Waialae Country Club, home of the 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii on the PGA Tour, hasn't always had a W made from four palm trees behind the seventh green (the 16th hole for the Sony Open).
In fact, the palm-tree W has only been around since 2009 -- just a small portion of the club's nearly century-long history.
The story behind the palm-tree W, according to Matt Ginella, really centers on Waialae member Ethan Abbott, who came up with the idea and lobbied the club for a year to approve it. After finally doing some investigating, the club learned the project of taking four existing palm trees behind the hole and moving them to create the W would cost just $4,000.
Perhaps the immediate reaction from a certain viewer would be of the treasure map from the 1963 movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," where the money is buried under an enormous W of palm trees.
So, how'd the club do it? Superintendent Dave Nakama took four trees altogether and replanted them so as to convince the palms to grow sideways. He used a pair of the original four trees behind the green as supports until the newly planted trees could stand up on their own.
Now, the palm-tree W is iconic and associated with the club. It's a logo the staff wear on their shirts. It's in a ton of wedding photos.
Every single year, it's shown on TV and turns out to be an iconic part of the club's imagery.
