What does the first week of January at Kapalua look like when nobody is shipping grandstands up Plantation Club Drive? For 27 years the answer was easy. The PGA Tour held The Sentry at the Plantation Course every year from 1999 through 2025. In April 2026 it confirmed it is ending its tournament presence in Maui. The 2027 Sentry starts January 25 at Torrey Pines in San Diego.
No other tournament has been announced for that January slot. As of the end of September, the venue and tournament listings show nothing at Kapalua Resort or the Plantation Course to replace it. What remains is a recovered golf course with an empty peak season, a set of recurring evenings at the resort, and the start of humpback season, which peaks January through March.
The empty year is what brought the course back
The course is in good shape today because last winter's tournament never happened. Kapalua Golf closed the Plantation Course on September 2, 2025, after Tier 4 water restrictions meant zero irrigation and the turf took heavy damage. On September 16, 2025, the Tour said conditions were "significantly compromised" and pulled the January 2026 event from Kapalua. The course reopened November 10 with 16 holes playable and the Bay Course still closed.
Then it kept getting better through the winter. Golfweek visited in February and reported that the Plantation Course was playing as well as it ever had, maybe better. The magazine gave a practical reason. The tournament week wears down the turf during the resort's busiest stretch of play. With no event on the calendar, the grounds crew could keep pushing the recovery without stopping. Crew members from the shuttered Bay Course moved over to Plantation, and the work included cart paths and new guard rails on the steep sections.
"The course is in really good shape. We're very proud. It's back to where we like." Pierce, Kapalua Golf, speaking to Golfweek in February 2026
The same story describes how the course is changing to use less water. The 2019 Coore and Crenshaw renovation took out six acres of manicured turf. Pierce was working to replace another 10 acres with hardy native grasses, and the 2019 sprinkler system helps with savings too. That means the fairway edges you see this winter will look different from the version on TV, and the difference is intentional.
How the course works for a kamaʻāina golfer now
Kapalua Golf's rates page, updated in late September 2026, calls the Plantation Course "open and in great condition." Taverna, the driving range and the golf shop are all listed as open. If you live here, booking works like this:
- Kamaʻāina golfers get an initial seven-day booking window.
- You need a REAL ID-compliant Hawaii driver's license or state ID.
- You call reservations for the resident rate. The resort doesn't publish that rate online.
- Standard public tee times open 30 days out. Resort guests can book 60 days ahead, and a paid premium window covers days 31 to 60.
For comparison, the published standard Plantation fee on the 2026 rate sheet is $475 plus tax, and $445 plus tax for resort guests. That sheet is only good through December 13, 2026, so January pricing isn't out yet.
The Bay Course is still closed. Its page showed no reopening date as of late August. Golfweek reported in April that David McLay Kidd's planned Bay renovation was on hold. Kapalua is run by Troon, which also manages Royal Kaʻanapali and Kaʻanapali Kai, and much of the Bay's former play has moved down the coast to those two courses. If you play regularly, the Plantation Course and the Kaʻanapali courses now share the West Maui winter. Our Kaanapali fall guide covers what's happening down that end of the coast.
The season is built from recurring evenings
The Sentry used to give the winter one big week. This season has smaller dates spread across it, and most of them repeat. In date order, here's what's confirmed so far:
- Friday, October 2. Hapa plays Alaloa Lounge at The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, 6 to 9 p.m. Seating is first-come, no reservations needed, and valet is complimentary.
- Every Thursday through January 14. Jazz & Blues Nights at Alaloa Lounge, 6 to 9 p.m., no cover.
- Wednesdays in October. The Slack Key Show at Napili Kai runs October 7, 14, 21 and 28. The October 28 anniversary show lists Daniel Ho and George Kahumoku Jr.
- Saturday, October 10. The Kapalua Wine & Chef Series brings Elizabeth Falkner and DuMOL Vineyards to Banyan Tree, 5:30 to 8 p.m., $225++ per person, ages 21 and up.
- October 26 through November 6. Kapalua Restaurant Week, with The Plantation House, Taverna, Banyan Tree, The Restaurant at Kapalua Bay and Alaloa Lounge among the restaurants taking part. The 2026 menus and specials haven't been posted yet.
- Saturday, November 14. Laurent Tourondel and Silver Oak at Banyan Tree, same hours and price as the October dinner.
- December 20 through January 2. Festive Fun at the Ritz-Carlton, with holiday lights, family activities and seasonal spa treatments.
The Ritz calendar also lists an Aloha Friday Market running through December 31, though the details are thin. The Thursday jazz series ends the same week tournament crowds used to arrive. After that, the next big date on the resort calendar is Whale Trust's Whale Tales at the Ritz-Carlton, February 11 to 15, 2027.
In January, the main event is offshore
The weeks the Tour used to fill fall right in the best part of the ocean season. NOAA puts Hawaiʻi's humpback season at November through May, with the most whales January through March. The first 2027 Great Whale Count is Saturday, January 30, 8 a.m. to noon, followed by February 27 and March 27. Pacific Whale Foundation opens registration December 14, 2026. Its 2026 list of count sites included The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, but 2027 station assignments haven't been posted.
On land, the season centers on a few familiar spots:
- Kapalua Coastal Trail. 1.76 miles one way from Kapalua Bay to D.T. Fleming Beach, sunrise to sunset, over pavement, sand, lava and dirt. The resort's trail page lists access points at Kapalua Bay, the Bay Villas beach-access parking, Oneloa Bay, The Ritz-Carlton and D.T. Fleming.
- D.T. Fleming Park. The county lists winter whale watching here. Parking is paid, with a 22-space lot by the park and an 80-space lot across Lower Honoapiʻilani Road.
- Honolua Bay overlook. November through February is prime time for watching big-wave surfing from the bluff. Parking near the trail is very limited. Use only legal spaces, never block a gate or a traffic lane, and go somewhere else if the arrival area is full. An off-site reservation and shuttle program is planned for fiscal year 2027, but it isn't running yet.
What the tournament used to fund
The Sentry did more than put Kapalua on TV in January. It also paid for local causes. Maui Now's September 2025 coverage cited an estimated $50 million a year in economic impact. Ka Lima O Maui described its tournament donation as a substantial part of its income. Lahainaluna High School Foundation's president called the event the foundation's sole source of charitable funding. In January 2026, with no tournament played, Sentry still gave $1 million on Maui. That was $250,000 each to Maui Food Bank and Aloha Puʻu Kukui, and $500,000 to Maui United Way's Sentry Mālama Nā Keiki initiative. No donation for 2027 has been announced.
The water question that started all this is still open. Kapalua's course owner and homeowners sued Maui Land & Pineapple over repairs to the irrigation ditch, and MLP countersued. On May 18, 2026, the County and MLP signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding covering the Honokōhau ditch, wells and reservoirs. When a council panel reviewed it in July, due diligence was still underway and the committee didn't vote. Our Kapalua neighborhood page and the Bill 88 breakdown cover the other county decisions affecting this end of the island.
Kapalua owners will be in a quieter January than any since 1999, and plenty of you will have questions about what that means for your own property. Whether that's how the empty tournament weeks could affect your rental calendar or what your place might be worth right now, Matt Talbot is happy to talk it through over coffee in town, or you can start with an instant home valuation.
