Devastation at a Hawaiian Golf Gem | Adventures in Golf Season 8

Aloha, and welcome to Season 8 of Adventures in Golf, hosted by Erik Anders Lang. First stop: Maui.

Months after a devastating wildfire took so much from so many, one of golf’s most recognizable venues stepped up during the vibrant island’s darkest hour. Welcome to another season of Adventures in Golf, presented by United and Random Golf Club.

Help support United’s relief efforts in Maui. See how you can help here: mauifoodbank.org/event/united-airlines/

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hi I’m Eric and this is adventures and
golf and for this episode we came to a
small island to visit an even smaller
town to tell the story of a big golf
course with an even bigger sense of
[Music]
ohana
welcome
aboard the county confirmed several
active fires on the island including a
big blaze in Lina hurricane force winds
are fueling the fast moving fire the
situation is nowhere near under
control 100 people are so far known to
have lost their lives making it the most
deadly WI wildfire in America in the
last
[Music]
century this is my third trip to Maui
and I came here this time not knowing
what to expect we’ve never covered
something this
sensitive usually when we land we go
straight to the golf course but this
time we had somewhere more important to
go someone special to
meet a local leader born and raised in
lahina a waterman the kind of guy who’s
unafraid of taking the lead in a
desperate situation in order to bring
people together in search of a solution
I was told that we had to meet
Archie the reason why this fire happened
there was no
water that’s the truth we didn’t have
water
because we’re diverting all of our water
we’re billing beyond our
means today Archie’s tucked away high in
the mountains taking care of the most
important thing to him and the people of
the island the water they fought to get
the water back running through this
Creek so this is Air Force vet Steve
Sims Steve fell in love with Hawaiian
culture when he was stationed on aahu
which is why he’s been here for the last
2 months aiding in the recovery and as
we get deeper into the mountain Steve
explains why our destination is so
special so up here is the LOI which is
the water filled Terraces uh that they
use to grow Tero or KO the foundational
staple food of Hawaii as a whole
um it’s the only Creek right now on Maui
that runs from the mountains to the
ocean so they’re fighting to get that in
every other Valley that you see right
now they’re stopped for various
development type activities Plantation
you know uh
agriculture um Arie will probably tell
you a little bit more about it but it’s
a pretty big
deal having driven as far as we can we
make the rest of the way on
foot
every stream every river is like a vein
of the earth and when we cut the water
off from that vein we kill that part of
the earth it’s happening all over the
world yeah we got to figure out a way to
put it all back live within our
means live within the resources that are
available but more importantly maintain
and take care of those resources yeah
and I think for so long we took it for
granted
we took it for granted that it would
never run out it’s always there the
mountains are always green and then this
happens and um we
realize more and more every day how
valuable water has become
yeah this is our family tarot patch that
we’ve been taking care of for the last
couple hundred years this is wetland
tarot it’s really hard to grow it takes
a long time time but the quality is
really good yeah because of the
water here on West Maui the water system
relies on groundwater pumped from Wells
and surface water like this stream a
stream that was diverted for a now
defunct sugar Plantation in 1860 which
left stream beds dry for about 130 years
when we fought for the stream and got it
back and seen the transformation this is
what it’s all about yeah this is how we
take care of an island for all the
people that died in this fire for all
the people that are fighting to get back
home from this
fire this is what we have to do get back
home Mala to maai from the mountain to
the
Sea based on what we’re doing right here
with this Reclamation what are your real
feelings about golf golf yeah oh I love
golf my real feelings
I can’t afford it yeah but if my friends
ask me to go play around a golf with
them I’ll go yeah but I I think the
water usage on the golf course does
bother
me
granted Acres of green grass
helps keep our place cool it holds
moisture that’s a plus but we got to
find better
ways to use water to water our golf
courses there’s just got to be a better
way moving forward with everything
that’s happening not only here but
globally in regards to water yeah his
answer surprised me but it seems that
Archie has this holistic view of how the
island functions for the visitors the
land and the
locals some people say you need to be
born here to be considered local but
next we’re meeting a man who’s Liv lived
just 10 Mi north of Lina for almost 50
years and has helped make golf in
Kapalua what it is today I look back on
1975 and I think
about we were almost starting from
scratch and
