For 27 years, the PGA Tour started its season on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. That ended when the PGA Tour canceled The Sentry for January 2026 because the course had turned brown. The tournament won't be back this winter either. The PGA Tour's 2027 schedule puts The Sentry at Torrey Pines in San Diego, January 27–30.
Kapalua's new tournament week is in March. The LPGA Tour's LOTTE Championship comes to the Plantation Course March 18–21, 2027. That spot on the calendar ties pro golf at Kapalua to two other clocks. One is the weather. The other is a court date. The final round ends eight days before the lawsuit over the water that feeds these courses goes to trial.
A Second January Without the Tour
This is the second January in a row with no tour event at Kapalua. Last winter the tournament was canceled. This winter it has moved: The Sentry's official site describes the event as returning to Torrey Pines, and all ticket types are on sale for the San Diego dates.
The Sentry brought more to Maui than one week of golf on TV. Maui Now reported that losing it cost an estimated $50 million. After the cancellation, Tadashi Yanai, who owns the courses through TY Management, gave $750,000 to Maui nonprofits. That money included support for groups that would have earned revenue working the tournament. Kapalua Golf lists the six recipients:
- Scouting America–Aloha Council
- Hale Makua Health Services
- J. Walter Cameron Center
- Ka Lima O Maui
- Lahainaluna High School Foundation
- Lahaina Junior Golf
That gift followed the canceled tournament. Kapalua hasn't named any charity partners for the March event yet.
March 18 Becomes Kapalua's Tournament Week
The LPGA's announcement brings the LOTTE Championship to Maui with a $3 million purse. Kapalua is part of a two-week Hawaii swing, and the LPGA lists the full event week as March 15–21, 2027. Four rounds of tournament play run March 18–21, with 120 LPGA professionals in the field.
A few details make the date stand out:
- The Plantation Course hosts the LOTTE Championship for the first time. Kapalua's last LPGA tournament was the Kapalua LPGA Classic in 2008, and it was played on the Bay Course.
- The tournament is moving from Oʻahu. The LOTTE Championship was played at Hoakalei Country Club from 2022 through 2026. Jeeno Thitikul won the 2026 title.
- The course is long. The Plantation Course plays as a par 73 at 7,596 yards.
"We are thrilled to welcome the LPGA back to Kapalua and professional golf back to Maui," Kapalua Golf General Manager Alex Nakajima said in the course's release, as quoted by Maui Now.
One Course Is Green. The Other Is Still Closed.
The Plantation Course reopened to the public on November 10, 2025, one year ago this coming Tuesday. Today the banner on Kapalua Golf's site says the Plantation Course is "open and in great condition," that the Bay Course "remains closed," and that Taverna, the driving range and the golf shop are open. Kapalua's 2025 release said the Bay Course would stay closed "until further notice" after long irrigation restrictions and drought damage to the turf. No reopening date has been announced.
Kapali Keahi lives in Lahaina and plays music at Taverna, which overlooks the Bay Course. He told Maui Now he had watched the grass go from brown to green over several months. He credited a summer of El Niño storms in the Pacific.
"Lahaina was really, really green the entire summer. But it's about to change. Some parts of Lahaina are already pretty crispy."
Kenji Yui, general manager of TY Management, called the Plantation Course "in fantastic shape" in a statement to the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative. He didn't say whether anything had changed in how the course gets its water. Maui Land & Pineapple CEO Race Randle gave Maui Now a direct answer. He said the company hasn't made changes "because the system was never the problem," and added:
"Following the increased rainfall this year, stream flow and reservoir levels have improved, and there are currently no irrigation restrictions in place on the Kapalua system."
So rain brought the Plantation Course back. Whether March looks as green as October depends on the dry months between now and then.
The Water Case Runs on the Same Calendar
The tournament dates sit inside a longer timeline. Each step below comes from Maui Now's October 7 report and the earlier coverage it links.
- June 2025. Users on Maui Land & Pineapple's water system were under Tier 4 restrictions, which ban all irrigation. The company says the golf courses used more than 11 million gallons that month, compared with 80,000 gallons for Maui County drinking water.
- August 2025. TY Management, three homeowners' associations and Hua Momona Farms sued Maui Land & Pineapple. They claimed the company didn't maintain the Honokōhau ditch system. The company countersued, blaming the lack of rain.
- September 2025. The PGA Tour canceled the January 2026 Sentry.
- December 2025. The state Commission on Water Resource Management fined Maui Land & Pineapple $140,000 for streamflow violations. The commission allowed the company to offset the fine with improvements to its system.
- May 2026. Maui County announced a tentative agreement to buy the water system. In October, Maui Land & Pineapple said due diligence and appraisals were underway.
- October 26, 2026. The water commission's deputy director said the U.S. Geological Survey was scheduled to install a stream gauge below one of the company's diversions on this date.
- March 18–21, 2027. The LOTTE Championship is played on the Plantation Course.
- March 29, 2027. The water lawsuit is set for trial, according to 2nd Circuit Court records.
Randle also noted that under state law, traditional and customary uses, drinking water and fire prevention come first. The county's treatment facility has to receive enough water before any can go to other off-stream uses.
Keahi is a lineal descendant of Honokōhau, where farmers have raised concerns about stream flow to their kalo patches. He sees both sides of the tournament. "There's a lot of people that actually depend on it who are a part of our community," he told Maui Now. He also said water is a need and a golf tournament is "a luxury."
What's Been Announced for Tournament Week So Far
Early registration is open. The 2027 early access waitlist asks for contact details and lets you pick general admission, hospitality, military or group tickets. It doesn't list prices or a date when paid tickets go on sale.
Kapalua hasn't announced the rest yet. That includes kamaʻāina pricing, volunteer signups, pro-am dates, spectator parking and shuttles. The ticket and volunteer pages on the LOTTE Championship site still describe the 2026 event at Hoakalei, including its $25 daily admission and $75 week pass. Those were Oʻahu prices, so don't count on them for Kapalua.
For now, the plans you can make are simple:
- Mark March 15–21 if you live along Kapalua's roads. That's the LPGA's full event week, and tournament rounds run March 18–21.
- The Plantation Course is open for play now. Taverna, the driving range and the golf shop are open too.
- Don't plan around the Bay Course yet. It has no reopening date.
- January will be quiet again. The Sentry plays San Diego January 27–30.
If you want to know how tournament week, the Bay Course and a county-owned water system could each affect a home along Kapalua's fairways, The Marchello Team follows these dates as closely as you do. Call Mark, Andy or Kristen and we'll go through what's been confirmed and what's still pending for your property before March.