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False missile alarm in Hawaii gives Tour pros rude awakening Saturday

Kevin CunninghamBy Kevin Cunningham
January 13, 2018

PGA Tour players are in Hawaii this week for the Sony Open, the first full-field event of the new year. The week that often doubles as a quasi-vacation for pros and their families took a scary turn Saturday morning.

Just after 8:00 a.m. local time, players, their families, spectators and everyone else in the area were disrupted by an alert on their cellphones and televisions warning of an imminent inbound missile headed in their direction.

“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

The warning turned out to be a false alarm, but it took as much as a half hour for the second alert to arrive confirming that there was no threat.

With just the alert to go on, many Tour pros understandably took the warning seriously, taking cover in hotels and basements. Many of them tweeted about the experience, a sample of which you can read below.