Former Cal Poly men's golf team member Bryan Pierce near the 11th hole on Kapalua Golf's Plantation Course, where he works as the superintendent.
Former Cal Poly Golfer Pierce Prepares Kapalua for PGA Tour Event
1/4/2024 5:52:00 PM | Men's Golf
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KAPALUA, Hawaii — Bryan Pierce has been extraordinarily busy of late.
The former Cal Poly golfer is the head superintendent for the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf, site of this week's season-opening PGA Tour event.
Kapalua Golf is located about 11 miles north of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, a town of about 13,000 residents that was devastated by wildfires five months ago.
Pierce and his wife, Miquela Pendleton, also a former Cal Poly golfer, lost everything in the wildfires last August. More than 100 people died and 2,200 buildings were destroyed, with an estimated cost of damage totaling $6 billion.
"It happened so quick, no one got a chance to get anything out," Pierce told Joel Beall of Golf Digest. "You were lucky to get yourself out."
The aroma of smoke remains five months after the inferno, a wicked perfume of melted asphalt, charred plastic, scorched trees and the ashes that cover up what once was. There is nothing but rubble and sand, empty streets littered with abandoned vehicles and concrete porches without houses attached. The smoke lingers, a solemn nod to what happened and a reminder that some flames continue to burn well after they've been extinguished.
The Sentry (formerly the Tournament of Champions) teed off Thursday and is the first significant gathering held around this part of the island since the wildfire. Golf is still the primary attraction on the west side of Maui, but it's also delivering a message to the rest of the world that Maui is open for business … and that it needs help.
The tournament is serving as a pep rally for the area and the PGA Tour, its players and Sentry have turned this week into a relief fund. Sentry donated $2 million to recovery efforts. The tour will use Saturday as a fundraising effort for the local high school. Players spent time on Monday boxing meals for those displaced. Patrick Cantlay, whose sister Caroline played golf at Cal Poly, is launching a campaign for first responders, Tony Finau hosted an event for charity, and Xander Schauffele ran a clinic for junior golfers who lost their homes.
Not only did Pierce and his wife lose their house and possessions in the fire, but so did 20 members of his staff. Bryan and Miquela have bounced around from one living situation to the next over the past five months. In that span he went home just once, finding only the foundation of his house. He hasn't been back since. The pain, he says, is too heavy.
Despite the turbulence, Pierce continued to come to the course. He knew so many others needed the paycheck to keep going and, more importantly, that the job would provide the slightest sense of routine in the face of the unknown. When word got back to Pierce and his team last fall that the tour would return to Maui come January, he knew there was work to be done … and that the tournament could be a catalyst to moving ahead.
"Man, I was so pumped. I love tournament golf," Pierce says. "I know this is just golf, right? But to give us something to look forward to, something to show off and be proud of, it meant more than we can say."
Pierce says this while standing against the backdrop of the 11th hole, arguably the most picturesque vista on site, where the green seems to fall into the Honolua Bay. It seems cruel that something so horrific can happen at a place so beautiful. But Kapalua is not beautiful on its own. Course viewers will see this week is the byproduct of the sweat of Pierce and his staff, and the fortitude it takes to keep going when you don't know what's on the other side.
"I hope golf fans know how many people came together to make this event happen," Pierce says, "and that we're trying to do it for something bigger than ourselves."
A graduate of Arroyo Grande High School, Pierce earned his bachelor's degree in Turf and Turfgrass Management at Cal Poly in 2011.
He played 90 rounds with the Mustang men's golf team from 2007-11, finishing his career with a 74.99 scoring average. Pierce's highest finish was a tie for second place in the Firestone Grill College Invitational at Monarch Dunes as a junior in the fall of 2009 and he also earned third-place finishes at the 2011 Big West Conference Championships at Mission Viejo Country Club and the Coast BMW Intercollegiate at Monarch Dunes as a sophomore in the fall of 2008.
Coached by Scott Cartwright, Pierce notched 10 top-20 finishes, four in the top 10, in his Mustang career, carding 19 rounds of par or better, including a dozen rounds in the 60s. His career-best round was a 65 at the Firestone Grill College Invitational at Monarch Dunes on Oct. 6, 2009.
