Entrance to the Princeville Golf Club, on Kauai.While in Hawaii the past 2 weeks, we were able to golf quite a bit. Fortunate to have excellent weather all but the first 2 days of our time there, we golfed on Kauai, Maui and on Oahu.
On Kauai we golfed 18 holes at the Wailua Municipal Golf Course on Kuhio highway. Click here to visit the website and see some photos of the course. We also tried to golf at Princeville on the second day we were on Kauai, however, when we got there we found it was raining heavily off and on and the course was already saturated from the prior week's worth of heavy rain, so we cancelled our game. Maybe next time!
On Maui we golfed our favorite Ka'anapali Golf Resort, which has just had some major renovations. Their logo is new, as well as updates to the clubhouse and renovations of the courses. The formerly named North and South courses are now called the Royal Ka'anapali and Ka'anapali Kai respectively. And not surprisingly, the fees have increased. We had a short lesson with the head golf pro, Sutee Nitakorn, before our game and he gave us some great pointers! We had a fun time on the Kai course.
We also golfed 18 holes at the Waiehu Municipal Course near Wailuku in Maui. This is where I learned to golf many years ago. The course was in great condition, however, the fees here have also increased, in my opinion, dramatically for a municipal course, whose facilities leave much to be desired. Their "real" phone number is hard to pin down and the staff seems tired yet still managing to be friendly for the most part, probably since the place is slammed with golfers all the time. There are no reservations for tee times, you just need to go there and wait to get on the course (which may not be possible on some days, especially weekends). This course can get pretty windy, especially later in the afternoon, so go as early as you can.
On Oahu, we enjoyed 9 holes of twilight golf at Pearl Country Club in Pearl City and 18 holes at one of our favorite municipal courses, the Pali Golf Course.
The Pearl CC, one of my favorite places for twilight golf, this time had pretty long grass in the rough and if your ball landed there, it was a goner 90% of the time. The course was packed and we were instructed prior to going out, not to use time to find balls that were OB and to just drop and move on. We started at 4:10pm (twilight starts from 3:30 here) and were not able to complete the entire 9 holes before the 6pm closing time due to a group of 4 ahead of us
The Pali Golf Course was very enjoyable. This course can sometimes get rained out being that it sits right at the base of the Koolau mountain range, which is often sort of a magnet for rain clouds. We have been driven off this course by buckets of rain before. This time, however, it was an amazingly beautiful and sunny day and we had a good dry game. We saw the usual chickens and wild birds that live on the course as well as wild pigs that have become accustom to being fed by the golfers. They were so funny trotting around the course begging for food. I've seen alot of animals and birds on the golf courses in Hawaii (turkeys on Molokai, goats on the Big Island, Nene on Kauai to name a few) but these pigs were hysterical. Check out the video at the end of this post.
Booking tee times is not easy for this course (or for any of the city/county golf courses on Oahu), you will need to call a phone number with an automated service to get a tee time. If you don't have a Hawaii golf card, you can only book 3 days in advance. However, it is possible to get tee times for the Pali Course near to the time you'd like to play (especially during weekdays), unlike the Ala Wai Course, which unless you are a local and have a Hawaii golf card (that allows you to book 7 days in advance), you can bet the farm you will never get a tee time no matter how flexible your time is or which day of the week it is.
Here are some pictures we took of our recent golfing at the courses described above.
Wailua Municipal Golf Course, on Kauai
Wailua Municipal Golf Course, on Kauai
Ka'anapali Golf Course on Maui, the island of Lana'i is seen in the background.
The Lahaina Sugar Cane Train passing by while on the Ka'anapali Kai Course.
At the end of the 9th hole, this is the way to the snack bar and restrooms (access on foot, carts are no longer allowed to cross the road).
Ka'anapali Kai course with the West Maui Mountains in the background.
The Pearl Country Club in Pearl City Oahu.
The Pearl Country Club in Pearl City Oahu
View of the Pali Golf Course on Oahu from the lookout off of the Pali Highway (see the clubhouse in the lower right corner of the photo?). Though it was a hazy day due to no tradewinds, you can see in the background Kaneohe town, Kaneohe Bay and Chinaman's hat.
The Koolau Mountain range at the Pali Golf Course.
The Pali Golf Course facing Kaneohe Bay.
Wild pigs coming down out of the forest near the clubhouse before the 10th hole. They proceeded to trot down the cart path to beg from the golfers in their carts who were lined up waiting to get on the 1st tee. Seems they have become accustom to people giving them a handout.
A hen nesting in the papertowels in the garbage can of the women's restroom at the Pali Golf Course. I had quite a shock as I was attempting to toss a papertowel into the can!
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