And the course designs combine with the multiple teeing areas
to give players great architectural
variety. In addition, the resorts
at which they operate cater to a
wide range of travelers – whether
well-heeled couples seeking the
ultimate in privacy and luxury (Four
Seasons), families as interested
in value as quality (Waikoloa) and
everything in between.
But it is the uniqueness of the
locale and all a visitor can do on
and off the course that really gets
to me. There is also the matter of
the Big Island as a whole boasting
an understated ambiance that isn’t
all leis and luaus. To be sure, it has
its fair share of tourists – and tourist traps. But it has also managed
to retain a very true sense of its
old-time self.
It was my first trip to Hawaii, and
I suddenly wonder what took me
so long to finally get here. Part of
that surely has to do to its distance
from my New England home. But it
is also the result of not being sure
exactly what island to visit. I had
heard good things about Oahu and
Maui when it came to golf. Kauai,
too. But people kept telling me
about the Big Island.
I consider all this as I order
another drink. Then I make the sort
of lucid determination that seems to
come so easily at cocktail hour.
KOHALA COAST, HAWAII | Normally,
I am not a patient man. Especially
when I’ve scheduled a golf game, and
it’s getting close to my tee time. But I
do not mind waiting this morning for
the Kona coffee to steep in the French
press my waiter has left on my breakfast table.
For one thing, I know the coffee
is going to be very good, coming as it
does from a plantation less than an
hour’s drive away, and I am happy to
let the brewing process play out. The
setting is also pretty special, as I am
seated on a shaded veranda of the
Pahu i’a restaurant at the Four Seasons at Hualalai, overlooking a white
sand beach with the Pacific Ocean
stretching beyond. And I am content
simply to gaze at the cerulean waters
as the early morning waves lap easily
onto the shore.
I savor every sip of the Kona brew,
and then it is time to start my first
round, on the Jack Nicklaus course
there. It’s a brisk 18 on a boffo track,
and I enjoy how so many of the fair-
ways snake between rock outcrop-
pings. Like the par- 5 seventh, where
I drive my ball from the highest point
on the course over a craggy canyon
toward a valley that lies between a
pair of lava fields.
Pahu i’a Restaurant at The Four Seasons
Hualalai Golf Course No. 17
