What’s Hot on O‘ahu: January 2019

December is over, and 2018 is pau! Let’s look ahead at our picks for what’s during the first 31 days of the new year:

Sony Open in Hawai‘i  

Professional golfers from far and wide—and their fans—will descend upon the Wai‘alae Country Club January 7-13 for the 2019 Sony Open in Hawai‘i. This charitable golf tournament generates over $1 million in proceeds benefiting over 150 non-profit charities in the state of Hawai‘i. 

The event kicks off with a number of smaller pro-am events that lead up to the start of the First Round on January 10, with the Second, Third and Final Rounds following on subsequent days. An awards ceremony closes things out on the evening of January 13.

Past champions have included household names like Vijay Singh and Jack Nicklaus, and 2018 saw Patto Kizzire take home the trophy. Who will it be this year?

Visit sonyopeninhawaii.com for a full schedule of events.

HoMA’s ‘Ho‘oulu Hawai‘i’ Ending Soon  

The Honolulu Museum of Art’s exhibit, “Ho‘oulu Hawai‘i: The King Kalākaua Era,” has been a popular exhibit since it opened in September, and will soon draw to a close on January 27. This exhibit provides a special insight into a nation and its king in a way that’s seldom been explored before.

King Kalākaua had a rather cosmopolitan outlook and saw Hawai‘i as having an important role as a citizen of the world. He made use of art, design, philosophy and technology to prove his point, and to show Hawai‘i to the greater world.

This exhibit displays never-before-seen treasures from numerous museums, State Archives, and collections, including fashion and textiles, paintings, original ‘ukulele, photographs, sculpture and other period artifacts.

By seeing Hawaiian art and politics converge, we can better understand the Hawai‘i of today.   honolulumuseum.org

Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational Returns

The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational—commonly referred to as “The Eddie”—makes its return this year after taking a year off.

The late Eddie Aikau was a lifeguard and award-winning surfer, who was lost at sea in 1978 while trying to find help for his crewmates. Today, Aikau is a revered figure in Hawai‘i and his namesake surf contest is one of the most prestigious events in ocean sports with only 28 surfers and alternates invited to participate.

The window for this event is December 1 through February 28, and will only be run if wave faces consistently reach a minimum height of 30 feet (20-foot high swells). As such, the contest has only been run nine times since its inception in 1985.

For more happenings on O‘ahu and the neighbor islands, visit our Events calendar !

[A version of this article appears in the Jan-Feb, 2019 issue of This Week O‘ahu]