The PGA Tour stated Tuesday it’s leaving Kapalua Resort in Hawai’i for its season opener after figuring out it can’t be able to host The Sentry in January attributable to a drought and water dispute that has left the golf course baked and brown from lack of irrigation.
The PGA Tour had began yearly on the Plantation course at Kapalua since 1999 aside from 2001, when the season started in Australia after which went to Kapalua on west Maui.
Nonetheless to be decided is the place — or when — to maneuver The Sentry, a $20 million signature occasion for all of the PGA Tour winners in 2025 and the highest 50 within the FedEx Cup. It was scheduled to be held Jan. 8-11.
The choice won’t have an effect on the Sony Open on Oahu, which might be performed the next week.
Brian Rolapp, the CEO of PGA Tour Enterprises, spoke with Hawai’i Gov. Josh Inexperienced whereas consulting with Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance coverage, Kapalua Resort and Maui County.
“The PGA Tour has decided the 2026 enjoying of The Sentry won’t be contested on the Plantation Course at Kapalua attributable to ongoing drought situations, water conservation necessities, agronomic situations and logistical challenges,” the tour stated in an announcement.
Additionally thought of have been the logistics of distributors and transport provides to stage the event on an island in the course of the Pacific.
Maui has been coping with drought situations which have affected 140,000 residents, and water conservation mandates are geared toward prioritizing wants of the island.
“We help the PGA Tour’s choice, given the drought situations Maui is going through,” Inexperienced stated in an announcement. “Defending our water and supporting our communities come first. The Sentry has lengthy showcased Maui’s magnificence whereas giving again to native nonprofits.”
Kapalua officers say the event has a $50 million financial impression on the world.
Sentry, which has a title sponsorship deal by means of 2035, signed off on the choice given the circumstances going through west Maui.
“As we have stated for years, Maui is a Sentry group not in contrast to our hometown of Stevens Level, Wisconsin, and that is still the case. Our communities are linked. We have constructed significant friendships all through the island, and people relationships are larger than the event,” stated Stephanie Smith, the chief advertising and model officer who oversees Sentry’s involvement at Kapalua.
On the coronary heart of the water dispute are allegations that Maui Land & Pineapple, which operates the century-old system of ditches that gives irrigation water to Kapalua and its residents, has not stored up repairs that has affected water getting down from the mountain.
Tadashi Yanai, the Japanese billionaire who owns Kapalua and who based the attire model Uniqlo, Kapalua householders and Hua Momona Farms filed a lawsuit Aug. 18 towards MLP alleging it has not maintained the water supply system.
“That disrepair, not any act of God, or pressure of nature, or different factor, is why customers who want it are presently with out water,” the lawsuit says.
MLP stated it has made “sure repairs and enhancements to the ditch system” as directed by the Fee on Water Useful resource Administration and that each one its actions are “in step with the agreements between MLP and the golf programs.”
Kapalua Resort closed the Plantation on Sept. 2 for 2 months with hopes of saving the golf course with what little irrigation it was allowed. However there was setback when the Hawai’i Water Commissioner and MLP raised restrictions to ban all irrigation.
Kapalua introduced Monday that the Bay course would shut indefinitely in an effort to divert what little irrigation it was allowed for use to avoid wasting the Plantation.
In latest weeks, either side have lobbed accusations on the different. MLP stated in assertion final week that Kapalua used greater than 1 million gallons a day over two days, half the capability of the wells, which led to the tighter restrictions.
TY Administration — Yanai’s firm — stated Kapalua’s irrigation has central management programs and water utilization is predicated on science. An organization spokesman stated Kapalua has adopted each mandate, even when MLP and the Hawai’i Water Service unexpectedly imposed an irrigation ban because the course was getting ready to take measures to reserve it.
Kapalua has been a part of the PGA Tour since 1982 when it staged a preferred unofficial occasion in November on the Bay course after which the Plantation after it opened in 1991. It was the primary design by Invoice Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
The PGA Tour Champions has a season opener on the Massive Island on Jan. 23-25, whereas the LPGA usually visits Hawai’i in early October.
The following step is figuring out the place or when to play the event, particularly with the Sony Open the next week. Earlier than it went to Kapalua in 1999, the event had been held for years at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.
The PGA Tour has added Trump Doral close to Miami to the 2026 schedule in April. A title sponsor for that event has not been introduced.
