Kapalua Resort is a Hawaiian course, where the PGA Tour has started every year since 1999 for two months as it attempts to save its hunger course during a dispute over a century-old water system on Maui.
The 60-day closure starts on September 2 at Kapalua’s Plantation and Bay courses, which raises concerns that it may not be able to host Sentinels to start the Tour’s 2026 season.
“For months, the golf course has not been damaged by water,” Alex Nakajima, general manager of golf and tennis at Kapalua, said on Tuesday. “I advise the owners that we need to close the golf courses to increase our chances to save on golf courses and games.”
He said he believes the best hope is to fertilize with a small amount of Kapalua water and to remove customers from the course while staff remove dead grass.
Kapalua is known for its lush green fairways and contrast with the Pacific blue horizon, and today, with grass dying, it blends more yellow and brown. Nakajima said that the course has no water since July 25.
Tadashi Yanai, a Japanese billionaire who owns Kapalua and founded clothing brand Uniqlo, Kapalua homeowner and Hua Momana Farms filed a lawsuit against Maui Land & Pineapple last week, accusing it of not maintaining the water delivery system.
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.
“The MLP intentionally … allows the ditch system to fall into a proven state of disrepair. This disrepair, not God’s actions, the power of nature or something, is why the user who needs it currently has no water,” the lawsuit said.
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”.
It says the problem is low traffic, not inefficiency of the system.
“At record low stream levels, in the best interest of the community, all parties focus on facts and solutions,” CEP Race Randle said in a statement to the Associated Press. “Cooperation rather than litigation is the best way to meet the water needs of West Maui.”
Yanai signed a “water agreement” when she purchased the Kapalua property, which would keep the course in good condition. The documents said the agreements stipulate that Maui land “will be commercially reasonable at any time to manage, repair and maintain” the ditch system to reliably provide irrigation water.
The PGA Tour said it is monitoring “ongoing water conservation requirements affect Kapalua resorts.”
The trip said it stays in touch with the title sponsor Sentry Insurance of Wisconsin and the state governments of Kapalua Resort, Maui County and Hawaii to assess any potential impact when hosting a $20 million signature event. The competition is scheduled to be held from January 8 to 11.
Ty Management – Yanai’s company – said the Sentinel brought about $50 million in financial benefits, as well as a charitable component of the tour and Sentinel.
The lawsuit was filed in the state court in Maui, demanding a Maui land and pineapple honor agreement and taking reasonable steps to repair and maintain the ditch system so that water can be delivered reliably.
The lawsuit says the current drought has nothing to do with the problem and quotes U.S. Geological Survey data showing that the West Maui Mountains has more rainfall than Portland and Seattle.
“Water is scarce not because the amount of rainwater is significantly less. On the contrary, water is very small because MLP failed to fulfill its commitment to maintaining the infrastructure used to collect, carry and store the amounts,” the lawsuit said.
Meanwhile, Kapalua Resort, managed by Troon, offers discounts for customers due to the deterioration of the golf course.
Nakajima said the course must be closed so that there is hope for any sentinels.
“We have to do this right away,” he said. “The golf course dies every day.”
