Sentry Insurance Chairman and CEO Pete McPartland remembers it like it was yesterday.

He and other members of the board of directors were listening to Stephanie Smith, chief marketing and brand officer, give a presentation about the company’s Connected Communities—a Sister Cities-esque initiative where community leaders from Maui, home to The Sentry, the PGA Tour tournament the company sponsored since 2018, and Stevens Point, Wisc., where Sentry calls home, meet to discuss how to better serve and uplift their communities.

Suddenly, Smith interrupted her presentation to share the heartbreaking news that Maui was on fire. On August 8, 2023, Sylvia Luke, then-Acting Governor of Hawaii, announced an emergency declaration as a series of wildfires began to spread across the state’s second-largest island.

“We said to ourselves, ‘We need to do what we would do if Stevens Point was on fire,’” McPartland said. “It was a call to action.”

As first responders did their best to quell the fires while government agencies, corporations and even celebrities including Oprah and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson lended their aid and support to the relief efforts, McPartland and Sentry enlisted the help of long-time golf broadcaster Mark Rolfing who resides on Maui to provide a local perspective on the needs of the communities hit the hardest, especially Lahaina.

Determining mental health support and resources especially for local youth was a top priority, Sentry committed $1 million to the cause as the fires would go on to cause $5.5 billion in damages while leaving more than 100 dead. The company launched the Sentry Mālama Nā Keiki initiative in November 2023, which has helped more than 5,000 children and families across Maui.

The company announced another $1 million donation to Maui United Way on the eve of this year’s tournament, bringing Sentry’s total wildfire relief and recovery contributions to more than $3 million, including $2 million dedicated to youth mental health.

“The role that the community of Maui plays in our lives is a major part of this storyline,” McPartland said, “more than it is even the golf.”

But it was golf that served as the initial bridge between Stevens Point and Hawaii.

After unveiling a new logo and brand identity in 2016, the commercial and small business insurance company founded in 1904 sought ways to project its new identity and messaging. The opportunity to host a PGA Tour event which had beleaguered prior title sponsors came knocking. McPartland and Sentry jumped at the opportunity.

Not only would the tournament serve as a great opportunity to host their clients and their families for further relationship building, but the sport itself was great for brand awareness.

“Golf was the perfect fit,” McPartland said.

Begun in 1952 and played at the Kapalua Plantation Course in Maui since 1999, The Sentry had gone through countless iterations, sponsors and identities in an effort to solidify its place on the PGA Tour schedule.

After Sentry joined as title sponsor in 2018, the tournament received its biggest facelift in 2023 as the first-ever elevated event on the Tour as Commissioner Jay Monahan sought ways to increase prize money, participation, excitement and viewership to combat the upstart LIV Golf.

The event’s purse increased from $8.2 million in 2022 to $15 million in 2023. Last week, Hideki Matsuyama shot -35 to win $3.6 million of this year’s $20 million purse. Not only that, but as a “tournament of champions,” the event also increased its eligibility, evolving from Tour winners in the prior year to including those in the top-50 from the FedExCup playoff points list who hadn’t won an event the prior year.

The cherry on the top was the Tour’s return to a calendar-year schedule beginning in 2024, meaning The Sentry would serve as the first tournament of the year and of the Tour’s celebratory Opening Drive.

Like it prides itself on its long-standing relationships with the businesses it insures, Sentry remains committed to the PGA Tour tournament it serves as title sponsor of, announcing an extension three years ago through 2035.

Sentry’s foray into golf has continued to grow since the opening of SentryWorld on its campus in 1982. SentryWorld hosted the 2019 U.S. Girls Junior Championship and the 2023 U.S. Senior Open Championship, leading to the company becoming a corporate partner of the USGA and a First Tee trustee.

“I like to say that I think we’re the most golf-centric company not in the golf business,” McPartland said. “However, we never set out to be that, it all just kind of happened. Golf is good for us.”