Aye, the Captain’s Log: Maui Golf Itineraries is where you’ll hear his insights as he traversed the Maui landscape during his last golfing journey. Lots of holes for every budget and style of play, and so we take a peek into the pages of  the Old Salt of the Sea’s Captain’s Log.

Budgeteer’s Cornucopia

Aye, well I daresay . . . → Read More: Captain’s Log: Maui Golf Itineraries

Lana‘i is just a short Expeditions (661-3756) ferry ride away from Lahaina, and one of the few excursions from the Valley Isle that I highly recommend. It is home to two of Hawaii’s finest resort golf courses: the Challenge at Manele and the Experience at Koele. Each course is singularly unique in terrain, location, setting, and design.

The 7,000-yard, par 72 Experience at Koele is set on a plateau 2000-feet above sea level in the mountains where the cool air allows the course to maintain bent grass putting greens, and showcase stunning views of Maui and Molokai. Cook pine, eucalyptus, and koa trees line fairways that wind through hilly terrain, with beautiful, multi-tiered cascading waterfalls and placid ponds coming into play or view on 10 of its 18 holes. . . . → Read More: Lana‘i: A wondrous golf resort in paradise

In the lee of the great dormant volcano Haleakala lies one of the most luxurious golf resorts on earth: Wailea. Everything you have heard, or will read in this feature, bespeaks a known truth about a place that has carefully cultivated a reputation for quality; one that has been rivalled but never beaten. Wailea is, by all estimations, the premiere golf resort destination in Hawai‘i, if not the world. . . . → Read More: Posh Wailea

A legendary artist on Maui, Jan Kasprzycki’s work has dazzled residents and visitors alike for decades. I first came to know of him though my association with the excellent and highly respected chef/owner of the Lahaina Grill, Jurg Munch. It was during one of our first visits to Jurg’s famed bistro that I was introduced to the brilliant colors that were emanating from Jan’s floral tapestries—works that made the Lahaina Grill shine. It was, by far, the most imaginative and brilliant work for a Maui artist I had seen; something others who visit the famed Lahaina bistro echo when they dine there. Jurg expands: “Jan Kasprzycki’s artwork creates a vibrant environment at Lahaina Grill that night after night our guests comment on. It is a pleasure to be around his strong, colorful works that seem to glow in the room,” Jurg said. He had choice words for Jan’s work, calling it: “Dynamic, electrifying, vivacious, rich, and distinctive.” . . . → Read More: Off Course

It’s been four years and $13 million in the making, but now Ka‘anapali is back and better than ever!

After a complete transformation of both courses, a new logo, a Champions TOUR event, and hosting the Golf Channel’s Big Break Ka‘anapali, this golf resort is thriving!

General manager Ed Kageyama and director of golf Tim Murphy will take you on a tour of the resort and show you some of their favorite holes, highlight a few shots during the 2008 Wendy’s Champions Skins Game and take you through a few of the holes used during Big Break Ka‘anapali. Join us!
. . . → Read More: Ka‘anapali Golf Resort

The Makena North Course is a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design situated within one of Maui’s most tranquil settings. It’s truly old Hawai‘i at its very best.

The Makena North Course “is one of the best mountain course layouts in Hawai‘i,” golf analyst Mark Rolfing, PGA, explains. “Robert Trent Jones, Jr. has taken the slopes of Haleakala . . . → Read More: Golfing The Slopes of Haleakala

The landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed, 75,000 square-foot clubhouse, home to The King Kamehameha Golf Club, is known throughout Hawai‘i for its ultra-modern design. Its peach-colored exterior stands out from afar, and within its confines is a world of passionate artistry and award-winning interior design that includes Hawai‘ian art treasures, and luxurious rooms that befit a club that bears the name of Hawai‘i’s greatest chief: King Kamehameha. With its commanding views of both shorelines and the majestic Mt. Haleakala, this clubhouse is nestled within the lush foothills of the West Maui mountains, and below it lie the verdant Ted Robinson-designed fairways and greens of the club’s golf course, all meticuously maintained and available to its members. . . . → Read More: Royalty Revered

This is the Grand Old Man of Golf on Maui, but the emphasis is on “Grand” and not on “Old,” for Henry is hardly an old man and has no apparent reason or any apparent intent to not go on doing what he does best, imparting golf knowledge and life ethic to the youth of all ages on Maui.

Although it seems he was always here, Henry was not. He was born in Kailua on the windward side of Oahu, where his parents owned a small restaurant right on Kailua beach. But, in 1944, during a time of blackouts and rationing that followed Pearl Harbor, Henry, at the tender age of 11, started weekend work as a caddie.
. . . → Read More: Profile: Henry Yogi

One of the most popular golf courses on Maui is the elleair Maui Golf Club, located on the mauka side of the Pi‘ilani Highway at the top of Lipoa Street in Kihei. This 18-hole championship course is routed toward the east and the west, allowing golfers who are playing on its lush, Tifton 419 fairways endless opportunities to delight in its terrific layout and the panoramic vistas of Mt. Haleakala, Lanai, Kaho‘olawe, Molokini, the West Maui mountains, the ‘Au‘au channel, and Ma‘alaea Bay. It is a beautiful golf course that is teeming with native plants, rare birds and stunning floral landscapes. elleair’s original design has evolved from a tighter, more penal test, to a more golfer-friendly experience. Updates continue even to this day, as holes are rebuilt to improve scores and make the course even more of a pleasure to play. . . . → Read More: Experience elleair, a must-play on maui!

