Golf

Friends of mine who play golf regularly on Maui have helped me collect this information to help you get the most out of your times playing golf.  On this page you will find a discussion of all of the golf courses on Maui, including which are cheap versus expensive and difficult versus easy.  Phone numbers are shown for each course, as well as suggestions for discounts on some.

I've only included one photo on this page, but next to it is a link to more pictures of golf on Maui.

There are fifteen beautiful golf courses on Maui.  The best is the Plantation Course at Kapalua, famous as home to the Mercedes Championship every January.  Second-best is the Bay Course, also at Kapalua.  (The Village Course at Kapalua closed 2-28-07 and will re-open as a private course in 2008.)  A close third best are the North and South courses at Makena.  The Kaanapali North and South golf courses are less challenging.  Wailea Gold, Emerald and Blue are also top courses.  Wailea Gold is home to the Champions Skins Game held every February.  The Plantation Course and the Wailea Emerald course have some of the most beautiful views. 

You must have reservations at all of these popular courses, especially for the early morning tee times.  You can make reservations for the Kapalua courses up to 25 days in advance, by calling  (808) 669-8044.  Call early in the morning for the best choices, since they start answering the phone at 6 AM Hawaii time.  If you’re playing at the Wailea courses, the phone number for reservations is (808) 875-5111, and for Makena it’s (808) 879-3344 (reserve those tee times up to 30 days in advance).  Kaanapali courses take phone reservations up to 3 weeks in advance at (808) 661-3691.  Wailea (www.golfbc.com), Kaanapali (www.kaanapali-golf.com) and Makena (www.makenagolf.com) also allow online booking 30 days in advance.  For the Kapalua courses online, it's 25 days in advance (www.kapaluamaui.com).  The three Wailea Courses, particularly the Blue (which also has nice wide fairways), have better rates booking on line (www.golfbc.com).  But all of the courses mentioned in the above paragraph are expensive. 

The courses away from the tourist areas are much cheaper and most are also easier.  Waiehu Municipal (808) 243-7400 has some of the best views on the island, as three holes are adjacent to the beach.  Waiehu Muni golf course is a couple of miles northwest of Wailuku on Highway 330.  If you go right of the fairway on the 6th, 7th or 8th holes, be prepared to take a sand wedge with you.  On the 15th, there is a downhill tee shot which looks as if you would hit it into the ocean.  It doesn’t have the conditioning that the major resort courses do, but it’s much cheaper for the budget golfer, has some great scenery and is quite “forgiving” for the average golfer.  Also good value and somewhat forgiving are Pukalani Country Club (808) 572-1314, Elleair Maui (808) 874-0777 in Kihei and somewhat less forgiving is The Dunes at Maui Lani (808) 873-0422 in Kahului.  The other more budget course is Kahili Golf Club (808) 242-4653 (formerly Sandalwood), which is on the Honoapi'ilani Highway at Waikapu, just south west of Wailuku.  Coupons for these courses are often available in the various on-island tourist magazines.  And almost all Maui's golf courses, both expensive and inexpensive, offer a large discount if you are willing to play "twilight" starting after 1 or 2 PM.

There is less rain in Wailea and Makena than in Kapalua and Kaanapali.  So if it is too windy or too rainy to play golf at the Kapalua courses, you may find better weather by driving 60 minutes (from Kaanapali) to play one of the two Makena courses (the North is more challenging than the South), or one of the three Wailea courses (Emerald is the most scenic and prettiest, compared to the Blue and the Gold).  You don’t have to stay in a Kapalua hotel to play golf at the Kapalua courses, or in Wailea to play the Wailea courses:  you can stay anyplace and play golf anyplace.  However, you do get a discount on golf at the course affiliated with the hotel you stay at.