South Korea<\/td> | 1<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\nHistory of the Sony Open Hawaii<\/h2>\n \n\n\n The Sony Open started out in 1965 and, for its first five renewals, was originally an autumnal wintery event, taking place in November.<\/strong> In 1970, the event was put back to a later winter date of February, meaning it wasn\u2019t held in 1970 at all but in early 1971 instead. The dates were later moved to early January as we know it today.<\/p>\n\n\n Something which hasn\u2019t changes throughout the tournament s history, is its location. The Sony Open has been held at the Waialae Country Club, Honolulu, Oahu in Hawaii ever since its inception. This makes it the 3rd longest serving host<\/strong> in the entire PGA Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n It was 26 years after moving to February before the Hawaii Open picked up its first sponsor, when United Airlines backed the event in 1991 and stayed with the tourney until 1999.<\/p>\n\n \n That year, Sony, the tournament\u2019s present day sponsor, picked up the commercial partnership. They\u2019ve been chief sponsors ever since making them the 3rd longest serving sponsors<\/strong> in the PGA Tour. Along side Sony, the event boasts over 100 total sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n \n In 1965 Gay Brewer became the inaugural champion.<\/strong> He almost become the first player to retain his title but fell short by 3 strokes finishing second behind Ted Makalena<\/strong>. Makalena<\/strong> also made history by becoming the first Hawaiian born winner of the event.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n In 1969, Bruce Crampton<\/strong> became the first Australian and first non-American to win the competition. It took another 13 years until the next non-American winner when Japanese golfer, Isao Aoki<\/strong>, became the first Japanese player to win a PGA Tour event.<\/p>\n\n\n Throughout the years five players have managed to win the tournament twice<\/strong>. Most surprising of all is that four of the five players actually won both tournaments back-to-back. Only Lanny Wadkins won twice without defending a title, winning in 1988 and 1991. The last person to achieve the feat was Jimmy Walker winning in 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n The closest a player came to winning the competition three times was the |