While most were baking cookies or enjoying a family dinner on Christmas eve, a mass of tourists arrived on Maui for the holidays. I was standing in Kahului airport: meeting and greeting them until the last (American Airlines) flight rolled in at around 10ish.
I had always heard that this time of the year was the busiest, and given that I promised my sponsors that we’d be in the airport handing out Maui Golf Reviews, and because it is absurd to ask anyone to work on such days, I decided to do it myself. After all, I should know what the job entails!
It was quite rewarding as I met some very nice people, most of whom were exhausted from their long journeys, and deservedly wanting to get to their rooms. Yet, in spite of that, many were smiling and just happy to be here. But oh so many they were. Hundreds on each flight.
But I was in search of golfers. Core golfers. The ones with rolling bags. They were there, but not in the ratios I had expected. On average, I’d say that one in 100 had a golf bag. I recall DBET surveys showing almost 17% of visitors played, which should be more like one in ten, allowing for those who rent clubs, but this was far off of that mark.
Given that the Hyundai Tournament of Champions is ten days away, I had hoped to see a larger contingency of players. I will be there all day on Christmas, so perhaps then I will see improvements.
