Kapalua Resort, the Hawaii course where the PGA Tour has started every year since 1999, is shutting down for two months as it tries to save its water-starved courses during a dispute over the handling of a century-old water system on Maui.<\/p>\n
The 60-day closure, which starts Sept. 2 for the Plantation and Bay courses at Kapalua, has raised concerns it might not be able to host The Sentry to start the tour’s 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cThe golf course has been damaged with no water for months,\u201d Alex Nakajima, the general manager of Kapalua Golf and Tennis, said Tuesday. \u201cI proposed to the owner that we need to shut the golf course to increase our chances to save the golf course and the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
He feels the best hope is to use what little water Kapalua gets for a slow-releasing fertilizer and to keep customers off the course while the staff removes dead grass.<\/p>\n
Kapalua, known for the contrast of lush green fairways and the Pacific blue horizon, is more a blend of yellow and brown these days as the grass dies. Nakajima said the course has not had water since July 25.<\/p>\n
Tadashi Yanai, the Japanese billionaire who owns Kapalua and who founded the apparel brand Uniqlo, Kapalua homeowners and Hua Momona Farms filed a lawsuit last week against Maui Land & Pineapple, alleging it has not maintained the water delivery system.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
At the center of the dispute is the 11-mile Honokohau Stream and Ditch System that runs from the West Maui mountains and supplies irrigation water to the Kapalua area.<\/p>\n
\u201cMLP has knowingly … allowed the Ditch System to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair. That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
Maui Land & Pineapple said it has made \u201ccertain repairs and improvements to the ditch system\u201d as directed by the Commission on Water Resource Management and that all its actions are \u201cconsistent with the agreements between MLP and the golf courses.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the problem was low flows, not inefficiency in the system.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this time of record low stream levels, it is in the best interest of the community that all parties remain focused on facts and solutions,\u201d CEP Race Randle said in a statement to The Associated Press. \u201cCollaboration, not litigation, is the best path forward to addressing West Maui\u2019s water needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims Yanai entered into \u201cwater delivery agreements\u201d when he bought the Kapalua properties that would allow the courses to be kept in good condition. The filing says these agreements stipulated Maui Land \u201cwill at all times exercise commercially reasonable efforts to manage, repair and maintain\u201d the ditch system for a reliable delivery of irrigation water.<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour said only that it was monitoring \u201cthe ongoing water conservation requirements affecting Kapalua Resort.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tour said it has been in touch with the title sponsor, Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance, along with Kapalua Resort, Maui County and Hawaii’s state government to assess any potential impact in staging the $20 million signature event. The tournament is scheduled for Jan. 8-11.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
TY Management \u2014 Yanai’s company \u2014 said The Sentry brings in some $50 million in economic benefits, plus the tour and Sentry’s charitable component.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed in state court on Maui, asks that Maui Land & Pineapple honor agreements and take reasonable steps to repair and maintain the ditch system so that water can be reliably delivered.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims the current drought has no bearing on the problem and cites U.S. Geological Survey data showing the watershed in the West Maui mountains gets more annual rainfall than Portland and Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater is scarce not because rain is falling in significantly smaller quantities. Rather, water is scarce because MLP has failed to honor its promises to maintain the infrastructure used to collect, carry, and store it properly,” the suit claims.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Troon-managed Kapalua Resort had been offering discounts to customers because of the deteriorating conditions of its golf courses.<\/p>\n
Nakajima said the course will have to be closed to have any hope of staging The Sentry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to do this immediately,” he said. “Every day the golf course is dying.”<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n