Princeville Makai Golf Club
Destination revelation
Kauai’s golf scene is full of surprises
BY JOHN STEINBREDER
PRINCEVILLE, KAUAI, HAWAII | New golf destinations are invariably full of surprises for first timers, and I found plenty of them during a recent visit to this isle.
Among the most unusual was a bit of halfway house fare called “Spam musubi.” Offered at most courses, it consists of a slab of Spam slathered with teriyaki sauce and cooked on a griddle before being placed on a rectangular piece of rice and secured with a ribbon of seaweed. To my tastes, it’s not nearly as satisfying as, say, the peanut butter, bacon and jelly sandwiches served to golfers mid-round at Fishers Island. But Kauaians love the snack, and no round here is complete without having one.
I was also amazed by the number of chickens I saw scurrying and scratching around the layouts. Just as interesting was learning that their ubiquity was the result of a hurricane that destroyed most of the chicken coops on Kauai in 1992. That led to a mass release of birds who proved to be quite prolific in the wild.
Another revelation was that Kauai boasts more movie credits than Julia Roberts, its tropical rainforests and sugar-sand beaches having been locations for dozens of Hollywood films, among them “Jurassic Park,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “South Pacific” and the Elvis Presley classic “Blue Hawaii.
But the most astonishing thing I learned is that of the 1.5 million tourists who travel to Kauai each year, only five percent or so play golf.
Now, I understand that there are so many other things to do here, from scuba diving, deep-sea fishing and hiking to surfing, mountain-biking and paddleboarding. But after teeing it up on five of the island’s nine courses and savoring their interesting designs to say nothing of their settings alongside the cerulean waters of the Pacific and in the shadows of jungle green mountains, I cannot comprehend why more people don’t come here with their sticks.
One of the biggest allures is the course at the Princeville Makai Golf Club. Designed by Robert Trent Jones II and located on the north coast of Kauai, it was the home for a spell of the LPGA’s Women’s Kemper Open. The track is also a refuge for a pair of rare bird species, the nene goose and the Laysan albatross. Even better as far as golfers are concerned are the number of holes that are actually on the ocean at Makai and the fact that the layout is regularly ranked among the top 100 public tracks in the country.
I also like how the course marshal showed up on the 16th tee during our game with a tray of freshly cut pineapple chunks.
Another good find is the Wailua Golf Course, which is situated on the Royal Coconut Coast. Bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean and situated across the Kuhio Highway from the island’s only jail, this municipal track is well-designed enough to have hosted three U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships.
As for the Ocean Course at Hokuala, it is a Jack Nicklaus gem that claims to possess the
longest stretch of oceanside holes in Hawaii.
The mountain view at Puakea is as good as it gets
Puakea is a must-play, too. Also open to the public, it is one of three dozen layouts that the late American architect Robin Nelson designed or renovated in Hawaii. He routed this track across an old sugar plantation, with holes running through and along a modest residential neighborhood with verdant mountains rising beyond and the ocean occasionally coming into view. The well-placed bunkering makes golfers think more deeply about where they are going to hit their shots, and Nelson gave the course a linkslike unpredictability by fashioning humps, bumps and small ridges in his fairways.
Puakea is also home to a diner-like 19th hole with first-rate fare ranging from ahi poke bowls to fried noodles with bacon, Spam and char siu, which is a Cantonese-style barbecue pork. The potent mai-tais and mango margaritas are not to be missed.
Then, there is Poipu Bay, another Robert Trent Jones II creation on the south coast of Kauai that allows golfers to let loose on most tee shots but forces them to be a bit more precise about their approaches. You need to be strategic to score well, and after only one round, I well understood why the PGA of America held its Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay from 1994 to 2006.
The scenery at No. 16 at Poipu Bay Golf Course is a perfect 10.
“The first thing I think about when it comes to golf on Kauai is the diversity of the courses,” said Rob Myers, my playing partner for a couple of rounds here and an Arizonabased golf communications specialist who has made numerous trips to the island. “You
have really good routings in really beautiful settings. Kauai also has its own vibe, and the golf is very local and very low-key. It’s the prettiest of the Hawaiian Islands, too, so lush and green with clouds hanging on the tops of the mountains. And you can almost always see and hear the ocean.”
After seven days and five rounds on Kauai, I decided Myers had pegged this place perfectly.
The sights and sounds are what grabbed me most. The waves crashing onto the rocks and beaches below my hotel room at dawn, some so thunderclap loud they roused me from my sleep. The impossibly verdant hills that rose around my quarters as well as many of the golf holes I played, with cascades of white water shooting down their steep, green slopes in places. The stands of palm trees, their trunks bending in different directions as they ascend from the sandy soil, their fronds rustling slightly in the trade winds. The afternoon rainbows, too, their multi-hued arcs stretching across the courses after rains. And vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean that made me think of the explorers from other parts of Polynesia who first settled in the Hawaiian Islands more than a millennium ago and how they traveled hundreds of miles across open water in double-hulled canoes to get here.
I also came to appreciate the golf scene on Kauai and the people and places that are a part of it. It is very much a game for locals and not just another tourist activity
Together, those elements gave Kauai’s course architects some remarkable canvases on which to work. And they made excellent use of the terrain they were given. The mix of holes made every round interesting, and the number of tees on each hole allowed me to
play the markers that best suited my game. And not once did I complain when a drive trickled into a fairway bunker or an approach landed in a sandy hazard as opposed to on the green. The mistake in each case was mine and not the result of some design flaw.
I also came to appreciate the golf scene on Kauai and the people and places that are a part of it. It is very much a game for locals and not just another tourist activity.
The black-and-white scorecard at Wailua spoke a lot to that. I liked that the course map it featured looked like something from the primitivism art movement. And I laughed when the man behind the counter in the pro shop gave me and the other members of my foursome grief for wearing actual golf shirts.
The 17th is but one reason why Wailua Golf Course has hosted three USGA championships.
“You guys are too well-dressed to play here,” he said with a chuckle. And as I walked to the first tee of what is one of the oldest courses in Hawaii, shooing chickens out of my path along the way, I noticed that the guys in front of us were clad in T-shirts. Most wore sandals, and a couple were barefoot. Several boasted tattoos on their deeply tanned arms and legs. One wore a hat bearing the image of the Hawaiian hand signal known as the “shaka.” Roughly translated, it means “hang loose.”
Watching those golfer dudes tee off, I could not help but wonder about the quality of the course I was about to play, the fact that it had served as the site of three USGA championships notwithstanding. But those worries evaporated after playing the par-5 first hole. I hit my drive directly toward the ocean, which I could see and hear. The hole doglegged to the right from there, putting the Pacific on my left for my second and third shots to a teardrop-shaped green guarded by two bunkers. Then came No. 2, a substantial 4-par playing into the wind and running along the water as well.
This is a very solid course, I said to myself as I strode to the third tee. And I was so excited by what lay ahead that I was tempted to go completely native and take off my ECCOs.
Once again, Kauai was surprising me.
PHOTOS COURTESY GO GOLF KAUAI
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