Hole 4

The 423-yard par 4 4th is a dogleg right that has been widened to give more room to cut the corner and play a short-iron into this large green. The photo above is from the right looking across the green at the West Maui mountains.

Hole 9

The 413-yard par 4 9th features a pond on the . . . → Read More: elleair Course Highlights

The Kahili Golf Course is a first class ticket available for the price of coach: It’s the only way to golf.
The Kahili Golf Course is just down the hill from The King Kamehameha Golf Club and is owned by the same company. But where The King Kamehameha Golf Club is a members-only course, Kahili is open to the public, and that is good news for golfers in search of ultra-lush course conditioning, superb course design, and a great clubhouse that boasts the same amazing views of Maui’s two coasts, its central valley, and Mt. Haleakala as its sibling at a slightly higher elevation. If you are looking for views, value, and a chance to play one of the most underrated golf courses in Hawaii, then the Kahili Golf Course is for you. . . . → Read More: A Luxurious Value

Lanai Golf

Hawaii’s Road Less Traveled

By George Fuller

Photographed by John Byrne

The Ideal Getaway

If your ideal Hawaiian getaway includes lounging on a tropical beach far from the bustle of Waikiki, playing championship-caliber golf courses with nary another soul on them, enjoying luxurious accommodations, swimming with spinner dolphins in a protected bay and riding horses in a setting as . . . → Read More: Hawaii’s Road Less Traveled

In the lee of the great dormant volcano Haleakala, today’s visitors find Wailea to be the perfect combination of sun, beach, golf and luxury accommodations.

But back in 1962, not much was happening on Maui. It was a peaceful island in the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago, happily going about its business of growing sugarcane. Hawaii had become a state only three years before, and jet service was just beginning to shape the future by cutting travel time to the islands in half. . . . → Read More: Hawaiiʻs Golden Shore

Maui’s “must-play” place: Wailea Old Blue the legendary golf course designer, Arthur Jack Snyder, now lying at rest behind her 18th green, took his first historic steps across the lava paths that would become Jack’s “perfect blend of forgiveness and challenge,” The Wailea Old Blue Golf Club, more respectfully known as “Old Blue” and nicknamed by Jack as the “great lady of Wailea.”

Old Blue, born in 1972, was one of the early compelling attractions that lured the world to the south shores of Maui and a community called Wailea, where more than ten days of rain is a bad-weather year. Today, Wailea is home to six world-class resort hotels and five crescent beaches with access to the finest of life’s indulgences in The Shops of Wailea and to an abundance of sports and entertainment on land, at sea and in the air. Highly ranked among these tropical pleasures are Wailea Old Blue and her sister courses, Wailea Emerald and Wailea Gold. . . . → Read More: The Grande Dame of Maui Golf

I will never forget the first time I drove up the hill toward the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed, 75,000 square-foot clubhouse that is now The King Kamehameha Golf Club. It was the early ‘90s, and as the ultra-modern clubhouse came into full view, my eye drifted toward the right, where at its base still remains one of the most serene sights a golfer in search of heaven is ever likely to find: the most lavish, tightly mowed, neatly kept practice facility I have ever seen—and without a soul on it! That was what made it so supreme. It, the clubhouse, and the distant north shore were all that my eyes saw. No people. No crowds. No housing developments. No hotels. As I looked more closely, I noticed the perfectly straight row of green grassed tees, bag stands, a table, a clock, and the brilliant morning light streaming across the expanse of green before me. It was a thing of beauty. That first impression of what is now The King Kamehameha Golf Club, has never escaped me. When I drive up that same hill today, the views, the practice tee, and even the clock are still there. And it’s still as serene as ever.
. . . → Read More: Hawaii Honored

Robert Trent Jones, Jr.: Yes, there are, but I think Makena is one of my favorite courses because it is really two courses (North and South)—really three courses because the North and South are split and we added nine holes to a continuous 18 on the north and a new nine on the south, and they were done 15 years apart. So, the original Makena was done on lava flow. . . . → Read More: Robert Trent Jones

It’s been years in the making, and it’s ready: Ka‘anapali is back! Slowly, methodically, and with little fanfare, Maui’s jewel of a golf resort has come full circle with dazzling new facilities, its two famed courses modernized for today’s golfer, and two TOURs represented on its famed fairways. Arnie, Jack, and six legendary players from . . . → Read More: Legends Return to Maui’s Hallowed Ground

The Dunes at Maui Lani provides an exhilarating game of golf, more likely to be found some 8,000 miles away.

If you’ve played at Ballybunion, Lahinch or Royal County Down, you’ll be quick to catch the drift of what we’re talking about right here. The game of linksland golf carries a voice with a brogue all its own and, indeed, on the links of The Dunes at Maui Lani, you can virtually hear the rolling “r”s. Now, let us be open about it: good links golf is not for those faint of heart; it’s for those with the spirit for a good (but fair) fight. No matter the muscle of the male or the slenderness of his mate’s waist, it’s not a matter of the golfer’s condition; it’s a matter of golfer’s commitment to play the game of golf “the way it was meant to be played.” . . . → Read More: Linksland Golf: The Challenge Without the Chill.

Ka‘anapali Kai Course

A new course design; lush, newly updated fairways, tees and greens; and a sense of tranquility await the golfer in search of true paradise. The Ka‘anapali Kai Course is a charmer.

By Timothy Murphy, PGA, Director of Golf

Tim: Aloha, I’m Tim Murphy, director of golf at the Ka‘anapali Golf Resort. I’d like to show you . . . → Read More: Maui’s Golf Oasis