Aloha! A Golf Tour In Hawaii

When you pack in a swimsuit for your golf vacation in Hawaii, it’s just oversight because you sure won’t need it. With over 80 courses spread across six islands there is barely enough time on your golf tour to get from one beautiful course to another, the beaches will have to wait.

A golf holiday in Hawaii is a treat for the senses - lush green mountains contrasting with crystal blue oceans, magnificent sunsets and sunrises on silvery beaches – it is easy to forget golf for a bit. But each time you look up there is a golf course beckoning …and you give in each time.

Courses like The Prince Course, Kauai are indicative of the quality that has turned it into one of the world’s great golf holiday destinations. Hawaiian Island courses wind through rainforests, stretch along golden beaches, and carve through ancient lava fields — offering stunning scenery and some of the nation’s most challenging holes. Golfers fill their golf vacations with the Kapalua Golf Course and the Arnold Palmer designed Turtle Bay Resort Golf Course and in between saying Aloha and sniffing the fresh flower leis, get to business on courses like Mauna Kea on Kohala Coast.

Planning golf travel to Hawaii is easy as most islands are well connected and you’d best be starting your golf tour from Big Island. Before you head to Mauna Kea and the Alii Mountain Course in Kona Country Club, spend a day at The North Course at Mauna Lani for $210 or $145 if you are staying at the resort. The course is a lesson in humility for those who mistake it for an easy-breezy round on a golf vacation. Laid out on the naturally rugged lava terrain, this 18-hole beauty is a tough one and rolling terrain puts you in a tight spot once too often. 

The Kauai Lagoons Resort ($76 -$100) in Lihue is one of the best courses on the island. A Jack Nicklaus design that weaves along imposing ocean cliffs and lush valleys is a must have on a golf tour itinerary for some satisfying golf. The island is also home to Kiahuna Golf Club, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and Poipu Bay Resort Golf Course, site of the PGA Grand Slam.

Your Hawaiian golf vacation must certainly include the island of Lanai for Cavendish Golf Course, Challenge at Manele and Experience at Koele in Lanai City. With more than two dozen courses, Maui is not big on numbers when it comes to golf but it beats Oahu and the Big Island with history. It is home to The Volcano Golf and Country Club, the oldest in Hawaii and one of the most unusual in the world. Situated on the rim of the active Kilauea volcano, the course is not only beautiful, but also challenging in more than ways than one. Other courses to on this island to include in your golf package are Kaanapali, Waiehu Golf Course and the Bay Course.

With more than 30 golf courses, it would be quite a decision what you want to include in your golf tour in Oahu. But one course that mustn’t be left out is the Makaha Golf Club. You will need every club in your bag to play the William F. Bell designed 18 holes,7077 yards par 72 championship course.  At just $160, Makaha is a pleasure to play. Other courses in Oahu are Hawaii Prince Golf Club designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay and the Ted Robinson designed Kapolei Golf Course.