The Kapalua Plantation Course green fee is $475 plus tax at the standard rate and $445 plus tax for guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties, with a shared cart included, according to Kapalua Golf. A forecaddie costs $160 for one player or $185 for two, and rental clubs are $95 with two sleeves of balls.
For 27 years, from 1999 to 2025, this was where the PGA Tour began its season, and millions of golfers know its sweeping downhill fairways from January television. That’s changed. Drought and water restrictions on West Maui forced the cancellation of the 2026 Sentry, and in April 2026 the Tour confirmed it won’t play in Hawaii at all in 2027. The course has recovered, and it’s still the best course in Hawaii that anyone can book without a hotel stay. For the rest of the islands’ courses, see our guide to the best golf courses in Hawaii.
This page explains what a round at the Plantation Course really costs, with the extras, how to get a tee time, which tees to play, what the loss of the tournament means for visiting golfers, and whether $475 is worth it.
How we built this. Rates, inclusions, the forecaddie programme, booking windows and the Bay Course’s status come from Kapalua Golf’s own rates page, checked in October 2026; the resort-guest booking window was recorded from the same site in September 2026. News about The Sentry comes from reports by CBS Sports, ESPN, the Washington Post, Aloha State Daily, GOLF and Golf Course Industry, and we label it “reported”. Tee yardages, ratings and slopes come from published scorecard listings. We haven’t been comped a round; the notes on how the course plays lean on the design, the scorecard and the tournament record.
Kapalua Plantation Course at a glance
Kapalua, Maui · resort/public · Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw (1991) · par 73, 7,596 yards from the Tour tees · 77.0/144 (Tour tees) and 72.8/134 (Regular tees), reported scorecard figures · green fee $475 plus tax standard, $445 plus tax at the Kapalua resort rate, and a $546.25 premium rate, shared cart included (official, October 2026) · book online 30 days ahead; kama’aina rates have a 7-day window · forecaddie $160 for one player or $185 for two
- Standard rate: $475 plus tax (official, 2026)
- Kapalua resort rate: $445 plus tax, for guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties (official)
- Premium rate: $546.25 plus tax, also listed on the rates page; ask what it covers when you book
- Included: a shared cart
- Forecaddie: $160 for one player, $185 for two
- Rental clubs: $95 plus tax, with two sleeves of balls; a five-piece practice set is $25
- Booking: 30 days ahead online for standard tee times; kama’aina rates open 7 days ahead
- The Bay Course: closed; the golf shop, range and Taverna restaurant remain open (official)
- The Sentry: cancelled in 2026 and not returning in 2027 (reported)
How much is the Kapalua Plantation Course green fee?
$475 plus tax at the standard rate, or $445 plus tax for guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties, with a shared cart included, according to Kapalua Golf’s rates page in October 2026. A premium rate of $546.25 is also listed. There’s no separate summer or winter price on the published card.
Here’s the full rate card, as Kapalua publishes it:
| Item | Price (plus tax) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Standard rate | $475 | 18 holes on the Plantation Course with a shared cart |
| Kapalua resort rate | $445 | The same, for guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties |
| Premium rate | $546.25 | Listed on the rates page; ask what distinguishes it |
| Kama’aina rate | Not listed on the rates page | Hawaii residents; 7-day booking window |
| Forecaddie, one player | $160 | A forecaddie for a single golfer |
| Forecaddie, two players | $185 | A forecaddie shared by two golfers |
| Club rental | $95 | A rental set with two sleeves of balls |
| Practice set | $25 | A five-piece set for the range |
Source: Kapalua Golf rates page, checked October 2026. Hawaii’s general excise tax is added to every price.
Two things are worth knowing. First, the $30 resort discount is real but modest; it isn’t a reason on its own to book a Kapalua hotel. Second, Kapalua publishes one standard rate rather than a seasonal grid, so the price in July is the price in February. Hawaii doesn’t have a cheap season the way Florida or Arizona does, because the weather barely changes and the visitors never stop coming.
