Ka'anapali Kai

After playing the course earlier in the week I was looking forward to playing again. Heading out as a single at 3:00 pm I thought I would be able to at least get 9+ holes in before the mandatory 6:00 pm cart return time. I was wrong. On the first tee I found I was behind very slow and 2-somes and 4-some. I tried moving to various holes to find a gap but was unsuccessful. I found that there were multiple 5-somes on the course (yes 5-somes). After 1.5 hours and only 4 holes I decided enough was enough and returned to the clubhouse. Unacceptable. When I went back to the pro-shop to try the Royal course but was not given the option. I will not play here again.

Wonderful vacation course. Not too challenging, beautiful views, and the course was in great shape even with the recent rains. Wide fairways but tough rolling greens. Almost every green is protected by traps which I would try to avoid at all costs. Even my wife broke 100. Saved almost 50% with golfnow. Very enjoyable experience.

Played on nicer public courses at home for a lot less. Did get a new cart, that was the upside.

The course layout is fantastic with scenic views. The greens are better than good and somewhat difficult to read. However, the fairways were barely average. The grass coverage was very sparse in some areas and reasonably good in other areas. I expected much better fairway conditions for the price we paid. I advise caution for selecting this course for play. I feel like course management took advantage of me because I came as a visitor from a cruise ship.

Good course but some of staff prickly. Overbook the course for locals.

Forgiving fairways, reasonable length . Tricky greens due to Bermuda grass , mountainside break, and undulation. - makes low scores harder then one would expect. Beautiful views though not oceanside.. Nothing tricked up or gimmicky which I like.

We had a great time playing this course! It was challenging but fair. From my golfshot preview of it it didn't look that interesting but the reality of the course was very interesting indeed. The course was in excellent condition. However, it's a must that you either stay in the fairway or watch your ball carefully until it stops. The rough was a bit high on most holes so balls in the rough were easily lost or at best usually took a while to find and ended up where I didn't expect them to be. There are some blind holes where it's not possible to keep an eye on it so you might lose a few balls.

I started off the round on the second tees thinking that the forward tees would be too easy--Not! For the second half played the forward tees and enjoyed that much better.

Wish I could have taken advantage of the discounted replay round to give this course another go round. Definitely recommend this course and would love to play again.

we teed off at 7:18 to avoid mid-day heat. Fairways' grass condition was average but they were water-saturated from night watering. Traps were also saturated and not yet raked so full of foot prints etc..

The greens were excellent; speedy and very challenging.

Many holes border the highway so not a peaceful experience.

I suspect that the Royal Course is in better shape.

Our first time playing on this course. It was advertised as the easier of the two Kaanapali courses. It might have been but the wind almost blew us off the hill. It seem like every hole was going against the wind. The views were spectacular in the course was in decent shape. After four hours we were both worn out!

A once excellent course has been long neglected.

Turn over in staff and extremely poor customer service had a negative affect on my experience.

The Kai at Kaanapali has so many issues, I'll just jump to the glaring:

- Fairway has brown spots on almost every hole.

- there is no first cut rough; the rough that remains is no longer cut daily; A good drive that rolls out just a few feet in the rough can easily get lost ( causing unnecessary lost balls and delay of play).

-There is tall grass weeds growing on tee boxes AND greens/fringes.

- Several greens had large craters/dead patches and/or ant hills that have nearly destroyed the putting surfaces.

- Bunkers are in terrible condition… Weeds growing out of many of them… Felt from the bottom coming up, due to hardly any sand left in most of them.

- Price is extremely high for the condition of this course: $80 for super twilight!

If you're going to spend over $130 for a round of golf… Might as will head up to the bay course and get your moneys worth and excellent service to boot.

Also worth noting, I have been a long time loyal customer to Kaanapali golf courses, but this last visit I was treated rudely by a staff member and I will not return.

There's a few great employees-- notably the boys downstairs--that remain here provide awesome service, unfortunately the "bad apples" spoiled my experience.

Rumor is the Kai is about to shut down and Kaanapali will be converted to a 27 hole course. A rebirth will be excellent opportunity for this once great facility.

Hard to be objective when playing behind a five some. Group should have moved up two tee boxes. Never saw a Marshall. Nice track. Tough to wait on every tee box.

We found the courses to be fun and challenging. We played the Kai in the morning and the Royal in the afternoon. The rough was a bit long on the day we played, so be very cognizant of where the ball lands if you stray off the fairway. The fairways were in excellent conditions, mowed to a uniform height and are well maintained. The greens rolled true, but appeared to have been dyed to uniform color. The provided GPS on the carts was beneficial. The GPS provided an overview of each hole. The morning staff was above excellent. The Pro Shop and outside service personnel greeted and treated us like we were members. My bias is showing regarding the warm up range, the balls are limited flight and a person is mandated to hit off mats. A note of caution, the cart fleet is old. Once your cart indicates a sign of low battery charge, call for a replacement.

Had a great time and enjoyed the panoramic views which are so unlike our home playing grounds . One frustration for my husband was losing Three balls on beautiful looking drives that could not be found when we got to the presumed landing site. We didn't want to hold up play so he just dropped a ball. I don't think a mongoose stole the ball,but it was frustrating!

I would not have booked a tee time if I would have known greens were just airified and heavily sanded. We just played automatic 2 putts. Once flagged was pulled, you could not even see the hole if you had a long putt.

Overall, a good experience. Some good ocean views but the greens had recently been sanded so that was about the only negative I can say.

Good overall, greens difficult to read. Cart gps really helped.
Sand traps were hard with minimum sand.

Overall very good course.

I played as a single, which was great. I also went for the twilight rate. The course itself is pretty tame with the exception of some elevated greens and one long par 3 (200+). There are also 3 or 4 holes that overlook the ocean in the distance. I am a 13 Handicap and had no problem getting to the greens in regulation hitting from the Sand tees. The tee boxes and fairways were well maintained and the greens were just aerated, so I can't really rate them. All in all, I would recommend this course if you are looking for a fun round that isn't going to punish the average player too much for errant shots (I only lost 1 ball). Also kids play free (thru August) with a paid adult.

This course is very nice with some great views. It's in pretty good condition and their is some water on a few of the finishing holes.

There are two courses at Kaanapali - the Kai Course (South) and the Royal Course (north). The Royal Course is by far the better course - but this review is for the Kai Course. The conditions of this course were only average (no better than courses costing $50 to $75 less per round). Definitely not worth the $140+ price. Greens were a bit long and slow. Sand traps were inconsistent - some with 3-4" of fluffy sand, some with 1/4" of fluffy sand and rock-hard wet compacted sand underneath. Fairways and tee boxes had grass that was much longer than I expected - almost like playing from the rough. Cart paths were uneven and in need of repair. There are no real bathrooms on this course - only portable toilets. All of this together produces a course that is extremely overpriced! This is a $75 course that charges much more because of the Kaanapali name - and the fact that there are "only" 4 courses on the north side of the island of Maui. An average course at a high price.

Course is hard but forgiving very fun a must play beautiful