Quick Recap: Big Island Golf

[Mirage]

Spent most of the week on the Big Island, had a chance to play twice. Since I'm coming back from an injury to my left foot, I scheduled Waikoloa Village first, based on a local recommendation for a fun track. It's an old Robert Trent Jones course, up about five miles from the resorts on the Kohala Coast, with the slightly elevated greens that are common to his designs.

 

Glad I did, for a couple of reasons: I was paired with two older local gentlemen (playing the whites) and a younger 5 handicapper who joined us on #2 tee, who played from the blues. The course keeps its greens fairly slow, since the winds up there can blow like crazy but they rolled evenly. There's been a lot of rain lately on the big island, and the rough, even though recently cut, was deep enough to conceal small dogs (and take a lot of yardage off most shots). I've posted a few pics from Waikoloa Village first.

 

 

 

 

About halfway through the round, the younger of my playing partners asked me if I planned to do any more golfing while on the island, and I told him I was scheduled to play Big Island Country Club on Wednesday. He said, "I'm playing Mauna Lani North tomorrow with a couple of friends and we have an opening. Would you like to play with us?" It took me all of a nanosecond to say yes - he was very enjoyable to play with, and I knew the course would be in great shape.

 

As it turns out, their third dropped out and it was just the three of us at Mauna Lani. I was advised to arrive in plenty of time to practice, since the greens there would be much faster than at Waikoloa Village. That turned out to be an understatement. I can't think of another occasion when I rolled a thirty foot, significantly uphill putt about 12 feet past the hole, but I did on one of the par 3s (and made the come backer, fortunately). The par 3 pictured below isn't that one, but one of only two that I have pictures of.

 

 

The North Course doesn't get the play that the South Course does - it lacks the several holes along the Pacific, and it's regarded as a tougher course. I had no basis of comparison with the South Course, but from the blues, it offered plenty of challenge, especially when playing toward the ocean, into the wind, as we did on number 2 (a 500 yard par five) and number 9 (a 437 yard par four). We played from the blues (6601 yards on the card). The hole below is a par four with a canyon to be crossed off the tee (tips and blues, anyway - the others are across the canyon, up on the hill you can see to the right in the picture. The canyon's not really in play, but it's much wider and deeper than it appears from the photo. Definitely grabs your attention when you drive up to the tee.

 

 

The architect's habit of planting kiawe trees in or near the middle of some of his fairways has drawn some barbs here, but they're easy to avoid off the tee, or work around from the fairway.

 

 

There's plenty of demand for working your tee shots in both directions, but fortunately for me, most holes seemed to allow a right-to-left flight. The singular exception is number 1, which is basically a 90 degree dogleg right. My natural flight turned it into a much longer par four than it should have been. :-)

 

One of the short par fours features something I've never seen on a golf course: its own herd of wild goats.

 

 

Number 17 is the signature, short par 3. From the blues, it was only a wedge or a nine-iron to a back pin, but fun to have to try to draw the shot around the big chunk of volcanic rock that fronts the green (and really isn't in play from the elevated tee).

 

 

 

 

18 was a dogleg left par four that sets up perfectly off the tee for me...except when I slide right into my shot with a wide-open club face and have to take a drop from the lava down the right hand side of the hole (and still having 220 or so to the hole). My host hit one of his best drives of the day there, though.

 

 

Finishing with a double couldn't begin to diminish the enjoyment of a round with a couple of great playing partners on a beautiful, challenging course. :-)

 

I was able to play for significantly less than the $190 rack rate right now, thanks to the generosity of my host, who had some type of regular player's account with the course. I'd have gladly payed the rack rate, though - the condition of the course and greens was superb. It was a great experience.

[Chivas Irons]

Thanks Mirage for the recap and awesome pictures! I am going at the end of July and just beginning to start my planning and research on what courses to play. This definitely helped! Mahalo.