The report of the first Signature event of the PGA Tour season losing its iconic course broke many hearts. The Kapalua Plantation Course had seen pros create some history over the years. In 2025, Hideki Matsuyama broke all records by scoring the best 72-hole average score during The Sentry in January. However, the 35-under will probably be the last piece of history at the Hawaii-based course, as it’s not in the condition to host the tournament anymore. And Mark Rolfing shared some details about why the Kapalua Plantation Course has deteriorated.

He joined the Fried Egg Golf Podcast with Andy Johnson to discuss various things related to golf. At one point, the host mentioned how he was Mr. Hawaii before asking him to share an overview of the situation at the Kapalua Plantation Course. Rolfing told Johnson, “We had the COVID situation 6 years ago. Then in 2023, in August, our main town, Lahaina, burned to the ground. We pretty much lost all the infrastructure on the West side of Maui.”

“Didn’t affect Kapalua, but it affected everything else on the island. Certainly put us into a situation where we had to really start figuring out what we were going to do about the long-term water issue because we didn’t really have access to sufficient water in 2023 during that fire. Since then, we’ve probably had 25-30 wildfire ranges, not big ones, but because we’ve been in the sustained drought, and because there is no more farming on West Maui…”

The 2023 Hawaii wildfires were among the most tragic fires in recent history. They spread across 17,000 acres of land, causing over 100 deaths and destroying more than 2,000 structures. In total, the local government suffered damages worth $5.5 billion. Since then, the island has had a severe shortage of water. And with the rising cases of wildfires in the region over the last few years, Maui has continued to suffer from the drought. But that’s not the only problem they are facing.

“When I first went there, pineapple and sugarcane were both the big crops. And all the way for 10 miles north of Lahaina, everything was irrigated. It was farmed. When it was irrigated, you didn’t have all the brush and potential fire issues that we have now, and the need for particularly reserves of water in the event of a fire. So, we are in the worst drought West Maui is right now that we have been in since I’ve been there, and that’s been four decades now. It’s a prolonged drought. It’s a very severe drought.”

Pineapple and sugarcane exports are a major source of income for the region. However, with the shortage of water for irrigation and the destruction of the soil due to the fire, cultivating the crops has also been quite challenging. That has put further stress on the economic stability of Maui. Moreover, considering tourists are also apprehensive about visiting the island due to the wildfires, they are not able to gather the funds to import water as well. That puts even more strain on their drought. However, as far as Kapalua goes, water drought is not really the biggest issue.

“Having said that, the real issue here is not the water itself. There is a dedicated watershed above Kapalua in the West Maui mountains. It’s 9,000 acres that was dedicated when I first got to Kapalua by the chairman of the company at the time, whose family owned Maui Land and Pineapple Company. They dedicated the Puʻu Kukui watershed in perpetuity to provide water to West Maui. It still rains 200 inches a year up there. That never changes. The rain out there is still not affected by the drought situation at the lower levels.”

The Maui Land and Pineapple Company established the Puʻu Kukui Watershed Preserve in 1988. It was specifically built to supply water to the Kapalua region. It gathers enough water to satisfy all the 400 citizens of Kapalua. Despite that, there is one major flaw in the preserve that the owners of the Maui Land and Pineapple Company didn’t plan for when they built it. And that’s in the supply channel.

“The real issue now on West Maui and for Kapalua in particular is the water delivery system. There is about an 11-mile waterway that comes down the mountain from the watershed, that is basically a ditch that’s over 100 years old. It is a really old system that is failing and has never been kept up and repaired, and it would be a very expensive fix. But the real issue now is, if that system is not fixed, I don’t see what the litigation that’s going on out there now, I don’t see that being resolved in the short term. Therefore, the only way to keep the golf courses alive there is to use surface water, which is questionable at best, as you can see by the decision to not play The Sentry.”

The Honokōhau Ditch System of the Pu’u Kukui Watershed Preserve was built decades before they established the preserve. Hence, it’s outdated and inefficient for usage. That’s the primary reason the Kapalua Plantation Course wasn’t able to get sufficient water supply to the venue. Because the water couldn’t be distributed from the preserve to the course efficiently. And that has been the case for most of the region in Kapalua as well. This is what made the PGA Tour decide to move The Sentry from the iconic course from 2026 onwards.

Interestingly, the Maui Land and Pineapple Company is taking the heat for the inefficient water distribution system of the preserve. In fact, the locals and the Kapalua Plantation Course management have also taken action against them.

After being discarded by the PGA Tour, the Kapalua Plantation Course took action due to the bad water supply

The first time the news of the Kapalua Plantation Course facing a drought broke out, it was linked with reports of the locals taking action against the Maui Land and Pineapple Company. Interestingly, it was revealed that everyone in the Kapalua region was suffering due to the company’s mismanagement of the water delivery system. Apart from the golf course, other businesses and many homes also faced droughts despite having an ample water supply available.

In fact, the locals also filed a lawsuit against the company for causing the chaos. It read, “MLP (Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Inc.) 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.” As the lawsuit is still ongoing, it’s uncertain when the citizens of Kapalua will get relief from their distress as they continue to suffer from water shortages.