Royal Hawaiian Golf Club

Royal Hawaiian is one of my favorite places in the world to play golf. I never have a good score there but I don't care. This is one of the most scenic courses I've ever played. I can't believe they carved this course out of the rain forest. Lots of terrain challenges. Weather can be a problem, It was a little muddy and cart path only the last time we played. Still it was worth it.

Course is beautiful and staff was wry friendly! Clean restrooms!

Royal Hawaiian is owned by the same company that ran the famed (and unfortunately recently closed) Koolau course not too far from where this course is on Oahu. The conditions—rainy and wet—are the same as is the ambience with spectacular mountain views and misty shrouded terrain that looks as if it is carved out of a jungle. The front nine is the far more interesting side and also far more difficult with many forced carries. That does not mean the back nine is easy (we were greeted with a 10 minute monsoon on the 11th hole) and both nines require shot making ability.

Because it is the wet side of the island, your ball will not roll far when it hits the turf which makes the length much longer to the average golfer although the course is in fact much shorter than was Koolau. Clean and replace was the order of the day, so be sure to carry multiple towels with you. You’ll want a brush to clean your shoes as they will be covered with the red mud that is the soil composition in the area. When it is this wet you’ll do a fair amount of walking, (sliding really), because it will be cart paths only. Because of the steep contours be sure to wear serious cleated golf shoes. I watched one gentleman on the 17th hole reenact that scene from the film “Romancing the Stone” where Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner slide down a mud slick hillside, but at the end of this ride ending in a bunker.

The staff is friendly if not jovial and will give you much information about the course. Let’s hope RH is able to stay open and survive through the pandemic, it is a great amount of fun, but be warned, it is not a place for beginning golfers and you will lose a lot of balls—just like Koolau.

This place is one of a kind.This is a must play if you have never been here. Extremely hard. Course conditions are great considering you're in a rain forest and anything the course lacks in condition it makes up for in scenery. Really memorable round, a must play.

The staff was very courteous the golf course is gorgeous we had a wonderful time highly recommend this course

We encountered the head pro in the pro shop who was horribly rude, condescending and smug. He double charged us despite me insisting I had already paid fully through GolfNow. When I called back later to clear things up he was even more rude. The course was in a beautiful location, but not in particularly great condition. I hope the head pro changes over soon because he left such a strong negative impact on such a beautiful setting.

Course was very wet due to lots of rain in the last couple of days. Driving range was closed due to COVID.

Course with its layout is a ball-eater!

I would highly recommend! The course is risk and reward. So much fun. Great value if you can get it for less than $100

Easy check in, friendly starter sent us out 10 minutes early. Putting green is a roller coaster, no holes cut and very small.

Greens and tees in good shape , some fairways were sparse and rock hard. We played preferred lies to find a decent spot to play from if the lie was patchy. Not a course to hit driver a whole lot from blue or white tees. Good fun , great views and terrain.

Excellent challenging course with breathtaking views!!! A must play!!

Sure is a lot of whining going on in the reviews about this course. I'll correct all that below if you are interested, but suffice it to say, this is simply a stunning setting for a fun "little" (as in fairly short) golf course that literally winds through the tropical forest at the base of the Ko'olau Mountains. I was paired up with two local native Hawaiians who, on their own, actually called it "Jurassic Park" (no joke) and said along with Turtle Bay is by far their favorite course on the island. Need I say more? Ok, I will below. 5 star overall rating for the backdrop and setting alone, the course itself being secondary. I've never seen a more impressive setting in my 40+years. I highly recommend it, just bring lots of balls and your patience for the slow, rich tourists playing whack-heck, and the "natural" but very playable course conditions and you'll marvel at this jewel.

So to correct the whiners...

Course Conditions: I agree that it is by no means a pristine or manicured resort level course. I call it "natural". The bermuda fairways didn't even look mown, but play like a short second cut of rough, all very much playable. As for muddy conditions, YOU'RE PLAYING IN A RAIN FOREST, HELLO!!! It is a fun if short track that winds up the foothills of the Ko'olau's, winding literally through tropical forests. Very beautiful. Just the 5 minute drive from #1 green to #2 tee alone is a veritable deep jungle tour itself. Most of the tee shots are blind, so it helped me a lot to play with locals who know the course and told me how to play it. You can hit driver on just about every hole (they did), but you better be precise, because any wayward shot is lost in the dense tropical forest. Very small greens require precise approaches, but the course can be had with precise irons off the tee toward the 150 pole then an accurate approach. Lots of little risk/reward type shots that keep the fun going.

Pace of play: dude, you're playing a tourist attraction course where the rich and painfully bad players play and lose tons of balls into the forest. If you can't be patient, enjoy the amazing scenery, and have a few while waiting for the groups ahead to clear, better go somewhere else (and miss out on an amazing experience).

Staff friendliness. I found them to be great. It was odd to be asked at the pro shop what I paid on GolfNow. I should have challenged him on that as to why it matters, but chose not to. But the guys controlling the start and the carts were welcoming, informative, and seemed glad to have me there.

Value for the money. Well, it all depends on what value you put on the most gorgeous setting you will ever see in golf. If you can't get over the "natural" conditions and slow play, you'll probably think it is a horrible value. If you can chill, play conservative, snap lots of pics of the natural beauty, you'll probably think it great. Of course I thought it was even better because I used a Hot Deal monthly round on it and was very richly rewarded.

BTW, my local playing partners told me that this course had been fairly recently purchased by foreign investors. So that could account for a lot of the condition issues. They said the name has been changed and the layout has been changed some. It didn't really affect me because I never played it under previous ownership.

This was our first time playing here even though we are local. It is a nicely designed course but the pace of play was terribly slow.

We constantly had to wait from backups and the people in front started to get annoyed that the group in front of them was taking so long and were getting very aggressive and screaming at the group and we think may have even thrown something at the other group at one point. Not exactly the relaxing experience I was hoping for. I did almost get an eagle on the 10th, missed it by about half an inch on the put. We were only able to finish 12.5 holes because of the very slow play. The pace was approaching 6 hours!!! Keep in mind this is not a walking course , the pace of play was just that slow. I would absolutely avoid the weekends especially during COVID lockdown because that may have contributed to our bad experience. I can usually finish a walking 18 in 2:30-2:45 hours so only being able to complete 12.5 holes in 3:20 minutes is ridiculous. Even the last 2 holes were completely rushed with us running back and forth to the ball and cart without actually setting up. Had we stoped at the time we were supposed to (5:30) we would have only finished 9 holes in 2:45 minutes! Also the GPS was broken on the cart which wouldn't bother me normally but this was the first time playing this course so was a bit annoying as I couldn't see the flyovers. There was also a used tissue in the cupholder which considering COVID19 right now was disgusting. To be fair I think they may have been rushed due to everyone taking a single cart right now as the guy had to run over to grab an extra cart so may not have had time to clean it like they normally would.