Waikoloa Beach Resort - Beach Course

I have now played most of the courses on the west side of the Big Island. I was looking forward to playing the Beach Course for the first time but walked away really disappointed. The course was in poor shape with many greens with browned out patches, bare patches in the fairways, cart ruts all over the place, etc. Pace of play was slow at around 4 3/4 hours. The starter was grouchy and sent us to the wrong first tee. The course layout feels like you are in a subdivision with the hotels, condos, townhouses, etc. Yes you have the ocean on one side of half the fairway of one par 5 but that is it. We also got to listen to the loudspeakers at a corporate luncheon for several holes. The whole experience was like a muni course on the weekends but at a much higher price. This is a high volume resort experience. If you want the real resort experience go up to Mauna Lani and pay a bit more for a well maintained course and more ocean views from both courses or head up to Big Island Country Club for a better value and a peaceful setting.

Ocean front golf will cost you in Hawaii.
That's why the Kings course at the Waikoloa Beach Resort is well known as a more affordable, value-oriented round of golf on the Kona coast. There's no premium price tag tacked on for an ocean view. You won't see the Pacific, but there's still plenty of water hazards, and the golf is still good.
Tom Weiskopf designed a straight-forward resort course that's mostly flat and framed by black lava rock.
Weiskopf takes pride in building short par-4s. There are two pretty good ones on the Kings. Golfers can make a three or an eight on holes five and 13, depending on how much risk they take off the tee.
The 6,566-yard Beach course is 500 yards shorter and a little easier than the 7,074-yard Kings.