building this little Community
Here and Now 50 years
later we’re doing it again this is Mark
raling and many of you will recognize
him from his over 35 years as a legend
legendary television golf commentator
here on this end of the island all three
of the major elements go in the same
direction you have to come out here with
the right attitude Hawaii has been my
home for over 25 years now and through
those years I’ve come to love Hawaii for
the beauty of its land and sea and for
the warmth of its people but more than
most Mark’s roots and Maui go back
almost as far as capala itself it was
really the beginning it was the
beginning of Kapalua there were no
condos here there were no hotels here
there was nothing but the
borse and the borse is where Mark’s life
would forever be changed this is the
18th green right over here of the bay
course and where you see the golf carts
lined up here that is the first te and
that was the first te back in
1975 so the bake horse was the first
bake horse was the first Arnold Palmer
and Frank Dwayne designed it and you
came here for that I came here right
after it had opened was stumbling along
in a professional golf career that
wasn’t working tried to figure out
something to do so my first job here
back real early in
1976 was working in this building right
here washing the golf
carts this building you’re 22 years old
26 26 this building right over here was
the pro shop so I moved into the pro
shop as the assistant Pro which was
about a year later
all of these buildings were here back
then basically when the resort was built
these structures were utilized for our
operation and over time a second course
was built the village course which is no
longer here but Village Course was also
designed by Arnold Palmer and that’s
where I developed the relationship with
Arnold remember he came into the little
Pro Shop one day and uh he was going to
play golf that afternoon
on the bay course and he needed a
partner so he walked into the Pro Shop
I’d been working there a couple years I
guess and he said who’s the best player
in here I had not met him at that point
Who’s the best player in here and I
raised my hand I said
[Music]
me and of course I got an argument from
a couple of the other assistant Pros
that were in there but Arnold said okay
I’ll take you what’s your name my name
is Mark okay how do you do anyway I
happen to play really well that day and
I became his partner for life and he
came out here probably for about 10
years on a pretty regular basis so he
became the mentor to me my dad died when
I was real young and in some ways Arnold
became the dad to me that I didn’t have
and um I learned so much from that man
it’s pretty amazing he was the one that
kind of got me going into my announcing
career then in the mid 80s and
um off we won Arnold Palmer I think
about him every
[Music]
day hi I’d like to take a second to say
a very special thank you to United
Airlines for allowing me to make this
show across the world for the last eight
years it is truly been an adventure so
please help United Airlines in the
relief effort in Maui by visiting the
link in the description below Mahalo and
we’ll see you next
time let us welcome you to capala in
Hawaiian Kapalua means arms embracing
the sea and surely no sea has ever
embraced a more spectacular piece of
real estate caloa is and was more than a
golf course it’s also a resort hotel and
a small village all valuable assets that
Mark would use to bring professional
golf to Kapalua once becoming director
of marketing we had started started
having a postseason tournament on the PJ
tour and that’s really what had put
capalo on the map welcome to the
beautiful Bay course at Kapalua on the
island of Maui Hawaii for the third
annual Isuzu Kapalua International the
Kapalua International which raling
helped create and host for more than a
decade started in the mid 80s no matter
how big this tournament gets or where we
go we’re never going to forget you
amateurs because you’ve always been
there for us and we’re always going to
be here for you during the same time
Mark and’s wife Debbie developed their
own television marketing firm raing
Productions which along with the
tournament opened Kapalua up to the
entire golf universe and crowned Mark
and Debbie as ambassadors for Hawaiian
[Music]
golf the tournament had kind of outgrown
the bay course and the Little Village
area that we were just in so arold the
one who basically convinced me that we
ought to do something like the
plantation course by then he was was
kind of moving on from designing courses
and so ultimately we ended up with Bill
K and Ben grandaw who designed this but
this entire area as we drive into the
plantation now was nothing but a
pineapple field 450 acres worth most
modern golf courses are around 100 acres
so 450 is a massive amount of space to
build a golf course on top of that with
the elevation sloping from sea level to
its highest point of 500 ft C is
basically built on the side of a
mountain we needed a facility for a PJ
Tour event and um we came here and built
the plantation course the course was the
first time cor and khaw got to design
