When the weather becomes a story in Hawaii, it usually isn’t good.

And for the past couple of weeks it has been anything but for those who play and follow the PGA Tour. Sideways showers not only plagued the Sony Open in Hawaii this week, it put a pall over the Plantation Course preview last week at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Wind and rain were a part of the show from the beginning until the end.

Those golfers in contention at last week’s winners-only event looked like they carried the clubs themselves at the end of the wind-blown, rain-soaked rounds. It was an exercise just to walk in those brand-new fairways where golf balls often plugged in place on drives off the tee.

For the 22 golfers who braved the conditions on Maui and then came over to Oahu hoping for a break, they got more of the same, just flatter. When you walk the hilly Plantation Course, carts are needed at certain holes just to ferry you along in a timely manner. There’s hardly a flat lie in the place. Throw in bad weather and it’s hard to judge whether playing last week helped or hurt you.

Yes, you’ve played in the weather for four rounds. As Kevin Kisner put it, better to play in it for a week than come over here and try it straight off your couch. But eight days ago after winning in a three-hole playoff, Justin Thomas was done. He was tired and in need of some down time. He walks out to the first tee on Thursday and hello, more wind and rain. Just wasn’t up for it. Had to take the weekend off.

In all, nine of the 22 golfers who played this week and last made it through until the end. The best finishers in that group were Graeme McDowell, Kisner and Ryan Palmer at 9-under 271. McDowell came home with a final-round 64 to tie for fourth. He tied for 23rd at the TOC.

Past Sony Open champ Palmer had a chance to win again, but bogeyed the final hole to finish at 9 under, two strokes off the pace. He tied for 17th at the TOC. Kisner birdied the last hole, his only one of the day, to get to 9 under. He tied for 14th on Maui.

As for the course and the fans who attended over the weekend, both got wet. It’s going to take a while for the Waialae Country Club to recover from the bruises left by the fans and the golf carts being used by support staff. There is plenty of mud left to go around and will prove challenging for those who take care of this expensive piece of property in the coming weeks and months.

Attendance was down, as you might expect. The weather and the National Football League playoffs took their toll. For the first two days, four corporate sponsors skyboxes were closed because of the gusting breezes that hit 50 mph and was a steady 25-35 until Sunday afternoon. Among the four was title sponsor Sony. All four corporations were forced to improvise with corporate tents until the weekend. The last two days were good enough to return to the skyboxes, but hardly ideal.

This was no golfers’ paradise, that’s for sure. The driving range looked like a tropical storm paid a visit. There was a large mud hole by the time things were done. The course itself held up much better. No rounds were postponed. There were no 36 holes played on Sunday as happened at the Sony Open in 2011. The TOC wasn’t shortened to 54 holes as in 2013.

But this wasn’t what the PGA Tour and the Hawaii Tourism Authority had in mind. Both are hopeful weather patterns as this one don’t become the new normal this time of year.