For comparison, $475 puts Kapalua alongside the most expensive public rounds on the mainland. The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass starts at $550 in summer and $775 from September to May, and Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco was reported at about $277 to $330 plus a caddie; we break both down in our guides to the TPC Sawgrass green fee and the PGA Frisco green fee.
What does a round at Kapalua really cost?
About $445 to $635 per golfer before tax and tips. The green fee with a cart is $475, or $445 for resort guests; adding a forecaddie shared by two players costs $92.50 each, and a forecaddie to yourself $160. Rental clubs add $95.
The headline rate covers the cart, which is how almost everyone plays this hillside course. The forecaddie programme is optional, and on a course with big, sloping greens and grain that runs toward the ocean, it’s the extra most likely to save you shots.
| How you play | Green fee | Forecaddie | Clubs | Total per golfer (before tax and tip) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard rate, riding | $475 | None | Own | $475 |
| Kapalua resort guest, riding | $445 | None | Own | $445 |
| Standard rate, sharing a forecaddie between two | $475 | $92.50 | Own | $567.50 |
| Standard rate, your own forecaddie | $475 | $160 | Own | $635 |
| Standard rate, riding, with rental clubs | $475 | None | $95 | $570 |
| Premium rate, riding | $546.25 | None | Own | $546.25 |
Rates from Kapalua Golf, October 2026. Tax is added to each item; tips are extra.
Kapalua doesn’t publish a suggested forecaddie tip. As a benchmark, TPC Sawgrass suggests a minimum of $40 per golfer for its forecaddies, and that’s a sensible floor here too, more if your forecaddie has read every putt and found every ball.
The cost that catches people out is the one that isn’t golf. If you’re staying on the other side of Maui, at Wailea or Kihei, Kapalua is a long drive along the coast road and through Lahaina, and a 7 am tee time means leaving very early. Factor in the drive, or play Kapalua on a day you’re staying on the West Maui side.
Can anyone play the Plantation Course?
Yes. The Plantation Course is open to the public, and anyone can book online up to 30 days ahead. Guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties pay $445 instead of $475 and could book 60 days ahead when we checked, and Hawaii residents can book kama’aina rates up to 7 days ahead.
Kapalua itself is a resort community at the north-west tip of Maui, built around Kapalua Bay and its hotels and villas, and the golf is open to everyone who can book the time.
That makes it the easiest of Hawaii’s great courses to get on. Manele, on Lanai, needs a stay at one of that island’s hotels, and the Big Island’s best resort courses favour their own guests. At Kapalua, you can book from your phone 30 days out without a room.
The window matters in the busiest months. From December to April, when the mainland winter sends golfers to Maui, morning times can go early, and a resort stay is the reliable way to secure a specific date. Outside those months, 30 days is usually plenty.
How do you book a tee time at Kapalua?
Book online through Kapalua Golf up to 30 days ahead, or earlier as a guest of a qualifying Kapalua resort property. Kama’aina rates open 7 days ahead. Check the aeration dates first: in 2026 the course was closed for aeration from May 6 to 10 and September 8 to 13.
Step by step:
- Decide whether you’re staying at Kapalua. If you are, ask your hotel whether it qualifies for the $445 resort rate, and book as early as the resort window allows.
- If you’re not, book exactly 30 days ahead for a morning time in winter and spring.
- Check for aeration. Kapalua aerates twice a year; in 2026 that was May 6 to 10 and September 8 to 13. The 2027 dates weren’t published when we checked, so ask before you fly.
- Decide on a forecaddie when you book. $160 for one player or $185 for two.
- Rent clubs in advance if you’re not bringing your own. $95 a set, with two sleeves of balls.
- Allow time for the drive. From South Maui, it’s a long way to Kapalua for an early tee time.
- Warm up. The first tee is a big, downhill opening shot, and the course gives you nowhere to hide from the wind.
Our guide on how to book a tee time covers booking windows, cancellation fees and resort access in more detail.
