The gorgeous sixteenth and seventeenth holes at Hualalai Golf Course – set as much as host the Drive, Chip & Putt regional qualifier in October.
Connor Federico
Emerald fairways and white sand, framed by Pacific blue and black volcanic rock, paint a surprising portrait on Hualalai’s closing stretch.
Bathed within the golden gentle of a Hawaiian sundown, it’s an idyllic backdrop for golf. However is golf actually what we got here right here for?
“Hawaii is just not a golf vacation spot,” says Brendan Moynihan, Hualalai’s director of golf. “The attract of the ocean, the outside, the mountain climbing, the swimming pools. There are such a lot of issues you are able to do — and so many issues which might be spectacular — however golf is just not essentially the most spectacular.
‘There may be nothing like this in Hawaii:’ pamper your swing in paradise
My soon-to-be fiancée and I had simply arrived on the 4 Seasons Hualalai, simply minutes from the Massive Island’s historic neighborhood of Kailua-Kona. As a first-time traveler to Hawaii, chatting with a person who earns a residing within the recreation, I used to be shocked by the sentiment.
However Moynihan was proper. Throughout our keep, we spent hours enjoyable within the ocean and testing the waters of the resort’s 4 swimming pools. We hiked by an enormous volcanic crater, visited black sand seashores and — spoiler alert! — we bought engaged. A caesar salad cart and bananas foster present blew us away at our celebration dinner.
And there was extra. Encounters with marine life, for example. On the resort’s members-only golf course, Ke’olu, a big pond sits alongside the fifth fairway. It’s residence to hundreds of oysters, cared for each day by the 4 Seasons’ in-house staff of marine biologists. As soon as the oysters are grown, they’re harvested and served within the resort’s eating places. The identical Pure Sources staff additionally oversees King’s Pond, a saltwater-aquarium pool the place we snorkeled amongst unique fish.
On prime of all that, Hualalai Golf Course is positioned in a setting not like any on this planet.
Half of GOLF’s Finest Programs in Hawaii, together with Hualalai, are on the Massive Island. The youngest main Hawaiian island, it stays a piece in progress, with energetic volcanoes nonetheless rounding its form. Black lava rock blankets the panorama, and its function isn’t simply visible.
A number of photographs on the Nicklaus-designed monitor take you instantly over these lava rocks, and each gap options views of the energetic volcano that provides the course its title. After shifting inland, the routing returns to the shimmering ocean for a rousing shut.
A longtime host of the Mitsubishi Electrical Championship, Hualalai has different memorable options you would possibly acknowledge from TV. An extended lava tube splits the par-5 seventh fairway, making a slender opening. The 4th and eighth holes share a contoured double inexperienced. On the par-3 twelfth, the inexperienced has a bunker smack in its middle, which I discovered with my tee shot. I bought luckier on a number of different holes, when my ball knocked off black lava — and again into play.
With large fairways and favorable contours across the greens, Hualalai presents vacationing golfers with a pleasant take a look at. Champions Tour winners right here have gone as little as 25-under — in solely three rounds. The conditioning of the course is immaculate, and every gap is distinctive.
“When you’re a golfer,” Moynihan says, elaborating on his preliminary evaluation, “it’s a golf vacation spot.”
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