The Hawaiian golf course, which hosted the PGA Tour opener, was on the seventh day of Thursday’s lack of irrigation water, a serious setback to save the plantation course in Capaluya in time for the January championship.
The lack of irrigation stems from disputes with Maui land and pineapples, which provide irrigation to the western part of the island on Maui’s century-old water supply system.
The Capaluya Golf Resort last week decided to close the waterway for two months on September 2 to use it is allowed to protect the turf’s water, which includes verticut mowed dead grass, so that it can absorb water better and release slow fertilizer.
But then, when the MLP went from Level 2 limit (60% of normal irrigation) to Weekend Level 4 (no irrigation), the tough situation got worse. Kapalua has never watered the plantation course since August 29.
Alex Nakajima, general manager of golf and tennis at Kapalua, said plans for Verticut and other measures were put on hold.
“We have plans for all the action,” Nakajima said Thursday. “But without water, we can’t do anything. It’s tough.”
The centre of the dispute is the system of honokohau streams and ditches running from the West Maui Mountains and provides irrigation water to the Kapalua area.
Tadashi Yanai, a Japanese billionaire who owns Kapalua, founded the clothing brand Uniqlo with Kapalua homeowner and Hua Momana Farms, and filed a lawsuit against the MLP on August 18, accusing it of not maintaining the water system.
Maui Land and Pineapple said it had carried out “certain repairs and improvements to the ditch system” as directed by the Water Resources Management Commission, and all its actions were “consistent with the agreement between the MLP and the golf course”.
The PGA Tour has been held in Kapalua since 1982, first as part of the informal season that became the season opener in 1999. Wisconsin-based Sentinel Insurance is the tour’s title sponsor, and officials say the area brings about $50 million to the area.
“We have previously warned that the closure of another floor will devastating for the unirrigated turf that has been exhausted from months,” Capalua said in a statement. “As the recovery of the course is already uncertain, a second forced dormant in the case of the second floor makes it more difficult and fragile to prepare for the January PGA Tour standard.”
Nakajima cannot say the stadium can be without water before the dangerous PGA Tour season (January 5-11).
“The longer we wait, the worse it is for us,” he said.