The Plantation Course without the PGA Tour
From 1999 to 2025, the Plantation Course hosted the PGA Tour’s winners-only Tournament of Champions, sponsored in its last years by Sentry, and it was where the season began every January. The scores were spectacular: Cameron Smith won in 2022 at 34 under par, and Hideki Matsuyama won the last edition here, in January 2025, at 35 under.
Then the water ran short. In September 2025, the PGA Tour announced that drought and water-conservation measures had left the course unsuitable for the 2026 event; reports tied the problem to West Maui’s drought and a water dispute involving the Maui Land & Pineapple Company. The Tour looked for another venue, then cancelled the 2026 Sentry outright, and the Sony Open in Honolulu became the season opener. In April 2026, the Washington Post and others reported that the Tour would not play in Hawaii at all in 2027, for the first time in 56 years, as it reshapes the start of its season.
For a visiting golfer, three things follow:
- The course is in good shape. Golf Course Industry reported in 2026 that the Plantation Course was close to tournament condition even without a tournament, and GOLF reported the resort pressing on after a difficult year. Check recent reviews before you book, but the drought-era photos are out of date.
- January is open. The course used to close for tournament week and its build-up. Without the event, early January is just another week to play it.
- The Bay Course is still closed. Kapalua’s second course, the Bay, remains shut, though the golf shop, range and Taverna restaurant are open. Until it reopens, the Plantation is the only 18 at Kapalua.
What you lose is the television connection, and for some golfers that was half the point. You can no longer play the course in December and watch the pros tackle it a month later. You can still stand on the 18th tee and look down a fairway you’ve seen on television for years.
The Plantation Course: history and architecture
The Plantation Course opened in 1991, one of the first designs by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the partnership that went on to build Sand Hills, Bandon Trails and Streamsong Red. It’s laid out on former pineapple-plantation land on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains, which is where the name comes from, and it climbs and falls steeply across the round, with views across the channel to Molokai from many of the holes.
Coore and Crenshaw built it for the wind. The northeast trade winds blow across Kapalua for most of the year, and the course is designed around them: enormously wide fairways, greens open at the front so you can run the ball in, and holes that play completely differently into the wind and downwind. That’s why the professionals made so many birdies here, and why an amateur can enjoy it despite the length. There’s room off every tee.
The greens are the hard part. They’re big, they slope, and like most Hawaiian greens they have grain that tends to run toward the ocean, so putts that look straight drift seaward. A forecaddie who sees them every day is worth having for that reason alone.
Golf Digest ranked the Plantation Course No. 23 on its 2025-26 list of America’s best public courses, and it’s the highest-ranked course in Hawaii that the public can book without a hotel stay. For more on Coore and Crenshaw and the courses they’ve built since, see our guide to golf course architects.
How does the Plantation Course play, and which tees should you choose?
Wide, hilly and windy, with par 73 from every set of tees. A 10-handicap should play the Regular/Resort combination at 6,407 yards, an 18 the Resort tees at 6,077 and a 25 the Forward tees at 5,181. The Tour tees, at 7,596 yards, are rated 77.0 with a slope of 144.
These are the published scorecard figures:
| Tees | Yards | Rating/slope | Who should play them |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tour | 7,596 | 77.0/144 | Scratch golfers and better |
| Championship | 7,284 | 75.5/140 | Low single-digit handicaps |
| Championship/Regular combination | 6,938 | 74.0/137 | Strong single-figure players |
| Regular | 6,701 | 72.8/134 | Single-figure players on a calm day |
| Regular/Resort combination | 6,407 | 71.6/130 | A 10-handicap |
| Resort | 6,077 | 70.0/127 | Most 15-to-20 handicappers |
| Forward | 5,181 | 65.5/116 | A 25-handicap, and anyone who drives it under 200 yards |
Par 73 from every set. Figures from published scorecard listings, not checked against a printed card.
