Part I of a series on the PGA Tour and its future in Hawaii
From the 18th tee at Kapalua Resort’s Plantation Course, the view is everything that is Hawaiian. The infinite Pacific churns as whales breach in the distance. The landscape tumbles down the volcanic shoulders of the mountains. The Cook pines sway to the rhythm of the trade winds. The sun dances through the racing clouds.
It’s one of the best views in golf, its fairway and green tumbling steeply down to Kapalua Bay and beyond to the Pailolo Channel and the island of Molokai.
Turning toward the mountains southeast of the tee, the view is of the watershed, where nearly 400 inches of rain falls annually. It is the source of most of Kapalua’s irrigation water, the water used by nearby native Hawaiian farmers and for residences. And it’s the primary reason why this week, the pros will be missing from the northwest tip of Maui for The Sentry, the annual kick-off to the PGA Tour season since 1999. The tournament was canceled on Sept. 10, citing drought conditions and a standoff over water that could be tied up in the courts for years to come. It’s left snow-bound golf fans in Minnesota, Nebraska and parts of the Northeast that for 27 years have depended on the broadcast as their escape with nothing to watch. But here’s the thing: 150 golfers paid $475 to play the course just last week and the tee sheet is expected to be filled during what would’ve been tournament week with Regular Joe golfers.
“It’s beautiful. Good as ever,” said Alex Nakajima, Kapalua Resort’s general manager for golf, of the Plantation Course. “That’s the sad part. Looking at it right now, yes, it’s in tournament caliber condition. But they had to make a decision several months ago. I certainly understand. Nothing was for sure. We were losing daylight when I closed the golf course on September 2. We only had a month or so of the growing season to recover the golf course.”
How did the Kapalua’s Plantation course recover so quickly?
So, how did the Plantation Course, which ranks No. 22 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play and No. 49 on the top 100 Modern List, make this remarkable recovery, and, did the Tour act prematurely in calling off the tournament, which officials estimate to be $50 million economic impact on the area?
While the emerald-green fairways suggest that is the case, this story is more complicated than that. As the water-delivery dispute plays out in court, the PGA Tour is trying to determine if Hawaii still fits in the future master plan – and the next Sentry is just 12 months away with no evidence of any settlement or resolution in sight. We will address these issues and concerns in multiple stories in the lead up to the 2026 season-opening Sony Open in Hawaii next week on Oahu, which has its own series of concerns about its future.
What caused the drought conditions at Kapalua?
Maui Land & Pineapple, which is responsible for delivering the water supply to the resort courses managed by Troon Golf, essentially turned off the spout and Plantation and Bay Courses began to turn brown. Nakajima closed the courses on Sept. 2, to allow Kapalua Golf’s agronomy team to restore turf health following prolonged Tier 4 water restrictions (zero irrigation) that caused significant stress and damage to Kapalua’s two golf courses over the summer. One of the big beneficiaries has been Kaanapali Resort, which features the Royal and Kai courses, just a few miles away but is tapped into a different source for water — the county’s R-1 recycled, non-potable water — and its fairways remained as green and plush as ever. Avid golfers staying at the Ritz-Carlton and Montage hotels have been making the short drive and plunking down $275-$325 for a round on the Royal, longtime former home of a PGA Tour Champions event, and $100 less for the Kai, a more traditional forgiving resort layout. “I hate to take advantage of a fellow Troon course but it is what it is and we’re not going to turn them away,” said Kaanapali’s general manager Karl Reul. “It’s been good for us but we wish them all the best up there and hope it gets resolved soon.”
Since early September, Kapalua Golf has remained on Tier 3 water restrictions which is a 60 percent reduction of normal water use. With plans in place to do a renovation of the Bay Course, the original resort course built by Arnold Palmer and Frank Duane in 1975, management decided to shift every bit of water available to the two courses to Plantation and cut off Bay entirely and let it die. On Sept. 16, the PGA Tour announced that The Sentry tournament would not be contested at The Plantation Course in January.
Through hard work, ingenuity and a little bit of luck, the Plantation Course reopened for public play on Nov. 10. At The Plantation Course, the drought-tolerant Celebration bermudagrass (on tees, fairways and rough) and TifEagle bermudagrass (on greens) – all planted during the 2019 renovation – have proved to be a major factor in the recovery.
Nakajima confirmed to Golfweek that original Plantation Course designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw (1992) will be on site this week to walk the property again and make final decisions on new sight lines geared to reducing the water output needed to irrigate 105 acres by planting additional native grass.
The golf course didn’t suffer any layoffs while the courses were closed, Nakajima said.
“We made a conscious decision to hold on to every full-time employee and shift them to the Plantation Course,” he said. “During the closure, they did maintenance either to facilities or the course. We did maintenance to the cart paths and carpeting in the clubhouse. That’s how we stayed busy. Guests playing now will find an improved course.”
When Plantation reopened, it restricted tee times from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and had a maximum of 80 rounds a day. Slowly, as demand increased, tee times were extended later into the day with the last tee time now at 1 p.m. Reports from those who have played it suggest that the conditions are pristine.
“Green grandeur in every direction. Wall-to-wall perfection. Not a blemish in sight,” wrote Andrew Penner, who recently played the course and wrote about it for Golf.com.
In other words, Plantation Course could have hosted a $20 million signature event this week but instead the tee is open to anyone with $500 burning a hole in their pocket and a chance to play a bucket-list course when the pros usually are ruling the roost. Tee times are available on The Plantation Course at GolfatKapalua.com. In addition, customized Maui Golf Vacations are offered via Troon Golf Vacations.
Next Up: Making sense of Hawaii’s water crisis