Makalei Golf Club

When you play in the mountains of Hawaii, you can expect rain showers. We experienced a 14 hole shower, but still had a blast. The hole layouts are challenging (maybe too much for some), but the views are spectactular and the combination of the two makes rounds here lots of fun. The staff was really friendly and helpful. I only have two soft complaints. 1) They are renovating the clubhouse, so the temp facilities aren't fantastic (though the temp bathrooms are impressive). 2) There is a really long drive to the first tee, so please heed their warning of getting to the course in plenty of time to get to the practice green, range and first hole - I would suggest getting there 30 minutes before your tee time to give yourself time to take some putts - longer if you want to hit at the range. Overall, great course and staff!.

Greens were ok, my dead front yard would be a better fairway. Pretty cool layout, you have to drive your cart past 10 and 11 to get back to the club house which is a trailer at the moment. I would not play here again and wasted precious time on the island here I’ll never get back. They probably need to kill the fairways and start over. This course needs a real investor and could be really special.

This course is very hilly and can be narrow in spots. Thick vegetation immediately off the fairway, and lots of up or down hill lies mean you should be prepared to lose more than a few balls.

The greens are in excellent condition, but they too have lots of slope and undulations. Extra judgement is required in club selection, as there are many holes with steep uphill or downhill fairways.

Currently there is no Clubhouse other than a trailer, as the old one has been torn down, and the new one is yet to be built.

Also check the weather conditions, as this course is on the mountain above Kailua-Kona, so gets more rain than those nearer the shore. This has pros and cons in that it it is beautiful (like golfing in Jurassic Park), but heavy rains can force you off the course when only showers are predictedfor the beaches. Being at higher elevation, it is often 10-15 degrees cooler than down by the beaches, so bring warmer clothes along with your rain gear.

All in all, this course is one of the least expensive on the Big Island and is a beautiful and challenging course for intermediate and above players, but I don't recommend for new players or those who have a lot of difficulty controlling shots from uneven lies.

10 out of 10 would recommend to everyone. Beautiful place to play and the staff is so nice.

Run down, very disappointed as we have played here many times before

It is a good challenging course with fantastic staff and good greens. The tee boxes and fairways could use some more upkeep, which I suspect is being worked on. Obviously difficult location to maintain a golf course being on the side of a mountain. Very cool to see Peacocks and Nene up close.

Based on the normal prices of the course, I was expecting it to be in much better shape. The parking lot and heavy equipment made it look shabby. These is no restaurant, and the pro shop is being run out of a trailer. There were no identifiable yardage markers in any of the fairways. There were weeds on the edges of greens and fairways and it felt like I was playing in a pasture.

The positive was that the staff were friendly and helpful. I just wish I was informed about the conditions when I called the course prior to arrival. I only had one opportunity to play golf in Kona. If I were informed about the conditions, and if the description of the course online was more accurate, I would not have booked the time. I feel as though I missed out on the Kona Hawaii golf experience.

This was a lovely golf course with tons of wildlife present on every hole. It played a little short for me. The greens were in great shape, however, trying to put prove to be very different from courses on the mainland.

Got off at 1:30 found out at the course that carts must be in by 5:30. We were told that on the phone plenty of time to get in 18. We only finished hole 16 and were told to bring in the cart.

Wish we knew this ahead of time!

I went to the course with high hopes. We had a tee time set for 210 through golf now the staff were very disorganized took 30 minutes to get to the counter. they were not friendly and very un-helpful. We had paid for 18 holes around 5 pm the course marshal came by a told us we had to leave we were on hole 12 he told us that the course closes at 530 and that we would not be able to complete our game. I called the front desk to ask about this they said to TUFF LUCK CALL GOLF NOW! So we could not finish our game and will try and get my money back through golf now.