Waikoloa Beach Resorts (Hawaii Island)

Great views of the ocean, lava fields, wildlife, etc. Course is nice and challenging but a little pricey for my tastes.

No cart person while round. No GPS despite the Hawaiian tourist Troon rates. People were not that friendly. No one with a towel at the end, no one says hello. I arrived hour before tee time. Closed. 30m before tee time they opened and rushed us on to our tee box. No time for driving range. I bought two rounds which included free driving range. I asked the desk if I could use the driving range later. The guy said sorry, that’s the managers call. I asked where’s the manager? He said “I’m the manager”! ??? He said you can go mow but not later cause I may not be here. “Can I just tell whoever is on duty, that you said it was OK given you’re the manager” ?

He said “no man don’t be dropping names, that’s not cool”. What the heck??? He’s not reflective of all the folks. The starter was nice and there was a nice lady who first checked me in. After that I was very aware this wasn’t like the high class courses like in Kapalua and other Troon courses. But the course is well maintained and pace was good.

What a great course and staff! Tom, the manager, really took care of us (two couples in a four-some). We had booked through a golf booking service and, as a result, there are no refunds if it's raining or windy unless you cancel 24 hours ahead.. We were to play in a few days when a large storm was scheduled to come through. We called and thought about cancelling. However, Tom went out of his way to find a slot for us two days prior to the storm and made sure we weren't charged any rebooking fees. He even called me the night before at 6:00 p.m. to confirm I was all taken care of! Talk about GREAT service. The day we arrived, it was beautiful and busy. Tom made sure we were set and we ended up with a GREAT experience! We went out on time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We have played the course several times over the years and it was in great shape this year (early February, 2019) with fairways mowed well and the greens in excellent condition. All staff we encountered including at the bag drop, club house, on the course, and afterward were friendly and really appreciative of our business. It was a perfect day on a perfect course! Bravo to the 'tone'; as they say, "it starts at the top". Thank you Tom & Staff.

For how much we paid and for the ratings, I was very disappointed. The practice range was mostly sand, what grass remained was in loose shreds. The targets on the range were mostly out of reach for me (17 handicap). No practice putting green. Pace of play was terrible. We registered as a twosome and requested to be paired up, but 3 Asian twosomes left in front of us - refusing to be paired. There was no GPS on the carts and the flags were not equipped with the reflectors to read with a rangefinder, so it was almost impossible in the wind to get accurate yardage to the pin. Seriously disappointed! Won’t go back.

I played the King’s Course at Waikoloa Beach Resort today. It’s an excellent links-style course, with fast fairways, so a low draw just runs and runs. Lots of wind today, which made it even more interesting.

While the lava rock contrast on the out of bounds vs. the front side out adjacent back side return fairway grass was sort of cool visually the course layout and challenges were less. In my home town of Phoenix we've easily 30 better public and resort (let alone private) courses. Weiskopf's trademark drivable par 4's are perhaps the most interesting holes in #5 (lava boulders in fairway bunker hiding the green) and #13 (lake left to green edge and center fairway bunker). A couple of additional lava outcroppings on #17 and #18 add interest to the finish but the other black rock areas are really not in play for better players (from tips 77, 4 hdcp). Greens were not too interesting or swoopy and hairy-slow late afternoon. As everything in Hawaii is twice the cost of identical on the mainland the price here is reasonable but hardly worthy of top ten ranking in warm weather tourist golf states like CA, AZ or FLA. Don't travel to the Big Island just for this course, you'll be disappointed compared to the superior Mauna Lani North and South neighbors with amazing paspalum grass.

I believe this should not be considered a Beach coarse, there is the feature hole (7) that gets close the the water. but that is the only hole, the rest are around condo's hotel rooms and lava rock which is nice. i believe this course should be renamed as the Waikoloa lava course with a tickle. the greens were average, the fairways were OK nothing special I believe that if course was around the $70-$80 range with a cart that would be fair.

I am a rookie golfer and haven’t played for quite some time, but this was a nice relaxing course with super friendly staff.

