Kapalua Resort Temporarily Closes Due to Water Shortage
The renowned Kapalua Resort, traditional host of the start of each PGA Tour season since 1999, will be forced to close its doors for two months due to the critical water situation it faces. The decision, which will take effect on September 2nd, will affect the Plantation and Bay courses, and has raised concerns about the possibility of the resort being able to host The Sentry, the inaugural tournament of the 2026 season. According to Alex Nakajima, general manager of Kapalua Golf and Tennis, the closure is crucial to try to save the golf courses. “The golf course has been damaged by not having water for months,” Nakajima stated. “I proposed to the owner that we close the golf course to increase our chances of saving it and keeping the tournament.” Nakajima explained that the hope lies in using the little available water to apply slow-release fertilizers and keep customers away from the field while staff removes the dead grass.
Maui Land & Pineapple responded that it has made “certain repairs and improvements to the ditch system” as ordered by the Commission on Water Resource Management and that all its actions are “consistent with the agreements between MLP and the golf courses.” They stated that the problem was low flows, not the inefficiency of the system. The lawsuit alleges that Yanai signed “water supply agreements” when he purchased the Kapalua properties that would allow the fields to be kept in good condition. These agreements stipulated that Maui Land “shall at all times exercise commercially reasonable efforts to manage, repair, and maintain” the ditch system for reliable delivery of irrigation water. The PGA Tour has indicated that it is monitoring “ongoing water conservation requirements affecting Kapalua Resort”. The tournament is scheduled for January 8-11. TY Management — Yanai’s company — reported that The Sentry generates about $50 million in economic benefits, in addition to the charitable component of the tour and Sentry. The lawsuit, filed in a Maui state court, requests that Maui Land & Pineapple comply with the agreements and take reasonable steps to repair and maintain the ditch system so that water can be reliably supplied. The lawsuit claims that the current drought has nothing to do with the problem and cites data from the U.S. Geological Survey showing that the West Maui mountain basin receives more annual rainfall than Portland and Seattle.“MLP has knowingly allowed… the ditch system to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair. That disrepair, not any act of God, nor force of nature, nor anything else, is the reason why users who currently need it do not have water,” the lawsuit says.
Lawsuit
Meanwhile, the Kapalua Resort, managed by Troon, has offered discounts to customers due to the poor conditions of its golf courses. Nakajima emphasized that closing the field is crucial to have any hope of organizing The Sentry. “We have to do this immediately,” he affirmed. “Every day the golf course is dying.”“Water is scarce not because it rains in significantly smaller quantities. Rather, water is scarce because MLP has not fulfilled its promises to maintain the infrastructure used to collect, transport, and store water correctly,” the lawsuit says.
Lawsuit
