Hawaii’s most-famous lava golf courses tend to be on the Big Island, though, not Maui - the most popular island for first-time Hawaii visitors these days. Sure, you could hop on a plane or take the new Super Ferry (assuming that environmentalists don’t disrupt its schedule as they’ve made noise about).
No need to fuss, though. Don’t get your perpetual golfer’s tan in a muss. Just play Wailea Golf Club’s Gold Course on South Maui’s “90210″-for-grownups-like, high class resort row. You get unforgettable black lava rocks and a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design that makes you realize why he seems to be revered in “Aloha” land.
Wailea Gold’s a big, near bionic Hawaii golf course that doesn’t rely on a few ocean looks to carry the day. Instead, it challenges your guts, especially on the back nine. There are shots up to greens, down through skinny driving alleys and lakes to clear. There are huge bunkers, the kind of hacker-swallowing (forget just the golf ball, you may not get out) bunkers that gave the Trent Jones name such cache in the golf world in the first place.
Then, there’s the lava.
On No. 17, the black space-age looking rocks line the sides of the hole, and suddenly an already-skinny fairway looks like a lightweight wrestler trying to drop below 105 pounds before weigh in.
“Did that thing just disappear?” one of my playing partners added after watching his white ball shoot amongst those hulking black rocks.
Hey, nobody guaranteed lava would be your friend. It’s lava. Not a puppy. Full article
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The Golfing Traveler 05.17.08 at 7:03 am
I love the Wailea Golf Club! The Gold and Emerald courses are very playable for the average golfer (10 to 20 handicappers) and they are the most scenic courses I’ve ever played - and I’ve played many all over the world! At my golf travel agency, Gateway Golf Vacations, we send numerous upscale travel clients to Maui for fabulous golf vacations. Wailea is the best on the island… even better than Kapalua for our purposes! We are Minneapolis-based with most of our clients traveling from Minnesota & Wisconsin so, needless to say, our clients are going to Hawaii in the winter months when Kapalua can experience some rainy, windy weather while the Wailea area is basking in warm sunshine (most of the time).
The only Hawaii golf that is better? The two courses on Lanai! But they are much tougher and are best suited for low handicappers!