Waikoloa Beach Resorts (Hawaii Island)

I booked a tee time at Waikoloa through golf now and ended up paying 3x what I would have if I had just booked through the hotel. .Potential bookers, be warned.

One out of 18 holes makes this a beach course.....?!?..... Nice layout, but not in good shape and only #7 on the water......disappointing overall....won’t go back.

It was a perfect day for golf in Hawaii. Perfect temperature, perfect wind conditions ( I have played here in a gale) and I was looking forward to playing here for the first time in five years. The Nene were nesting and nursing their goslings and the staff were very attentive and professional. I enjoyed my round so much I’m booked for tomorrow. Mahalo

Showed up to course at 8:10 for a 8:20 tee time for 9 holes. We were second in line and waited for attendant to finish with person in front of us. Male at desk greeted us with the statement 'You're late'. Actually we weren't, but he determined that we didn't have enough time to start and stated 'you have missed your tee time"--it was now 8:18 and he said you can play later or you can forfeit your deposit. We asked what the next time was and were told that 9:05 would be the next time. We were good with that. The weather was perfect, the course was beautiful, the day was awesome after I left the club house and dealt with your UNFRIENDLY desk attendant. My suggestion is that you change your desk attendant (large, unhappy male) and then you will receive 5 stars across the board.

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.