Kapalua Is Open, Even Without PGA Tour Event This Week

The Sentry at Kapalua isn’t opening the PGA Tour season this week because the event was canceled in October due to drought conditions.

The Sentry at Kapalua was canceled this year, but the course has made progress in its recovery from drought conditions. / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

This week was supposed to be the Sentry in Hawaii, the PGA Tour’s season opener. 

Instead, there’s no Tour golf this week. And that’s because the event was canceled in October due to drought conditions at its venue, Kapalua’s Plantation Course. 

However, the course is said to be in “pristine” condition and is hosting visitors. 

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“Our team is thrilled to be welcoming golfers to the Plantation Course and sharing this beautiful part of Maui with them,” Kapalua Golf General Manager Alex Nakajima said in a press release. “We would obviously love to be hosting The Sentry this week, but understand why and when the decision was made by the PGA Tour to cancel the tournament. In September, no one could have predicted that course conditions would improve so dramatically. It’s a credit to our amazing agronomy team that we’re seeing these incredible conditions.”

The course reopened to the public on Nov. 10 after closing in early September due to “dying” grass, as it had not received water since July 25. 

The course filed a lawsuit against Maui Land & Pineapple, claiming the water delivery system had not been properly maintained. 

“MLP 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,” the lawsuit said, according to the Associated Press. 

Several months later, Kapalua’s grass is greener on the other side—literally. But now, the Sony Open in Honolulu next week will open the 2026 PGA Tour season, rather than the Sentry.

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