After losing PGA Tour event, Kapalua continues: ‘A real roller coaster’

From a distance, the Plantation Course at Kapalua looks much the same as ever: the wide, tumbling fairways framed by pine trees and backed by the Pacific Ocean. But as general manager Alex Nakajima makes his short drive to work, the picture is changing. Up close, the grass betrays the tension that first forced the course to close for resort play in early September and led to the cancellation of the PGA Tour’s traditional season opener.

“If you’re not aware of the terrain, you might think the course is playable,” Nakajima told GOLF.com in a phone interview. “But if you look directly at the grass, you can see the problems. It’s recovering. But it’s not where we would like it to be.”

Nakajima, who played collegiate golf at the University of Oregon and previously worked as an assistant pro at Princeville on Kauai, has overseen Kapalua for the past nine years, long enough to know the Plantation Course in all its moods. Lately the building has had reason to be grumpy. First came the Covid lockdowns, followed by devastating wildfires that killed more than 100 people and razed the nearby town of Lahaina. And now the water problems – acute enough to put an end to this year’s Sentry, a Maui fixture since 1999.

“It was a real rollercoaster,” Nakajima said. “As a golf course operator, these are not things you normally train for. We have faced challenges that go far beyond golf.”

The resort itself has remained open during the course closure, and Nakajima and his team have used the downtime to fine-tune other aspects of their operations. They refreshed the clubhouse, resurfaced the cart paths and renovated the clubhouse restaurant. But the terrain is clearly dried out in places, which is no more noticeable than on the other 18-hole course. All available irrigation has been diverted to the Plantation Course, leaving its sibling, the Bay Course, completely empty.

Then there’s the void left by the Sentry. Since its inception, the tournament has been a great start to the professional golf season and a crucial economic driver for the island, with an estimated annual impact of $50 million. In addition to increasing revenue for hotels, restaurants, bars and other businesses, the Tour’s long-standing start has raised nearly $10 million for local charities throughout its existence. Its absence in January will be widely felt. To soften the blow, the resort has pledged a $750,000 donation to the community, the equivalent of what the Sentry raised for charity last year.

Nakajima is not naive about golf’s reputation.

“I know people have different opinions and not all locals are happy with that,” he said. “But it creates a foundation for this community, and not just during the tournament. It’s important the other 51 weeks of the year.”

The recent tests on the island have underlined this connection. When the wildfires struck, 43 Kapalua employees lost everything, Nakajima says. But not their job. No one was fired during this season’s track closure either. As maintenance was temporarily reduced, some staffers were assigned other duties.

“This is not about making a profit,” Nakajima said. “Any success we have at the resort doesn’t matter if we aren’t appreciated by our neighbors. We don’t see ourselves as separate from the community. We are a big part of it.”

The decision to scrap the Sentry coincided with news that the Plantation Course will reopen for resort play on Nov. 10 — timing that prompted some to wonder whether the tournament had been canceled prematurely. But preparing a course for casual golfers is not the same as preparing it for elite competition.

“The level of detail is so much greater,” Nakajima said. “We are not in the position you need to be in to welcome the best players in the world.”

When resort play resumes, two greens – the 1st and 8th – will remain closed. Both are shaded and have recovered more slowly than the others. Discounted rounds are offered the rest of the year.

The loss of the Sentry is of course also a loss for the resort; the tournament also serves as a sun-drenched advertisement at a time of year when much of the country is frozen. But Nakajima is optimistic about that downside. As soon as the Nov. 10 reopening was announced, Kapalua’s reservation lines started ringing. The next day, Nakajima says, the resort had recorded 400 bookings.

“The fact that the tournament has been here for almost 30 years means that most golfers have seen it and dream of playing it here,” he said. “So losing the tournament for the year doesn’t worry me.”

What might happen in the long run is another matter. The Sentry’s cancellation comes during a period of reckoning for the PGA Tour itself as it reconsiders its schedule and its place in an evolving golf landscape. Sentry will remain involved as title sponsor until 2035, but uncertainty remains over what the calendar – and the Tour – will look like by then.

Meanwhile, in Kapalua, Nakajima and his team have trained their energy on what they can control: making the Plantation Course fully healthy again. At the current pace, all 18 holes are expected to be playable again by the end of the year.

“We will continue to focus on improving Kapalua,” Nakajima said. “We live the dream.”