Wailea Gold

The verdict

Wailea Golf Club runs three courses down the dry, sunny side of Haleakala, and the Gold is the one built to test you. Jones Jr. opened it in 1994 as the club's championship course, and it carries the brief with style: fairways pitched across real elevation change, greens defended by ancient lava rock walls left in play as hazards and history, and bunkering, more than 90 of them by most counts, that demands a plan from the tee rather than a swing. South Maui's forgiving trade wind weather, among the driest and most reliable on the island, does the rest.

What keeps the Gold on traveling golfers' lists is the balance. It is genuinely hard from the tips, yet five tee sets and generous resort speed greens keep it honest for a vacation handicap, and the views, Molokini crater offshore, Kahoolawe and Lanai on the horizon, West Maui's mountains across the bay, never stop. Within a Hawaii trip it is the natural counterweight to the cliffside theater of Kapalua Plantation up the coast and the old world glamour of Mauna Kea across the channel on the Big Island.

The holes worth the trip

The postcard here is the 8th, a downhill par 3 played over a ravine of lava and kiawe scrub with the ocean filling the horizon behind the green. Like the best one shotters on the island it changes character completely with the breeze: a smooth mid iron at dawn becomes a held long iron into the afternoon trades, and the bunkers short and right collect everyone who refuses to commit.

Across the round, the lava is the signature. Centuries old rock walls, built by Hawaiians long before the resort existed, cross several fairways and are preserved as integral hazards, so you will play around history rather than over ropes. The front nine climbs and turns along the upper slopes where the elevation makes club selection a guessing game; the back nine works toward the water with wider vistas and the course's most dramatic downhill tee shots. There is real width out there, but the angles into the greens tighten relentlessly, and the closer you get to the hole the more the Gold asks for precision over power.

Played in the morning before the trades fill in, it is a fair, beautiful examination. Played at 2pm with the wind up, it is the hardest 18 in South Maui, and the one you will want back.

Where to stay nearby

Wailea is one of the easiest golf bases in Hawaii: a master planned resort strip of beachfront hotels, the Grand Wailea, Four Seasons Maui, Andaz and Fairmont Kea Lani among them, all within a few minutes of the first tee, with Wailea Beach and the resort's shopping and dining in walking distance. Staying in Wailea unlocks resort guest golf rates and the easiest access to morning tee times.

Most golf trips to Maui split the week: three or four nights in Wailea for the Gold and Emerald, then a swing north for Kapalua Plantation, the island's other unmissable round. Our 5 day Maui golf itinerary sequences it day by day, and our Hawaii golf holidays page covers the island hopping version with Mauna Kea and Princeville Makai added.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts in Wailea.