When the PGA Tour gets back in action this week on the beautiful island of Maui, play close attention to the Plantation Course at posh Kapalua Resort and you will see a lot of changes to the layout considered the best course in Hawaii.
This island gem was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and is embedded into the slopes of the West Maui Mountains. It features dramatic ocean views from virtually every hole. The 7,411-yIts lengthy 7,411 yard par 73 layout challenges the pros but it’s wide fairways and generous greens make it very playable for the average golfer. With dramatic elevation changes, this course offers plenty of downhill tee shots. You’ll feel like one of the pros when – with the aid of the aggressive slope of the 18th fairway – you will enjoy hitting one of the longest drives of your life.
A decision was made in 2019 to do some reconstruction on the course. That work ran from May to November. Coore and Crenshaw along with Troon Golf and the PGA Tour wanted to spruce things up a bit and return some features that had eroded over time.
A major concern was the fairway grass. It had gotten spongy and soft. With a huge amount of constant play on the resort layout, it was difficult to shut it down for maintenance needs like verti-cutting, aerification and top-dressing. Thatch built up over time and the fairways lost that “spring” that the Tour prefers at its events. Those fairways were stripped and re-grassed with Celebration Bermudagrass, which is a dense grass that can be cut tighter.
“We think this turf will recapture the original design intent,” Bill Coore said of the work.. “The idea at Kapalua always was to land a shot 60 yards short of a green and let it roll on. In recent years, a ball landing 20 yards short of a green would just stop. It will play differently this year. Players will be able to use sideslopes to feed shots to a flag. And drives will roll out farther, sometimes closer to trouble.”
The greens were also a concern. They kept getting smaller and smaller the past 29 years and as green speeds increased, hole locations disappeared. Every green was reconstructed, taking them back to their original square footage. They kept the same strain of grass — TifEagle Bermuda.
Coore and Crenshaw also addressed the bunker complexes around the course. They originally had jagged edges but lost that feature from too much hand-edging. All 93 bunkers on the course were rebuilt totally. They used Capillary Concrete as a liner. It is porous and allows water to drain out of the sand when it rains and keeps the sand moist when it’s dry.
The one controversial change might be a new bunker on the fifth hole — a reachable par five with a deep ravine down the right side of the hole. Players aimed left and let the slope take their drives to the center of the fairway. Most could hit five-iron into the green. A new bunker was added with the intent of making the hole play tougher is year.
What this season-opening event provides are spectacular views. It’s basically a Chamber of Commerce ad for golf on the islands.
The renovation added a little length of the 7,411-yard layout but with many downhill fairways, it doesn’t play that long.
In fact, this is typically a scoring-fest.
With winter set in around most of the country, this is one of those “eat-your-hearts-out” events in balmy temperatures and blue skies.
But watch out for the Kona winds and the Trade Winds.
When they blow, things can get very interesting.
So welcome back, PGA Tour. This is a great place to start.