Photo courtesy of Golf Digest; Joel Beall of Golf Digest contributed to this report; Read his story by clicking here.
KAPALUA, Hawaii — Bryan Pierce has been extraordinarily busy of late.
The former Cal Poly golfer is the head superintendent for the Plantation Course at Kapalua Golf, site of this week's season-opening PGA Tour event.
Kapalua Golf is located about 11 miles north of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, a town of about 13,000 residents that was devastated by wildfires five months ago.
Pierce and his wife, Miquela Pendleton, also a former Cal Poly golfer, lost everything in the wildfires last August. More than 100 people died and 2,200 buildings were destroyed, with an estimated cost of damage totaling $6 billion.
"It happened so quick, no one got a chance to get anything out," Pierce told Joel Beall of Golf Digest. "You were lucky to get yourself out."
The aroma of smoke remains five months after the inferno, a wicked perfume of melted asphalt, charred plastic, scorched trees and the ashes that cover up what once was. There is nothing but rubble and sand, empty streets littered with abandoned vehicles and concrete porches without houses attached. The smoke lingers, a solemn nod to what happened and a reminder that some flames continue to burn well after they've been extinguished.
The Sentry (formerly the Tournament of Champions) teed off Thursday and is the first significant gathering held around this part of the island since the wildfire. Golf is still the primary attraction on the west side of Maui, but it's also delivering a message to the rest of the world that Maui is open for business … and that it needs help.
The tournament is serving as a pep rally for the area and the PGA Tour, its players and Sentry have turned this week into a relief fund. Sentry donated $2 million to recovery efforts. The tour will use Saturday as a fundraising effort for the local high school. Players spent time on Monday boxing meals for those displaced. Patrick Cantlay, whose sister Caroline played golf at Cal Poly, is launching a campaign for first responders, Tony Finau hosted an event for charity, and Xander Schauffele ran a clinic for junior golfers who lost their homes.
Not only did Pierce and his wife lose their house and possessions in the fire, but so did 20 members of his staff. Bryan and Miquela have bounced around from one living situation to the next over the past five months. In that span he went home just once, finding only the foundation of his house. He hasn't been back since. The pain, he says, is too heavy.
Despite the turbulence, Pierce continued to come to the course. He knew so many others needed the paycheck to keep going and, more importantly, that the job would provide the slightest sense of routine in the face of the unknown. When word got back to Pierce and his team last fall that the tour would return to Maui come January, he knew there was work to be done … and that the tournament could be a catalyst to moving ahead.
"Man, I was so pumped. I love tournament golf," Pierce says. "I know this is just golf, right? But to give us something to look forward to, something to show off and be proud of, it meant more than we can say."
Pierce says this while standing against the backdrop of the 11th hole, arguably the most picturesque vista on site, where the green seems to fall into the Honolua Bay. It seems cruel that something so horrific can happen at a place so beautiful. But Kapalua is not beautiful on its own. Course viewers will see this week is the byproduct of the sweat of Pierce and his staff, and the fortitude it takes to keep going when you don't know what's on the other side.
"I hope golf fans know how many people came together to make this event happen," Pierce says, "and that we're trying to do it for something bigger than ourselves."
A graduate of Arroyo Grande High School, Pierce earned his bachelor's degree in Turf and Turfgrass Management at Cal Poly in 2011.
He played 90 rounds with the Mustang men's golf team from 2007-11, finishing his career with a 74.99 scoring average. Pierce's highest finish was a tie for second place in the Firestone Grill College Invitational at Monarch Dunes as a junior in the fall of 2009 and he also earned third-place finishes at the 2011 Big West Conference Championships at Mission Viejo Country Club and the Coast BMW Intercollegiate at Monarch Dunes as a sophomore in the fall of 2008.
Coached by Scott Cartwright, Pierce notched 10 top-20 finishes, four in the top 10, in his Mustang career, carding 19 rounds of par or better, including a dozen rounds in the 60s. His career-best round was a 65 at the Firestone Grill College Invitational at Monarch Dunes on Oct. 6, 2009.
Photo courtesy of Golf Digest; Joel Beall of Golf Digest contributed to this report; Read his story by clicking here.
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