The LOTTE Championship is leaving Oahu behind. After 14 editions played exclusively on Oahu golf courses, the LPGA Tour announced the tournament is relocating to Maui's Plantation Course at Kapalua starting in 2027 — stepping into a marquee venue the PGA Tour just walked away from.
According to Aloha State Daily, the announcement came shortly after the 2026 LOTTE Championship wrapped up at Hoakalei Country Club. The tournament debuted in 2012 at Ko Olina Golf Club before shifting to Hoakalei in 2022, and this upcoming edition — its 15th overall, per Hawaii News Now — will mark the first time it's held on Maui.
Multiple outlets, including The Golf Wire, report the 2027 LOTTE Championship will run March 18-21 with a $3 million purse and a full field of 120 LPGA professionals competing over four rounds. Hawaii News Now's own account lists slightly different dates, reporting the event will be held March 15-21, 2027. The discrepancy between the two reported date ranges has not been resolved.
A Course the PGA Tour Abandoned
The Plantation Course's path to hosting LPGA golf runs directly through the PGA Tour's departure. The course was home to the PGA Tour's Sentry Tournament of Champions, which most recently took place in January 2025, and the 2026 edition was canceled because of drought conditions that left the course unplayable, the same water delivery issues that sports business journal reported ultimately led the tour to say it would not return to Kapalua. The course has not hosted a professional tournament since January 2025.
Kapalua's broader comeback from its water troubles is already underway. Per Golf Sustainable, the resort is expanding its use of non-irrigated native grass in some areas and is working on a permit for an additional water source to cut future irrigation needs.
Kapalua Golf general manager Alex Nakajima welcomed the change, saying Kapalua is thrilled to welcome the LPGA and professional golf back to Maui. The Plantation Course, a par-73, 7,596-yard layout designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will offer what organizers describe as a unique challenge for the world's best female golfers, with fans able to look forward to four days of high-level competition at the venue.
Filling a Void Left Behind
The LOTTE Championship's move is part of a larger reshuffling of Hawaii's pro golf calendar. The PGA Tour has left the islands entirely, converting the Sony Open at Waialae into a PGA Tour Champions event reserved for golfers 50 and older. That event, newly named the Sony Championship Hawaii, will be held the week of January 11-16, 2027, at Waialae Country Club, according to PGA Tour.
Sports Business Journal frames the LPGA's Kapalua booking as the tour quickly filling a void left by the PGA Tour in Hawaii. The 2027 LOTTE Championship will serve as the second leg of a two-week Hawaii swing, following the new Nanea Cup, which is set to run March 11-14, 2027, on the Big Island.
The stakes for the islands are significant. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has reported that the two canceled PGA Tour events represent a more than $150 million annual loss in visitor-industry revenue for the state, while Hawaii News Now cites a tour estimate that golf contributes roughly $3.4 billion annually to Hawaii's economy through direct, indirect and induced impacts.
Echoes of a One-Year Experiment
This isn't the first time the LPGA has tried Kapalua. The resort previously hosted the Kapalua LPGA Classic at The Bay Course in 2008, an event won by Morgan Pressel that carried a $1.5 million purse, according to Golfweek. That event lasted just one year.
The LPGA Tour also tied the Maui relocation to community recovery, saying bringing a world-class tournament back to Maui reaffirms its commitment to supporting the island's continued recovery and revitalization following the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, per Hawaii News Now's reporting. The most recent LOTTE Championship, held at Hoakalei Country Club on Oahu, was won by Jeeno Thitikul, closing out the tournament's run on that island before its move to Maui next spring.
