In three weeks, the world’s greatest golfers will partake of Kapalua Plantation once more as the PGA Tour opens 2020 on Maui at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
Last time the Tour saw Plantation, third-round leader Gary Woodland fired a final-round 68 and lost by one to Xander Schauffele’s spectacular 62.
Both should be back, along with the Justins — Rose and Thomas — and Dustin — Johnson, who won here in 2013 and ’18. Matt Kuchar should stop by on the way to defend a Sony Open in Hawaii title the next week at Waialae Country Club.
Kapalua’s Mark Rolfing expects pretty much every other 2019 winner to be at the New Year’s Day Pro-Am, with the possible exception of Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods — who hasn’t played at Kapalua since 2005.
They will see a vastly different Plantation Course after a nine-month “restoration” designed predominantly to accomplish drastically diverse goals: Make it tougher for the finest players on the planet and easier for the rest of us who play Plantation the other 51 weeks of the year.
“It is really hard,” Rolfing acknowledges. “Really, really hard.”
Rolfing is a golf broadcaster now, but started in the cart barn at Kapalua. He became a resort partner and founded the Kapalua International, which brought the TOC here in 1999.
Plantation was designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore and opened in 1991. They worked on the “refinement project” — no one is calling it a renovation — with Rolfing and the Design, Development and Agronomy team from Troon, which manages Kapalua’s two courses.
They brought in Celebration Bermuda grass for all 107 acres of fairways, tees and rough, and TifEagle Bermuda for the greens. All 93 bunkers got a new capillary concrete liner system to help them survive radical weather.
All 18 holes are now different in some way. The 13th green was reduced by 1,000 feet and the 14th and 18th expanded by 1,200. The architects also dramatically altered the way some holes are played.
Tees — front to back — have been altered and added. Those six old par-4s under 400 yards, which made the Plantation one of the Tour’s shortest layouts, now have teeth. Par-5s where recreational players hacked away in frustration are suddenly much friendlier.
What will be most obvious, according to Rolfing, is how much Crenshaw and Coore “calmed” the greens to make it easier for recreational players to putt and allow more pin positions for pros.
“They didn’t really factor in what the Tour wanted,” Rolfing says. “They wanted the best course that fit the land. Some greens are so dramatically changed they are not recognizable. I think it’s good. There’s still a lot of slope, but it looks good.”
The age of the course, and climate change, took its toll, he adds, calling the changes “a 30-year refinement.”
Whether they know it or not, pros will need more practice this time around. Rolfing lives at the resort and is now “confounded” by some putts. Course management is brand new. And, with the new grass and good growing season, the ball sits up better and the hillside simply looks greener.
In 2018, the Bay Course moved its clubhouse, re-routed holes and renovated practice areas. This year, the Plantation was closed from Feb. 11 until Nov. 23 for the estimated $10 million “restoration,” which does not include revenue loss. Everything around it is also upgraded or new, including the restaurant, which re-opens next week.
Yet Rolfing believes “it’s got its old look back.” He hopes those course-record 62s — also claimed by K.J. Choi, Graeme McDowell, Jason Day and Chris Kirk at the TOC — will now be deep-sixed.
“I think more of the best players will be getting in trouble,” he says, sounding happy. “Look at the scoring. It’s been very predictable. It’s gotten a little too low.”
