A perfect green on the coast of Maui. When you see the picture of the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort, you immediately want to play a round. There is nothing to suggest that the world-famous resort’s golf operations have just emerged from what is probably the biggest crisis in its history. After a complete ban on water extraction in September 2025, both courses were closed, followed by the cancellation of the traditional opening tournament, The Sentry, in January 2026.
“The turf was walking that line between life and death this summer,” says Kevin Kammien, Senior Marketing Manager at the resort, describing the state of the golf courses at their lowest point. In the meantime, the water supply has been partially restored. 60 % of the previous quantity can be used again. The management and agronomy team, led by Andrew Rebman, decided to concentrate this amount of water on restoring the Plantation Course.
The past few weeks have been a completely new experience for the greenkeeping team. “There is no manual for this type of recovery,” explains Kammien. “They don’t teach this in school.” Rebman’s team had to rely on their own experience and on their existing knowledge of the courses’ characteristics and the local climate. It was a trip into the unknown.
31,540 plugs planted
And yet, at this point, it showed how a greenkeeping team can benefit from smart decisions made in the decision-making process. At Kapalua Resort, run by the world-renowned management company Troon, a change in grass types in 2019 became a success factor. “Our tees, fairways, and rough were converted to Celebration bermudagrass in 2019, which played a major factor in our ability to recover. Our greens are TifEagle bermudagrass. Both the TifEagle and Celebration established deep root systems over the past 6 years, and the drought tolerance of the Celebration really proved itself during the period of 100% water restrictions,” explains Kammien.
Two greens were still lost. “Our agronomy team took 15,770 2-inch plugs from our nursery and pulled an additional 15,770 to re-propagate #1 and #8 greens – for a total of 31,540 plugs! It was an incredibly painstaking but necessary process,” Kammien says, still taking his hat off to his staff.
As complex as the entire process leading up to the reopening of the Plantation Course was, the excellent condition of the course is surprising, as recently confirmed by a reporter from the magazine Golf Digest. According to the management team, the rapid recovery was only possible because the course’s water management, including the entire irrigation infrastructure, meets the latest standards. “We are very efficient water users, we have scientific-grade weather stations, soil moisture meters and crop sensors. Each irrigation head has its own precipitation rate, and run times are based on daily evaporation measured from the weather stations. The central control computer then calculates the individual sprinkler head run times accordingly,” resumes Kammien.
The fact that none of the 43 employees were laid off during the course’s closure also helped ensure that work could be resumed quickly and efficiently when the water restrictions were partially lifted. Each of them was then deployed in a multidisciplinary manner in order to make rapid progress.
Further water savings
Nevertheless, the management has learned from the crisis: the water requirements of the courses are to be reduced once again in future. The two golf course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have already been on site to work with the local managers to develop a concept for reducing the amount of irrigated areas. Native grass, which is not to be irrigated, will play a greater role in some areas. At the same time, the resort is currently working on a permit for an additional water source in order to be less dependent on the regulations of “Maui Land & Pineapple” in the future.
Looking back, Kammien still finds it difficult to understand how such a water crisis could occur on an island with Maui’s rainfall, which, including the tournament cancellation, has probably caused an economic loss of 50 million dollars for the region. “Pu’u Kukui Preserve sits right above Kapalua Golf and is one of the wettest places on planet Earth so I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there wasn’t enough water to supply to our community this year ,” he says doubtfully.
Advice for other golf resorts
Andrew Rebman’s advice for other golf resort operators is therefore clear: only with the right preparation can such crises be survived at all. Regular audits of the irrigation system are crucial, as are daily adjustments to water consumption based on weather data and plant health. And there is no alternative to consistently using modern technology to increase efficiency.
The work is not over for the agronomy team at Kapalua Resort. The Bay Course also needs to be brought back into shape. But a look at the fairways and greens of the Plantation Course shows that it can be done.
