Makai Golf Club Is Star Of Kauai’s North Shore, From Sunrise To Sunset

With parts of six holes directly overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Makai Golf Club on the North Shore of Kauai delivers on its name, which in Hawaiian means “toward the sea.”

Princeville’s Makai course might be about as far as you’ll have to travel away from the mainland to visit a golf course in the U.S., but it’s well worth it — whether you tee it up or not.

The golf is simply spectacular. The course opened in 1971 and was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., who accepted a home on the North Shore overlooking Hanalei Bay as part of his payment and to this day calls it one of the best deals he’s ever made. After undergoing a $6 million renovation and re-opening in 2010, the layout has been ranked by Golf Digest as one of the Top 100 public courses in the U.S.

The Makai Course not only boasts ocean views atop soaring sea cliffs several hundred feet over the Pacific Ocean, but also looks out onto the crashing waves in Hanalei Bay. On particular holes with views of the picturesque bay, Jones even designed certain bunkers with top edges that mimic the curl of the distant waves that have been home to many of the world’s best surfers.

The par-3 seventh hole is Makai’s signature hole, playing across an ocean cove toward Mt. Makana, which served as fabled “Bali Hai” in the classic film South Pacific. The pyramid-shaped mountain is the start of the Na Pali Coast on the North Shore. And everywhere toward the middle of the island, you see the lush green peaks surrounding Mt. Waialeale, which has been known as the wettest place on earth and features numerous ribbon-like waterfalls that spill from its soaring heights.

Yes, the Makai Course and the Princeville area can be susceptible to rain. That’s the nature of the North Shore, which was severely impacted by severe flooding earlier this year. But the Makai Course couldn’t be in better shape during my recent visit – the sun shone brightly, the grass was green, the fairways and bunkers were in terrific condition and the greens rolled true.

I was fortunate enough to play with one of Makai’s assistant pros, Tom Freestone, who ended up in Hawaii after growing up off the mainland – in Alaska. To be around Freestone and his colleagues, including General Manager Doug Sutter, is to understand the special spirit and attitude that exists on Kauai’s North Shore. From local fruit juices in the golf carts courtesy of Kauai Juice Co to the mango-scented chilled towels after the round, the Makai Course delivers a luxuriously relaxed experience.

As the late-day shadows grow long, the course gets even more picturesque.

It’s why Makai wisely started doing a Sunset Cart Tour every night, often taking guests from the Princeville area and the course’s partner hotel – the St. Regis Princeville – who have never been on a golf course before. The Makai course boasts perhaps the most incredible sunset views in Kauai.

As impressive as the long-hitting Freestone was in showing us around the golf course, he’s perhaps even more remarkable in leading the sunset tour. Not only does Freestone shepherd a long, winding line of carts and provide a fascinating history of the North Shore and its local flora and fauna, but he makes a show of remembering the name of each and every guest on the tour. There were more than 40 guests on our tour and he’d even recall every single name long after the sun sunk beyond “Bali Hai.”

The sunset cart tour weaves past several spots along the coastline before pulling to a stop at the tee box of the seventh hole.

The course itself turns inland after that hole, but returns to the sea again on the back nine, with the 13th green, 14th hole and 15th tee box overlooking the water. The final two holes play back toward the mountains, with greens that are protected by serene ponds. As good as those finishing holes are, you’ll be hard-pressed to forget the earlier visuals of Hanalei Bay and the ocean.

And that’s as it should be when you play Makai.

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