Maui Sports

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the PGA Tour’s winners-only event, kicks off the golfing New Year at the legendary Plantation Course at the Kapalua Resort.

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions features the PGA TOUR’s best and brightest as they take on Kapalua’s famed Plantation Course on Maui.

Since it took two days to finish last year, organizers of the Pa’ia Bay Beachfest decided to make this year’s 18th annual contest a two-day event.

The PGA Tour begins 2015 on Maui with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua Resort. Defending champion Zach Johnson leads the strong, select field of 34 players who collectively have accounted for 100 PGA Tour wins.

The 10th annual HMSA Kaimana Awards & Scholarship Program for Hawaii high school seniors graduating in 2015 is officially open to all interested individual applicants.

In addition to the points race to qualify for the 2015 World Championship Tour and rankings points for the Vans Triple Crown, Hawaiian Airlines added another contest to the stakes this season in Hawaii: The Best-in-Class competition, which awards 250,000 air miles to the surfer with the best two-wave total at the end of Triple Crown.

History was made Friday, the last day of the 2014 World Championship Tour (WCT) as Gabriel Medina won Brazil’s first world surfing title on his way to finishing runner-up to Queensland’s Julian Wilson at the Billabong Pipe Masters on Oahu.

Hawaii’s Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday in New York by a landslide over co-finalists Melvin Gordon and Amari Cooper.

The 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions will be giving away two band new vehicles to the player — and his caddie — who makes a hole-in-one on No. 8 during any of the four days of competition.

Using Wednesday’s season opener as a measuring stick, fans of Maui Interscholastic League boys soccer can expect a break-neck tempo, in-your-face, attacking brand of football, not for the faint of heart.

University of Hawaii Athletics Director Ben Jay, who resigned Tuesday, will continue to run the day-to-day operations for athletics and be paid his current $293,000-a-year base salary through the end of June or until his departure.

Sarah Mendoza etched her name into the University of Hawai’i women’s volleyball record book but it would come in her final match as the 23rd-ranked Rainbow Wahine ended their season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 25-20, 19-25, 25-16, 25-14 loss to No. 3 Washington on Saturday at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Tahiti’s Michel Bourez recorded a stunning victory in triple-overhead waves Friday at the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach.

The 23rd-ranked University of Hawai’i women’s volleyball team got a boost off the bench from Maui’s Ginger Long, sweeping No. 21 Duke 25-15, 25-19, 25-17 Friday in a NCAA tournament first-round match in Seattle.

Lahaina’s Dusty Payne continued to control the spotlight Wednesday at the Vans World Cup of Surfing, recording one of the highest heat scores of the day in a much-anticipated matchup with current ASP World No. 1 Gabriel Medina of Brazil.

The Maui Flag Football League has extended sign ups for its first flag football season.

National “E” Coaching Course is being offered to all competitive soccer coaches U13 and above here on Maui, from Dec. 12-14, at Maui Waena Intermediate School in Kahului.

Molokai’s Kalei Adolpho will be one of two seniors from the Rainbow Wahine Volleyball team to be honored Saturday — Senior Night — following the team’s final home match against UC Davis at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Arizona Wildcats claimed the 2014 EA Sports Maui Invitational Tournament Championship with a 61-59 win over the San Diego State Aztecs Wednesday at the Lahaina Civic Center.

The third-ranked Arizona Wildcats answered their first big challenge of the season Tuesday, holding off Kansas State and advancing to the championship game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.