After losing PGA Tour event, Kapalua forges onward: ‘A real rollercoaster’

From a distance, the Plantation Course at Kapalua looks much the same as ever — its broad, tumbling fairways framed by pines and backed by the Pacific. But as general manager Alex Nakajima makes his short commute to work, the picture shifts. Up close, the turf betrays the strain that first forced the course to close to resort play in early September and has led to the cancellation of the PGA Tour’s traditional season opener.

“If you’re not right on property, you might think the course is playable,” Nakajima told GOLF.com in a phone interview. “But when you’re looking directly down on the turf, 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 formerly served 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 property has had reason to be grumpy. First came Covid lockdowns, followed by devastating wildfires that killed more than 100 people and leveled the nearby town of Lahaina. And now, water troubles — acute enough to end this year’s Sentry, a Maui fixture since 1999.

“It’s been a real rollercoaster,” Nakajima said. “As a golf-course operator, these aren’t the kind of things you normally train for. We’ve been dealing with challenges that go well beyond golf.”

The resort itself has remained open through the course closure, and Nakajima and his team have used the downtime to fine tune other aspects of their operation. They’ve refreshed the clubhouse, repaved cart paths and renovated the clubhouse restaurant. But the property is plainly parched in places, none more noticeable than on its other 18-hole course. All available irrigation has been diverted to the Plantation Course, leaving its sibling, the Bay Course, entirely browned out.

Then there’s the void left by the Sentry. Since its inception, the tournament has been a bright start to the professional golf season, and a vital economic engine for the island, imparting an estimated $50 million annual impact. In addition to boosting revenues for hotels, restaurants, bars and other business, the Tour’s longstanding calendar kickoff has generated nearly $10 million for local charities throughout its life. Its absence in January will be felt widely. To help 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 isn’t naïve about golf’s reputation. 

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

The island’s recent trials have underscored that connection. When the wildfires struck, 43 of Kapalua’s employees lost everything, Nakajima says. But not their jobs. Nor has anyone been furloughed during this season’s course closure. With maintenance reduced for a spell, some staffers were assigned to other duties.

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

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

“The level of detail is just so much greater,” Nakajima said. “We are not in the kind of condition 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 been slower to recover than the others. Rounds will be offered at a discount for the rest of the year.

The loss of the Sentry is, of course, also a loss for the resort; the tournament doubles as sun-splashed advertising at a time of the year when much of the country in frozen over. But Nakajima is sanguine about that downside. No sooner was the Nov. 10 reopening announced than Kapalua’s reservation lines started ringing. By the next day, Nakajima says, the resort had registered 400 bookings.

“The tournament being here for nearly 30 years means that most golfers have seen it and dream about teeing it up here,” he said. “So a one-year loss of the tournament does not concern me.”

What might happen in the long term is another matter. The cancellation of the Sentry lands amid a period of reckoning for the PGA Tour itself, as it reconsiders its schedule and its place in an evolving golf landscape. Sentry remains committed as title sponsor through 2035, but uncertainty lingers about what the calendar — and the Tour — will look like by then.

At Kapalua, meanwhile, Nakajima and his team have trained their energy on what they can control: getting the Plantation Course back to full health. At the current pace, all 18 holes are expected to be back in play by the end of the year.

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