The yardage overstates how hard it plays for long hitters and understates it for short ones. Many holes run steeply downhill and downwind, where the ball goes forever, and a few climb back up into the breeze, where it goes nowhere. The 18th is the famous example: a par 5 of well over 600 yards from the back that plays sharply downhill toward the ocean, where tour players hit irons for their second shots. From the right tees, you might reach it in three good shots and walk off with a story.
A few tips for the day:
- Play the wind, not the yardage. Into the trade wind, take two or three more clubs; downwind, take less than you think and let it run.
- Use the width. The fairways are huge. Aim for the side that gives you the best angle to the green, which your forecaddie or the yardage book will tell you.
- Land it short. Many greens are open at the front, so a running shot is often safer than a high one into the wind.
- Trust the grain. On the greens, assume putts break toward the ocean unless told otherwise.
When is the best time to play Kapalua?
Any time of year: the price is the same, the temperature barely moves, and the trade winds blow most days. Avoid the aeration weeks, which in 2026 were May 6 to 10 and September 8 to 13, and book further ahead from December to April, when visitor demand peaks.
The seasons on Maui break down like this:
- December to April: busiest. Mainland winter brings the most visitors, and humpback whales are in the channel off Kapalua, which you’ll see from the hillside holes. Book 30 days ahead, or with a resort stay.
- May: an aeration window. In 2026 the course was closed May 6 to 10; otherwise it’s a fine month, with fewer visitors.
- June to August: steady. Warm, often windy, and a little quieter than winter.
- September: another aeration window. In 2026, September 8 to 13.
- October and November: quiet and pleasant. A good time to find morning tee times without a hotel stay.
- Early January: now open. With The Sentry gone, the course no longer closes for tournament week.
The time of day matters more than the month. Mornings are usually calmer, and the wind tends to build through the day, so if you want the gentlest version of the course, book the earliest time you can.
Cheaper golf on Maui
Kapalua is the island’s showpiece, but Maui has good golf at half the price or less:
- Ka’anapali (Royal Course): a Robert Trent Jones Sr. course down the coast from Kapalua, at $228, or $150 at twilight (official, 2026). Par 71 and 6,700 yards, and harder than it looks, at 74.2 from the Blue tees.
- Wailea (Gold and Emerald): two Robert Trent Jones Jr. courses in South Maui, reported at about $285 for visitors in September 2026.
- The Dunes at Maui Lani: a Robin Nelson links-style course near Kahului, at $69 to $129 for visitors depending on the time, $49 to $55 for kama’aina, with a $42 same-day replay (official, 2026). The best value on the island.
- Waiehu: the Maui County municipal course, at $66 to $86 for visitors and $17 to $22 for Maui residents.
We rank the island’s courses in our guide to the best golf courses on Maui, explain how resident discounts work in our guide to kama’aina golf rates, and cover Manele and the other courses across the channel in our guide to Lanai’s golf courses.
Is the Kapalua Plantation Course worth the green fee?
Once, yes. At $475 with a cart, it’s expensive, but it’s the best course in Hawaii you can book without a hotel, a genuine Coore and Crenshaw design rather than a scenic course with ordinary golf, and it’s fun for every handicap thanks to its width.
The value case is better than it looks next to the mainland’s bucket-list rounds. TPC Sawgrass costs from $775 in peak season, and Pebble Beach $695 plus a cart or caddie; at $475 with a cart, Kapalua is the cheapest of the three famous television courses. And unlike some resort courses in Hawaii, the golf matches the views: wide, strategic, windy and memorable.
The case against is simple. Ka’anapali’s Royal Course costs half as much, and the Dunes at Maui Lani a quarter, and both are good courses. If you’re on Maui for a week and playing three or four times, Kapalua should be the one big round, not the default. And if you’re tempted by the $546.25 premium rate, ask exactly what you’re getting for the extra $71.25 first.
Our ratings:
- Standard rate, $475: worth it once for any keen golfer visiting Maui
- Resort rate, $445: a nice saving if you’re already staying at Kapalua, but not a reason to book the hotel
- With a forecaddie: worth it for a first visit, especially to learn the greens
- Premium rate, $546.25: ask what it includes before you pay it
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to play the Kapalua Plantation Course?
