As Kapalua prepares to reopen its Plantation Course in two weeks, general manager Alex Nakajima acknowledged it is not in condition to play host to a PGA Tour event.
Questions were raised when the PGA Tour announced last week that its traditional season-opening The Sentry tournament in January has been canceled, a month after making the decision that it would not be held at the Plantation Course on Maui. However, Kapalua announced the following day that the Plantation Course will re-open for guest play on Nov. 10.
That is two months before the The Sentry would have taken place, but Nakajima said there is a big difference between guest play and being in condition for PGA Tour players.
“The level of detail is just so much greater,” Nakajima told Golf.com. “We are not in the kind of condition you need to be in to welcome the best players in the world.”
When the Plantation Course re-opens, hole Nos. 1 and 8 will still be closed due to being more shaded and having not recovered as much as the other 16 holes. And with all water resources directed to the Plantation Course, its sibling, the Bay Course, remains browned out and unplayable for the foreseeable future.
The goal is for all 18 holes at the Plantation Course to be open by the end of the year.
“If you’re not right on property, you might think the course is playable,” Nakajima said. “But when you’re looking directly down on the turf, you can see the problems. It’s recovering. But it’s not where we would like it to be.”
The Sentry remains committed as the title sponsor through 2035, and Nakajima said he is not as concerned about the one-year loss of the tournament as he is in making sure Kapalua returns to full health and remains an annual stop on the PGA Tour.
The drought conditions that have impacted Kapalua followed the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and the devastating Maui wildfires that destroyed the nearby town of Lahaina. Nakajima said the Kapalua resort has pledged a $750,000 donation to the community to help replace what the Sentry raised last year.
“It’s been a real rollercoaster,” he told Golf.com. “As a golf-course operator, these aren’t the kind of things you normally train for. We’ve been dealing with challenges that go well beyond golf.
“I know that people have different opinions and not all locals like it. But it creates a baseline for this community, and not just during the tournament. It’s important the other 51 weeks of the year.”
