The Sony Open in Hawaii still matters.

There have been plenty of reasons for a cynical sports fan to doubt it lately, but the electricity at Waialae Country Club this week made it seem bigger than ever.

Big stars who profess to love the Hawaii Swing, like Collin Morikawa and Tony Finau, skipped the event after trudging up and down the hills of Kapalua. Bigger stars like Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark opted to play a video game on Tomorrow’s Golf League on Tuesday. The only true star in the field was Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who played the final round in front of a throng of spectators along the ropes at least five deep.

But don’t tell 2025 winner Nick Taylor that it is just another tournament on the long calendar. Taylor beat Nico Echavarria on the second playoff hole to pick up $1.566 million and more importantly 500 FedEx Cup points.

When LIV Golf stole so many players from the Tour, including past Sony champions Cameron Smith and Kevin Na, fans of the establishment hoped that it would generate its own stars to replace them. That is something that tournaments like the Sony Open keep doing, providing a thrilling finish for the McIlroys and Schefflers to enjoy from their couches. My television stays tuned to watch the big boys at the Open Championship, but I also have room in my diet for Ted Makalena, Tadd Fujikawa and Isao Aoki.

It seems that no matter who is in the field, the Sony Open always delivers. Taylor can come up clutch as well as Schauffele can, just as J.J. Spaun can flub one away in McIlroy fashion.

Taylor had less than a 1% chance of winning the tournament when he walked off the 17th green — Spaun had a 68% chance of victory — but played the par-5 18th in eagle-birdie-birdie to secure another exciting victory. He did everything he needed to do, made the cut by three shots on Friday, shot a 62 on moving day and sealed the deal on Sunday.

The tournament has taken a hit recently with the Tour deciding to hand out 100 cards at the end of this season instead of the 125 it has given out since 1983.

Taylor, who has been a solid top 50 player for two solid years, doesn’t have to worry about that bubble. Especially now, with spots in the signature events, the Masters and PGA Championship. Not bad for a second-tier tournament in the middle of the Pacific.

The Sony champion has always finished comfortably within the top 100 in money earned at the end of the year, even last year’s champion finished 75th and he died in May. David Ishii was 80th after winning at Waialae in 1990 and he played only three other events that year. Our champion finished in the top 20 on the money list 21 times in the last 30 years.

Grayson Murray, who took Rory McIlroy’s challenge to “play better” in a famous heated exchange after the PGA bowed down to LIV Golf, finished 66th in FedEx Cup points last year, leaving him comfortably within the range of keeping his card. Before that, every Sony Open winner since the switch to FedEx Cup points from money as the criteria for status has finished in the top 50 at the end of the year. A Sony Open victory provides a boost that can be felt all the way into the fall.

Daniel Berger was No. 100 last year. Guys like Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, local boy Chan Kim, Netflix star Joel Dahmen and Sam Ryder earned their cards with finishes between 101-125 and will have to generate more points this season to keep living the life. All but Fowler teed it up in Kahala this week, and all but Dahmen collected valuable points.

The lack of big names certainly didn’t hurt attendance.

The security patrol charged with getting spectators through the metal detectors didn’t get a break from the time Tom Hoge teed off at 7:50 a.m. until the leaders putted out on No. 11 at 1 p.m., with the line to enter the tournament stretching the width of the ninth green the entire time, something longtime observers haven’t seen since Fujikawa captured the state’s imagination.

Those leaders, J.J. Spaun and Stephan Jaeger, continued to pick up spectators until they lined the 448-yard 16th hole from tee to green and their glut of admirers continued to grow almost to Eddie proportions. Jaeger needed to “water” the tree off the 17th tee in front of everyone but didn’t seem to suffer from any performance anxiety. That came moments later, when he dumped his tee shot into the bunker. He then nearly hit a spectator who tried to cross the fairway and answered the booing crowd with ‘how was I supposed to know he would only hit it 20 yards?’ The crowd was unsympathetic.

In his defense, it is kind of impossible to follow the action with so many people lined up to watch a man launch a little white ball farther than the eyes can see. Yet they still come, and from Monday’s first pro-am to Taylor’s putt on Sunday they seem to enjoy every minute of it no matter who wasn’t there.

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Reach Jerry Campany at jcampany@staradvertiser.com.