Mauna Kea Golf Course

The verdict

Mauna Kea is the course that started it all on the Kohala Coast. In 1964 Robert Trent Jones Sr carved it out of black a'a lava for Laurance Rockefeller, and it became the template every Hawaii resort course has chased since, proof that a great golf experience could be built on what looked like the surface of the moon. More than sixty years on it remains one of the most revered names in the islands, and the round many traveling golfers most want to play on the Big Island.

For the traveling golfer, Mauna Kea is a piece of golf history you can still tee up on. Rees Jones returned in 2008 to restore his father's design, rebuilding the greens, bunkers and tees while keeping the bones intact, so the course plays firm, fast and fair with the scale and views the original was famous for. It is open to the public with preferred access for resort guests, which makes it the natural anchor of a Kohala Coast trip alongside the neighboring Mauna Lani and Hualalai layouts.

The holes worth the trip

The hole everyone comes for is the third, a par 3 that carries across a rocky inlet of the Pacific from an elevated tee to a green set on the far headland. From the back markers it is a long, intimidating shot over the surf, and it has been one of the signature one shotters in American golf since the day the course opened. It sets the tone for a layout that uses the drama of the coast and the lava without ever feeling like a gimmick.

Beyond the third, Mauna Kea is a big, muscular Robert Trent Jones design with the room to breathe that the early Hawaii resorts allowed. The fairways are generous off the tee but the approaches are demanding, with elevated, well bunkered greens that ask for a committed iron and reward the player who flights the ball into the trade wind. The Rees Jones restoration sharpened the bunkering and firmed the greens, so the course plays with more teeth than its resort reputation suggests, and the closing stretch back toward the hotel gives the views their final flourish.

What lingers is the sense of scale and history. Mauna Kea was the original statement that world class golf belonged on the Kohala Coast, and standing on that third tee with the ocean between you and the green, it is easy to feel why the place became legendary. For a golfer building a Big Island trip, it is the round that connects the modern resorts back to where it all began.

Where to stay nearby

The natural base is the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel itself, the Rockefeller original that sits beside the first tee and earns preferred golf access, or the neighboring Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, which shares the resort and its golf. Staying on the Kohala Coast keeps a group close to one of the best beaches in Hawaii and a short drive from the other great courses of the coast.

Because the Kohala Coast packs several marquee layouts into a short stretch, most visitors build a trip around three or four of them. Combine Mauna Kea with the lava drama of the Mauna Lani South Course and, for those with access, the Jack Nicklaus championship test at Hualalai, for a Big Island trip that runs from the birth of Hawaii resort golf to its modern peak.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts on the Kohala Coast.