something from the ground up years later
kensaw would credit Mark as the man who
hired them to design the golf course and
with its success the PJ tour eventually
moved their season opening event the
Tournament of Champions now called the
century to capala in 1999 where it’s
been held ever since when it was an
unofficial fall PJ Tour event all they
did was come and have
fun we thought changing to become an
official money and now a signature event
was really going
to kind of change the character yeah the
personality and it hasn’t right it’s a
good kind of comfy way to ease into the
year yeah
both capala courses were closed
immediately following the fires in
August and while they’ve since reopened
there’s been much debate about hosting a
PJ Tour event so soon for me stubbornly
Resolute from day one if not even while
it was actually going on we have to play
on Maui we have to play on the west side
we have to play at the plantation course
this is Max noena he’s part of the team
that had the very difficult decision of
what would happen next upon reflection
in the immediate aftermath uh probably
realized that was lacking empathy uh the
thing that is a very very basic truth is
friends family Neighbors coming together
taking care of each other that said you
know worked really closely with the
community and quickly understood that
they wanted us here whether it be the
state the county the community leaders
the people as I thought about hosting
this first big event on Maui I think
they they really trust us to bring it to
life this is about a
community
and Community has to have assets that
attract
people um to create economic impact so
that they can
survive and so in a way the plantation
course
became kind of the symbol of that now in
3 weeks the 55 best players in the world
are going to be here and NBC is going to
be on live you know for 16 hours and
it’s just going to be a gigantic
postcard for uh coming here but at the
same time is it about this course and
about tourism right now not at
all the plantation course really the
role it’s going to play is the Gathering
Place for the community and the rest of
the world to see how this community is
going to
rebuild
tourism is a part of our
economy but when the people come here we
have to educate them it’s talking about
connectivity yeah the names of places
and how the
names has a meaning and when they tell
you that name and they tell you the
meaning and you look and there’s that
aha moment you begin to have respect for
this place when you step off of that
catamaran you have a whole different
Outlook than the person that stepped off
being served my
ties and felt like a king or queen yeah
it’s about education as we’ve had to
rethink look feel tone purpose we’ve
done a really good job surrounding
ourselves with people um to educate us
and you know hopefully in the next 25
days the culmination of that will be you
know something that that people are
really proud of and really honors and
celebrates the island and its
people how you
feeling great we don’t get to play back
there because of the tournament so we
both play those black you would normally
play the back piece a lot of these guys
I mean these young guys land in and
these guys the ball morning how you
doing good to see you to see you I don’t
really get the ball in the air like
these guys too so this is Head Golf Pro
Michael Castillo he invited me out to
play a few holes on the plantation
course with him and his team it’s like a
simulation do you ever feel that way
yeah well you know I grew up in the
islands and this never gets old it’s
like like you like don’t really realiz
how amazing it is right you always still
realize it’s amazing so
[Music]
yeah it didn’t even look like he hit it
like he didn’t even
try what what percentage like did you
put on that like like it’s like 75 I
haven’t played in like 5 weeks so five
weeks yeah did you hit the range this
morning no see cold turkey it’s how we
do it here I like that yeah God you know
there’s not that many t- shops where
you’re just like looking at a postcard
yeah
is that in play yeah look at that the
probir was 75 yards across
hard hard they miss
[Music]
one oh good to
here tell me about this year for you ah
crazy yeah since August it’s been crazy
I literally got back on the island like
a week ago like Mia for like 3 months
yeah I went back to California that’s
where the in-laws live but yeah it’s
it’s different but we we were the
fortunate ones right like it’s just all
material yeah you know we didn’t lose
anybody which is good who are you on the
island with like me and my wife and our
two dogs so we got a place in line so so
when do you think uh when do you think
they’ll make the trip back uh as soon as
we can rebuild I think yeah yeah so
that’s a big process and that’s the plan
basically yeah
yeah I came to the realization over and
over that every last person I meet with
on this island is affected by this
personally professionally and
spiritually and each person had the same
exact thought how can I help it just
became very human uh very Human
Experience um as opposed to like a
luxury Hotel experience you know this is
Harrison Delgado director of room
