Brown grass has caused the PGA Tour to pull out of a historic Maui golf course, leaving a $50 million hole for the island.
Situated on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort offers golfers breathtaking views of the ocean. The course is so famous that The Sentry, a $20 million flagship event for the PGA Tour, has been played there almost every year for more than a quarter century.
“You have to see it to believe it,” said Ann Miller, former golf editor of the Honolulu Journal. “You look at other islands, you look at whales. … Every view is beautiful.”
Its world-class status also depends on keeping the course green.
But with water problems in West Maui — facing drought and still reeling from a deadly 2023 wildfire that ravaged historic Lahaina — it became difficult to keep the course green enough for The Sentry.
Ultimately, as the Plantation’s fairways and greens turned brown, the PGA Tour canceled the season opener, a blow that cost what officials estimate was a $50 million economic impact on the region.
A two-month closure and some rain put the course back in suitable condition to reopen 17 holes earlier this month to ordinary golfers who pay more than $469 to play a round. The 18th hole is set to reopen Monday, but the debate is far from over over the source of the water used to keep the course green and what its future will look like amid climate change.
Questions about the future of golf in Hawaii
There is concern that other high-profile tournaments could also withdraw, taking with them economic benefits, such as money for charity, Miller said.
“It could literally change the face of it,” she said, “and it could obviously change the popularity as well.”
The company that owns the courses, along with the owners of Kapalua and Hua Momona Farms, filed a lawsuit in August alleging that Maui Land & Pineapple, which operates the century-old ditch system that provides irrigation water to Kapalua and its residents, had failed to maintain repairs, affecting the amount of water coming down the mountain.
The MLP retaliated and the two sides have since exchanged accusations.
As the water delivery dispute winds through the courts, Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental legal group, is calling attention to a separate issue involving the use of potable water for golf course irrigation, particularly vexing for residents facing water restrictions due to drought, including Native Hawaiians who view water as a sacred resource.
“Drinking groundwater should be used for potable purposes,” Lauren Palakiko, a west Maui taro farmer, told the Hawaiian Water Resources Management Commission at a recent meeting. “I cannot stress enough that it should never be pumped out, which would damage our aquifer in favor of golfers’ grass or vacant mansion swimming pools.”
“This is water we can drink”
Kapalua’s Plantation and Bay courses, owned by TY Management Corp., have always been irrigated with surface water supplied through an agreement with Maui Land & Pineapple, but since at least the summer they have used millions of gallons of potable groundwater, according to Earthjustice attorneys who point to correspondence from commission Chair Dawn Chang to the MLP and the Hawaii Water Service, which they say confirms this.
Chang said his letter did not authorize anything, but simply acknowledged an “oral representation” that groundwater use was an “existing use” at times when there was not enough surface water. She is requesting supporting documentation from MLP and Hawaii Water Service to confirm this interpretation.
In emails to The Associated Press, MLP said it did not believe groundwater could be used for golf course irrigation and Hawaii Water Service said it had not informed the commission that using groundwater to irrigate courses was an existing use.
The two MLP wells which serve the course provide drinking water.
“It’s water we can drink. It’s an even more precious resource within the sacred resource of the wai,” said Dru Hara, an attorney with Earthjustice, using the Hawaiian word for water.
Recycled Water Solutions
TY, owned by Japanese billionaire and founder of clothing brand Uniqlo Tadashi Yanai, has no control over the type of water in the reservoir it uses for irrigation, TY chief executive Kenji Yui said in a statement. They are also looking for ways to bring recycled water to Kapalua for irrigation.
Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former commissioner, said he was troubled by Earthjustice’s allegations that proper procedures were not followed.
The wrangling over water for golf shows that Hawaii’s golf courses need to change their relationship with water, Beamer said: “I think it’s going to be necessary very soon for all golf courses to use recycled water at a minimum.” »
