.openInventory() not working

I have made a code in which a 9-slot inventory is supposed to be opened, and you click the item you want to give a player, and the player is given that item. The problem I am encountering is, when you type the command to open the inventory, it doesn't open the inventory. When I replace player.openInventory with target.openInventory it works, but that's not what I want. The "player" is in Creative mode, but I've tried setting them to Survival and then opening the inventory, and that does no good. Is there something I'm missing?

Code:

        if(cmd.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("sponsor")){
            if(args.length == 1){
                if(pgplayer.isOnline(Bukkit.getPlayer(args[0])) && !tributes.containsKey(player.getName()) && tributes.containsKey(Bukkit.getPlayer(args[0]).getName())){
                    Player target = Bukkit.getPlayer(args[0]);
                    sponsor.put(player.getName(), target.getName());
                    player.openInventory(inv);
                    pgplayer.sendMessage("Opening sponsor page!", player);
                }else if(!pgplayer.isOnline(Bukkit.getPlayer(args[0]))){
                    pgplayer.sendError("That player is not online!", player);
                }else if(tributes.containsKey(player.getName())){
                    pgplayer.sendError("You're not a spectator!", player);
                }else if(!tributes.containsKey(Bukkit.getPlayer(args[0]).getName())){
                    pgplayer.sendError("That player is not a tribute!", player);
                }
            }else if(args.length != 1){
                pgplayer.sendError("Usage: /sponsor <player>", player);
            }
        }

 

You need to create a inventory in the onEnable() method and a variable.

Code:

public static Inventory inv;
 
@Override
public void onEnable(){
inv = Bukkit.createInventory(null, 9, "The inventory of " + args.[0]);
}

Then it's gonna work I think...