Kapalua Reopens Signature Plantation Course In Time For 2020 PGA TOUR Season
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2020-01-04
Kapalua's Spectacular Finishing Hole On The Plantation Course - Image Credit DAVE SANSOM (Joe West - Web Ready Images)
By Lisa 'Longball' Vlooswyk
The Plantation Course at Kapalua, the home of the PGA TOUR season opening Sentry Tournament of Champions in picturesque Maui, has recently reopened after a 9-month multi-million dollar enhancement project.
Original course architects Bill Coore and 2-time Masters Champion Ben Crenshaw, teamed up with Troon’s Design, Development and Agronomy team and Mark Rolfing, a popular Golf Channel personality and former Kapalua Resort Assistant Professional, to complete this ambitious project.
Over the last 28 years, Crenshaw has said that the course has gotten easier for the best players in the world and more difficult for the recreational golfers. Coore said, “One of our goals with the restoration is to recapture the original playing characteristics of the course, so … you can use the ground to your advantage.”
Coore added that the recreational golfers can use the slope of the ground to feed balls to the green and for the best players in the world it can perhaps create an element of doubt and decision making that could potentially make it a little more difficult for them.
Coore admitted that some of the greens were a little too 'slopey'. He said, this is, “A chance to calm them down a little bit, but still have a lot of life in them.”
The entire property tee to green was re-grassed. All 93 bunkers were reshaped and received new sand. Every green was redesigned and many expanded by up to 1200 square feet allowing for multiple new pin placements and all tees and the practice range were laser levelled.
The newly revitalized Plantation Course is a treat and a fair but challenging test of golf for all ability levels in the midst of a tropical paradise. Tee it up today at www.golfatkapalua.com.
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Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk is an 8-time Canadian Long Drive Champion for Women. She is a Keynote Speaker, Golf Journalist and Golf Entertainer. She runs Golf Schools for Women in Canada and the USA and has her own Instructional Video. Lisa can be reached through her website www.lisalongball.com or through Twitter @LisaLongball