Makalei Golf Club

Fun course. Rarely a flat lie! Greens were in excellent condition. Enjoyed seeing the peacocks again. One of the better courses for the money. We play it every time we come to the Big Island.

I play it every time I come to Big Island. The course is beautiful greens are nice. Worth the drive up the hill

This is a tough course that will humble you. Every hole is either straight up or straight down.

This course is high up and requires a lot of of driving up and downhill. There is 3000 feet of elevation gain as you play most fairways slope down up , left or right so you never have a flat lie. The greens are in decent shape better than most types. We’ve tried to play. Not much difference between fairway and rough and if you go off the roof, you are in jungle. This course is made to lose balls. Wild pigs have dug up many areas but fortunately not the greens. We played in the dry season so it was nice and cool with some cloud cover, which was very comfortable.

Everyone should do this once for the experience. Major ups and downs and sideway lies. Greens were in pretty poor shape. Lots of peacocks and other birds. The pigs ruts are everywhere but not in fairways or greens. Great views. Be prepared for a little rain.

The fairway is full of wild grass. It is almost like playing rough everywhere. Even the greens have many patches of wild greases. Kind of disappointed as why come to Hawaii play this kind of poorly marinated golf course.

This course was cut out of a jungle hillside and plays like it. A lot of uphill and downhill holes. The layout is great but needs some serious maintenance to bring it up to “playable”. The tee boxes are not in good shape. They were rough and poorly maintained. Found it hard to find a flat, grassy, smooth spot to tee from. The fairways need to be mowed tighter, Especially on the uphill holes, and especially the rough. The greens were in pretty good shape: putting surface was smooth and predictable.

Overall it’s a “fun” course to play, however it needs a lot of TLC and perhaps investors willing to spend enough to bring it up to par and properly maintain it.

Played here for 25 yr+. Used to be in good condition but has deteriorated recently. Greens are great but tee boxes, fairways, bunkers (those that are left) very poor condition. Great layout. Staff said owner died and relatives want to sell but apparently no takers. Really a loss for the local area. Over priced for what it is.

This course could be great IF they spent real money maintaining it! Dire need of maintenance throughout property

This is a beautiful location, full of tropical birds. It’s up in the mountains so expect rain and cool temps.. Bring lots of balls as the rough and vegetation will eat anything not on the fareway. Birds and carts have torn up parts of the course so it gets muddy. Terrain makes for dangerous cart driving. So, if you up for a true adventure, this is the course for you. Staff is friendly and helpful. Clubhouse being built, so facilities are currently in trailers.

The staff was friendly and the course was very challenging

First the staff was great I had inadvertently booked the wrong day but they got us on with no issues

Second the course is carved out of the side of a volcano with lots of elevation changes condition wise it could be better the rough was deep and the fairways weedy the greens were faster than they looked and some pins were in tough spots

If the conditions were better I’d be going back because the views and layout are really nice

Love the cool setting of this course. Up high in the trees, lush setting. Friendly staff. Beautiful birds including peacocks everywhere. We will be back.

Stosh, the starter gave great information to us before we began playing.