and Jeff Sluman to win by three strokes.

Also what makes the tournament special is the Hawaiian culture that is incorporated each year. It includes event signage constructed out of rock wall and native foliage.

“We’ve tried to integrate our directional signs with lava pavers as backdrops,” he said. “And then the landscaping department here will go around and they’ll put indigenous flowers from the resort and we’ll decorate all of our scoreboards and our signs and they look beautiful.”

Competitors and spectators are asked to wear an Aloha shirt for Aloha Friday.

Kahu (pastor) Billy Mitchell blesses the event every year at a welcome reception, and at a special ceremony for the volunteers.

Kumu Hula Nani Lim Yap and her dancers from Hālau Manaola have been performing at the event for the past 30 years, showcasing an ancient hula on the opening of the tournament and closing the competition with a modern hula.

Yap said the hula provides a cultural connection to the golfers and spectators.

Alongside the PGA Tour Champions team has been the Rotary Club of Kona, whose members have volunteered at the tournament since its inception.

When the tournament started, the Rotary Club provided 80 volunteers. That has since grown to about 400 club members who help with walking scores, and are standard bearers – carrying signs that display the players’ scores relative to par for spectators – and provide spectator control and help out with three parking lots.

Rotary Club member Larry Webb, who has donated his time for the past 18 years, including 16 as the volunteer manager, said the volunteers also help shuttle golfers around town while they are on island and on the course.

The tournament is the club’s only fundraising event for the whole year. Webb said the money they get goes back into the community, with about $25,000 set aside specifically for scholarships for graduating high school seniors.

The PGA Tour Champions has made indirect contributions and direct contributions adding up to about $3.5 to $4 million to local charities over the past three decades, with 30 $268,000 being donated this year to Big Island charities, Fliear said.

Irwin, who said a highlight of his career has been playing golf in Hawai‘i, and over the years making friends on Maui, O‘ahu, Kaua‘i and the Big Island.

Last year, the Rookie of the Year award for the tournament at Hualālai was named after Irwin, who also presents the award to the winner.

Irwin said: “Coming here is like a second home.”

To purchase tickets, go to MECgolf.com.

All three rounds of the 2026 Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualālai will be televised live on the Golf Channel. For more information about the tournament, visit PGATOUR.com.