




Hawaiian golf: the courses of Maui and Lanai
KAPALUA, Maui - It's not uncommon to get lost staring off into the horizon while playing Kapalua's Plantation Course. Avoiding the massive ravines and big bunkers on the Plantation certainly requires your attention, but sometimes the views of the Pacific Ocean are too strong to dismiss. Watching for whales takes priority over putting for bogey.
These are the first-world problems faced by golfers lucky enough to tee it up on Maui or Lanai, a nearby island reached by a 45-minute ferry ride (or flight) from Lahaina. Everywhere you look, there is the beauty of the mountains, the ocean and the tropical palms, plus the contrast of the white bunkers, black volcanic rock and green grass. It's a colorful palette for golf.
The Plantation course, fresh off a 2019 tweaking by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is the recognizable star as host of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, but with 16 other courses between the two islands, there's golf for all budgets and tastes.
Three private courses - the nine-hole Maui Country Club, King Kamehameha (available through a golf package above) and Makena - are generally off-limits on Maui. Everything else is open to the public. My favorites remain Kapalua's Plantation and Bay courses and the Emerald and Gold courses at Wailea with Royal Kaanapali in the mix, too. They're all solid resort courses and fun to play.
I still have much to explore and play, though. The Dunes at Maui Lani, for example, is near enough to the airport to play next time I'm visiting.
Lanai is a unique place. It's almost unfathomable that billionaire Larry Ellison owns 98 percent of the island, including the lavish Four Seasons Lanai. The island's two courses comprise quite the contrast - Manele, a stunning resort course set upon ocean cliffs, and Cavendish, a nine-holer free for anyone to play. One was built by Jack Nicklaus with an oceanfront par 3 where Bill Gates got married. The other is maintained by locals who love the game.
Free golf on an island paradise? That alone is proof golf dreams do come true in Hawaii. Let's tour, in photos, the courses of Maui and Lanai: