Mauna Kea Golf Course

Played five different courses during my stay and must say Mauna Kea by far is the best maintained and challenging course I played. The price is a little high, but it's worth it! Its sister course, Hapuna Prince is also a nice course but not as well maintained as Mauna Kea.

nice layout, need hole layouts at tee boxes, after all it is a resort course. parking is an absolute joke! they must think only people staying at the hotel are playing. i was lucky, very few players, but if they have a full crowd, you have to use valet parking. fortunately i did not have to find out if they were going to charge me for this.

The course was beautiful, the condition was pristine and the amenities for guests are unmatched. We got an unbelievable GolfNow Hot Deal just after noon on a Saturday and we did not see a SINGLE golfer on the course, our twosome finished in less that 3 1/4 hours.
But from a golfing experience, it was not fun. Every hole was either straight up or straight down. Even the holes that headed straight downhill, the greens were nearly all elevated above the fairway in front and EVERY green was heavily guarded by deep sand traps. There is an extreme need for accuracy on the approach shot and you must fly every green. The penalty for not doing this was severe. I was fortunate to stay out of any of the many deep fairway bunkers... so if you are not very confident getting out of deep, soft sand bunkers, I would reconsider this golf course. Thankfully we got such a good deal because while we enjoyed the beauty and condition of the course we would not play it again

They must narrow the fairways & speed up the greens for competition play. It offers huge potential and I suggest that any serious golfer only plays from the tips.

Even though the greens were recently punched they were still great. What else can U say it's Mauna Kea!!!

Easy to book on golfnow.com and had excellent customer service with a question that I had. Great value to play one of Hawaii's greatest courses. Mauna Kea was in excellent shape in every way.

Golfnow super price allowed me to play this course. Windy conditions made playing difficult. Uphill holes were extremely long.

I would have been extremely AGITATED if I paid 250 to play here as a non resort guest. The greens were good but that was it...it was very dry and burnt out all over, fairways and rough...this is not just because of location as I played 36 @ Mauna Lani the day before and they were in great shape. Very disappointing for a course To be claiming best of the big island to be in such BAD shape.

Challenging greens. Lots of fairway and green bunkers. We played on a Sunday and had no one in front or back of us. Staff said weekends were least crowded days to play. Beautiful scenery on many holes. Par 3 hole 3 is very memorable.

This course was challenging for first time players. It would have been nice to have a map of the course and hole number signs on the tee boxes. We were playing blind on some holes. Overall, wonderful challenging experience. Would have enjoyed a cold one after our round, but the golf course restraunt was closed!

Very beautiful but challenge course. Rental club was not in a good condition.

Wonderful course. Was set up for a pro-am event the next day , so really difficult pin positions on very fast greens protected by lots of bunkers. Nice wide fairways, but rough is penal and bunkers are :strategically" located. Great course to play if you can find an on-line deal, but pricey if you have to pay full fare ($235).

Really liked the course and will definitely play it again on my next visit to Hawaii. Nice wide fairways, course in good shape, can't really say a bad thing about it. Not a lot of difficulty in terms of lakes (1) or canyons, but got to use every club in my bag and really liked that some of the par 5's were reachable with a good drive and good hybrid or fairway wood.

Course and greens were in excellent condition, staff was friendly and helpful, I thought it was worth the price at normal rate, I was fortunate to catch a red hot tee time.

The views are incredible, the third hole is a classic over the ocean and the positions of the sand traps make this a shot placement course. Worth playing at least once though the fees are pricey.

Wow!!! Every Hole is a Picture Perfect Postcard! Played this course on May 3rd, 2013. Played it with two of my buddies. One was brand new to golf (his second ever course), the other a casual weekend golfer, and myself a Golf Nut. All three of us loved it. The course conditions were pristine, every hole was gorgeous. Especially Hole # 3 the signature hole by the Ocean. If you can't putt than practice at the local bowling alley cause the greens are super fast. If you don't know how to hit from the bunkers than cheat and throw it out cause there's a lot of them (I'm thinking over 100) on the course. Overall, Mauna Kea was worth every penny for the experience. Great driving range and practice putting greens, even the cold water in the coolers were a nice touch. If you're gonna play one course in Hawaii, this is the one. Well worth the $150. I suggest you sign up for Golf Now because you can get daily deals to play this GREAT course for much less.

Mauna Kea is wonderful course, however the day I played it the greens had been punched and sanded and were unplayable. Hopefully in the future they just shut the course down when they aerate.

Sure it's not a cheap round but I think it's well worth the investment. It's not every day you play on a world class course like this. The course was empty and the round was very fast.

I know it's cheaper playing at noon but I wouldn't recommend selecting that tee time - I found the conditions oppressive and my back 9 weren't as enjoyable because of the heat. I had 7am tee times my other days on the Island.

After Mauna Lani South, my 2nd favorite course on the Big Island. A resort style course. Played as a twosome, no pace pressure from anyone, course basicly empty. A lot of wide but elevated greens, bunkers always in play,but sand is nice.

The course was beautiful and well maintained. Every hole had a challenge. I loved every bit of the round.