The Hawaii golf course that hosts the PGA Tour’s season opener was on its seventh day without irrigation water Thursday, a serious setback in its bid to save the Plantation course at Kapalua in time for the January tournament.

The lack of irrigation stems from a dispute with Maui Land & Pineapple over its century-old water system on Maui that delivers irrigation to west part of the island.

Kapalua Golf Resort decided last week to close the course on Sept. 2 for two months to use the water it was allowed to protect the turf, including verticut mowing to thin out dead grass and allow it to better absorb water, and a slow-releasing fertilizer.

But then a tough situation got worse when MLP went from a Tier 2 restriction (60% of normal irrigation) to Tier 4 (no irrigation) over the weekend.

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