operations for the Ritz Carlton you know
the first conversation was where are
people going to sleep where are people
going to eat you know how we going to
feed them how much longer our
refrigerators going to last to be able
to feed them how much longer are the
lights going to stay on um and those are
all very basic questions that we have to
like ask ourselves like while this is
going on but after about 48 hours we
were able to get all of our guests out
once we were able to open up the roads
for people to leave uh so we evacuated
the entire hotel by that Friday uh um
and then we pretty much just focused
inward inward included Harrison himself
like so many others he and his wife lost
everything that day but it didn’t stop
him or the resort from helping as much
as they could that table there was just
covered in like pillows and blankets and
sheets and like it was just like a
free-for-all we were just kind of like
take what you need if you need it for
long term take it I mean there was like
babies sleeping up against the wall
there was like six people on two
rollways like in the corner I haven’t
really thought about it sorry since then
but it was like to walk in here you know
there’s people sleeping on this couch
people sleeping in these chairs the
hardest thing was like to tell people
like I don’t have any more rooms we had
about 150 ladies and gentlemen staying
here in the hotel whether they lost
their house or um couldn’t return to
their house uh cuz it was nearby the
burn area you know housekeeping Alone
lost 38% of them lost their homes uh and
that’s our one of our biggest
departments um so I mean it was uh it
was intense but we’re very lucky to have
this resource you know for for all of us
and the resort continues to reconfigure
resources across
capoa the last time I saw this driving
range it was filled with the world’s
best golfers they were all warming up to
win millions of dollars but tonight it
serves the community in a time of need a
lot of people lost homes they lost
activities all the fun place to go and
the kids are suffering the pressures
were building and they we thought that
they need somewhere to go we had the
space right so we can do night gol right
here uh we can bring in all the vendors
that help us throughout the years and
then they really put together a good
event and then for the kids so so wasn’t
meant to be a community space but now I
mean what we can turn into this is great
you feel a sense of kind of like
uh like it’s not like people here to
party people are here to like get
together and like it’s uh there’s no
purpose other than just hey it’s
Saturday night yeah let’s be together
and just watch the Sun go
down
we used to think that golf was a game
for stuffy old dudes with Argyle pants
or that golf courses were just a great
place to make out but over the years we
found that golf is actually an adventure
whether you play in your backyard or
thousands of miles
away so when we set out to make a club
we didn’t look around at what everyone
else was doing we made it for us for
everyone join random golf club for
events tournaments and Golf Course
benefits in your
area Hawaiians often say the word Ohana
in its simplest form it means family
since we’ve been here I’m understanding
that it goes much deeper it’s about
creating loving relationships and a
sense of care and Devotion to everyone
around you hi this is the queen nice to
meet you hi tanata he’s the host of the
show maybe one of the best examples of
this Ohana can be seen at the Sacred
Hearts School a private school relocated
here to a small Church which has been
reconfigured into a makeshift school
it’s just a nine iron from the calou
bake course the really important thing
that continues to bind us together is
our sense of ohana is our our sense of
family bringing the school Community
together and trying to get it going out
here was the most important thing for
them because it it’ll be the one
constant in their life everything else
continues to shift and change and be
fluid but the school is always there for
them tata’s commitment to her students
became evident when just 3 weeks after
the fire her school reopened at this
location we had to open this up that was
just a wall that went all the way
through at first it was on the church’s
two outdoor patios and then in several
tents erected around the property as you
can see we power things up up with uh
power power battery packs uh that allows
us to get our light and our Electronics
on the last piece of the puzzle for
tanata was the dedicated group of
teachers and staff that continue to
provide the stability the children need
to heal so out of our 30 staff members
we have about 17 uh faculty and about 12
have lost everything second grade can
you guys say aloha to Our Guest say
aloha aloh
ala Aloha that includes second grade
teacher M Courtney whose fourth year at
the school is one that many would shy
away from so you’ve had like multiple
points of like I could leave definitely
I mean when I not having a house I was
we were staying at a friend of a
friend’s place in kii and then one of my
students parents actually found us a
spot to stay in Kahana in order to keep