$475 plus tax at the standard rate, or $445 plus tax for guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties, with a shared cart included, according to Kapalua Golf in October 2026. A premium rate of $546.25 plus tax is also listed.
Is a cart included at Kapalua?
Yes. The green fee includes a shared cart. The course is spread across a steep hillside with long distances between some greens and tees, so plan to ride.
Is there a kama’aina rate at Kapalua?
Yes. Kapalua offers kama’aina rates to Hawaii residents with an initial 7-day booking window, but the price isn’t listed on the public rates page, so ask when you book.
How far ahead can you book the Plantation Course?
Thirty days ahead online for standard tee times. Guests of qualifying Kapalua resort properties could book earlier, 60 days when we checked, and kama’aina rates open 7 days ahead.
Does Kapalua have forecaddies?
Yes. The forecaddie programme costs $160 for one player or $185 for two, on top of the green fee. Kapalua doesn’t publish a suggested tip; $40 per golfer is a sensible minimum.
Is The Sentry still played at Kapalua?
No. The 2026 Sentry was cancelled after drought and water restrictions left the course unsuitable, and in April 2026 the PGA Tour was reported to be skipping Hawaii entirely in 2027. The course has since recovered and is open to the public.
Is the Kapalua Bay Course open?
No. Kapalua Golf lists the Bay Course as closed, with the golf shop, driving range and Taverna restaurant still open. The Plantation is Kapalua’s only open 18-hole course.
Which tees should I play at Kapalua?
A 10-handicap should play the Regular/Resort combination at 6,407 yards, an 18 the Resort tees at 6,077 and a 25 the Forward tees at 5,181. Move up a set if the trade wind is strong.
Our verdict
The Kapalua Plantation Course green fee buys the best round in Hawaii that anyone can book, on a course built by two of the best architects in the world, for less than the mainland’s other television-famous courses. At $475 with a cart, play it once, on a calm morning, from the tees that fit your game, and consider a forecaddie for the greens. The PGA Tour has gone, but the course hasn’t, and January is now open.
If Kapalua is one stop in a longer island trip, our guide to where to play across Hawaii compares it with Manele, Mauna Kea and the rest, and our guide to bucket list golf courses ranks it against the best rounds in America.
Sources
- Golf rates (rates, inclusions, forecaddie programme, booking windows, Bay Course status, 2026 aeration dates), Kapalua Golf, checked October 2026
- The Sentry canceled: PGA Tour announces annual event will not be played in 2026 due to drought in Hawaii, CBS Sports
- PGA Tour cancels The Sentry at Kapalua; Sony Open to open season, ESPN
- Aloha, PGA Tour. Hawaii will be without a tour event in 2027 for the first time in 56 years, Washington Post, April 20, 2026
- PGA Tour confirms exit from Islands in 2027, Aloha State Daily, April 21, 2026
- Kapalua still near tournament peak, even without a tournament, Golf Course Industry
- After losing PGA Tour event, Kapalua forges onward, GOLF
- FAQ, TPC Sawgrass (forecaddie tip guidance used as a benchmark)
- Rates, The Dunes at Maui Lani; Ka’anapali Golf Courses; Wailea Golf Club
Image credits
| Image | Photographer | Licence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunset over the Plantation Course from the Plantation House (featured image) | Carnaval.com Studios from The Inner Mission San Francisco, Earth | CC BY 2.0 | Wikimedia Commons |
| The coast at Kapalua, Maui | Joe Parks from Berkeley, CA | CC BY 2.0 | Wikimedia Commons |
| View from Kapalua to Molokai | Andwhatsnext at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons |
| Kapalua Bay, Maui | Hakilon | CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons |
| Ka’anapali golf course from the Beach Walk, Maui | Forest and Kim Starr | CC BY 3.0 us | Wikimedia Commons |
| Wailea Gold Course, Maui | Ndavies2 at en.wikipedia | public domain | Wikimedia Commons |