Fun course without all of the elevation changes or out of bounds. Plenty of traps to get in your way and slippery green with sneaky breaks. The resort tees were a good choice for a 14 who hasn’t swung a club since Oct. very fair course for the wives.

I enjoyed my round at Waikoloa Beach and would play again but not before Mauna Kea and Mauna Lani South. Both are in top condition and offer spectacular scenery. This course was in good shape and the greens ran true but a tad slow. We got around in just under 4 hours so pace of play was excellent. The only hole on the ocean, number 7, is a great par 5 and for us a good place to see some whales too! Otherwise, none of the holes are on the beach.

Checking in was a hassle as the first person to help me was no help and tried to charge me and my group to play there saying "this is just a confirmation not a voucher". I insisted she get some more knowledgeable help and the next person figured it out quickly and we were on our way. I played 6 courses in Hawaii on this trip and these guys were the only ones to give us some hassle.

The Good:

- Course was in nice shape. Greens are fair, if a little slow, and the course was overall in very nice shape.

- Despite a seemingly high price tag, this course is actually one of the cheaper options on the big island

- Pace of play was excellent

The Bad:

- Staff acted like booking through golf now was criminal and they made sure to let us know, "it's much easier" if we just call them directly. The check in process took nearly 20 mins as well as they figured out how much to charge us

- Calling this the ocean course is pretty misleading. There is one hole on the ocean, and one other hole where you can see it. The rest of the course is surrounded by a resort

While this was the only course I played while on the island, I did get to see the course at Mauna Kea, and it looked incredible if you can afford the price tag. If you are looking for a cheaper option where you can actually see the ocean, the Kona Country Club is where you should play.

I see a lot of poor ratings here from before 2017, but in January 2018 I found everything about the Par-70 Beach Course to be just perfect for a pleasant day of golf. Yes, the greens may be on the slow side, but they were still slightly the quickest of the 3 different courses I played in 7 days on two islands. I found all 3 Hawaii green speeds to really be pretty similar. Pay attention to the grain!

The staff was nice and friendly in the Pro Shop, the starters (I practiced the day before) helpful and very accommodating and the putting green was the same speed as the course (a blessing- it's not like that everywhere!) and there was a nice chipping/bunker practice area next to a large grass driving range to give you everything you need to prepare.

The course conditions were excellent, with wide open and clean fairways, very playable rough, fluffy white sand bunkers and a little water added to a few holes just to change up the beautiful palm tree & black lava settings that prevail throughout. I played on a pretty calm day for Hawaii and the breeze was just enough to be welcome, although it can still gust and fool you. Playing the resort tees (my driver distance is only about 220 these days) I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day, actually shooting my handicap without being particularly sharp.

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone staying at the resort- it's simply great at $100, and if you're not staying there it's still a fine choice at $150, which is the typical visitor rate for most nice courses in Hawaii. I wish I would have played the Waikoloa King's Course, too- next time!

Playing the KIng's Course was exciting and enjoyable. I played the resort tees and found the layout was challenging due to the fairway bunkers and the long par 4's. I was in two greenside bunkers and had no problems with the sand. Playing the short par 4's made the round enjoyable. A birdie on # 5 made the round more fun, but even better I birdied the par 3 15th, and made par on the par 4 17th, and the par 5 18th. The greens rolled great, and I would play again in a minute.

Not much better than a local muni. Pretty awful pace of play and no sign of a marshal anywhwere. Course is in mediocre condition, not very imaginative layout, and not terribly challenging.

Will not play again unless the green fees are under $100.

Course had some interesting holes, but lacked a true Hawaiian feel. Uninteresting landscapes and many condos dominated the round. Green had been freashly sanded without notice and there were many dry spots around the green. Have never played a course with crushed coral in the bunkers, it wasn't difficult to to hit out of, but it made for tough putting. It was like watching a pinball machine.

All the staff were friendly, and the course was in excellent condition.

Thank you for the great experience

Course layout is excellent and well miexed with challage ones for most golfers. Good condition of greens but bunkers are not properly maintained as thoses are not sandy bunkers. My sand wedge was damaged. Overall rate is very good when you

have good skills to avoid bunkers in playing.