their daughter’s teacher around
basically and and then I stayed there
for a month and then it wasn’t until
October that um one of my old students
families actually reached out to me and
said that they had an Ohana on the
property that they live on and that it
was open and that if I wanted to live
there I could and so basically the
school Community has kept me here like
time and time again this school is much
more focused on Ohana it’s more focused
on the family aspect of it and I think
because it’s so small and because our
faculty is so small there’s just
different connections that you can build
with your students and with the people
around you that I think is really unique
and really beautiful so tanata has
actually been pretty proactive when it
comes to golf and they now have on
Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at 2:00
golf okay about 30 kids each day oh
that’s great
[Music]
yeah for some of the children they want
to go both days because they feel like
this is something golf is what they love
to do now so hopefully it sticks and it
becomes a sport that they are interested
in you know
playing so what we got is a little mini
golf game if they make it in more than
three putts in each hole they have to go
to one of these little stations here
where we got two Footers three Footers
and four Footers so so you got to make a
putt from each of those lengths to go
back to the mini golf okay so puts a
little pressure on them gets them to
focus in on the puts more and takes
[Music]
it’s so interesting cuz like this is not
commonly seen at a resort course at a
PGA Tour Resort of course like is this
kind of surprising for you uh it is and
it isn’t Capo is a big part of the
community here on Maui and after all the
fires we are just so pumped that we’re
able to do something like this just to
get back to the community and we’re
happy all the kids are having fun with
golf too
so
[Music]
our final morning in Maui I came to the
Sacred Heart School for their morning
service which brings the students
together to sing and listen to inspiring
messages about Hope and the love they
all share for their Community I know
you’re familiar with cameras in here
videoing boys and girls we have a very
story to tell because of all the hard
work that we put in to be here after the
fire
in and it’s going to take us a while to
get back to our our school in L but
meanwhile let’s enjoy the adventure and
the journey here at the Mission Church
being a small school there’s a small
school Dynamic that goes with it and
we’re kind of known for our Ohana more
of a family relationship amongst each
other cu no one should be going through
this alone we miss our home and we can’t
wait to go back although we know it will
take a very long time as long as we
continue to you know come together and
support each other this way while we’re
making our journey back I think we’re
going to be I think we’re going to be
okay on the mountain that Jesus Christ
Han
is about love for
family just I
think
hawaian take it one step further you get
protected just like a brother or sister
would be protected that’s what Ohana is
that’s what family is all
[Music]
aboutus Christ born
it was truly like this sense of
community uh in like its rawest and
purest form and well before any sort of
like government intervention was even
here people were taking care of each
other and that just goes to show like
the strength of what lahina is and like
what that community means to so many
people this has to be one community and
we’re showing right now that it is one
Community we can’t sort of separate it
again and make it segmented the issues
that had been pushed to the back burner
for so long on this island now have to
be addressed that’s a really good thing
cuz they needed to be and that’s
something that you know is going to be a
part of me probably for the rest of my
life and everybody say aloha
Al were you guys like feeling that
moment when she goes like um you know we
have a story to
tell did that like get you at all I
don’t know why it just was like
I think CU we’ve spent like not just
hours but like
years uh like going to places with our
cameras and not trying to leave with a
chachki but leave with their
story and it was almost
like you know it’s a very hard job to
like communicate to a bunch of you know
whatever six to 12 year olds and like
she said it in a way that was like
like so positive do you know what I mean
like it was so
like like this is it essentially she was
saying this is good news you know what I
mean she was essentially saying like we
we have this strength now and uh
yeah when you travel think about the
people who live where you’re visiting
and what they do every day to make it
the place that you chose to
visit when you get off the plane think
about what’s going on with the people
that live there ask them about their
lives ask them what life is like there
ask them what they need ask them what
they want ask them what inspires them as
we travel through life I’ve realized
that we are all part of one larger Ohana
infinitely interconnected such that
without each other we would have nowhere
to go on our own
Adventures
[Music]