BIG IS BEAUTIFUL: HAWAII'S KOHALA COAST
Words and Photography: brendan james

The Big Island is home to the tallest mountain in the world. This
is not a misprint, for those of you who are yelling ‘Mt Everest’ at
this page. Mauna Kea’s summit stands at 13,796 feet above sea
level, and rises more than 32,000 feet from its base on the ocean fl oor, making it taller than Mt Everest at 29,035 feet. Mauna Kea is a constant landmark you simply cannot miss when playing golf on the Kohala Coast – a 30-kilometere coastal stretch on the western side of the Big Island (about 30 minutes’
drive from the airport) where fantastic golf courses and
luxurious five-star resorts abound.

The short par-4 Waikoloa's Kings' course is a risk-and-reward gem where sand and lava combine to defend par.

The area has attracted some of the biggest names in course
design and, as a result, the layouts are simply outstanding. As a
photographer I couldn’t help but be struck at the colours a round
of golf on the Kohala Coast could offer. The contrasts between
lush green fairways, pure white bunkers, jet-black and brown
lava fl ows as well as beautiful blue Pacifi c Ocean waters make for an unforgettable golf experience. During the winter months it is also possible to see snow covering the peak of Mauna Kea, while playing golf in shirt and shorts along the ocean’s edge.

While golf has been played on the Big Island since the 1920s, it
didn’t take off on the Kohala Coast until the 1960s when billionaire American businessman and resort developer Laurance Rockefeller had a vision to build a resort and adjoining golf courses on seaside and lava-strewn land on the northernmost end of the coast.

He flew the leading golf course architect of the time, Robert
Trent Jones Snr, to the Big Island to look at the site for the proposed Mauna Kea resort. In what would become a defi ning moment for the region, Trent Jones Snr ground two lava rocks together and discovered it could be crushed into an excellent base for growing grass.

This breakthrough paved the way for courses to be built on land that had long been considered inhospitable. Today, the Kohala Coast is home to seven championship-style resort courses and several private clubs.

Trent Jones Snr’s son, and a highly-acclaimed designer in his
own right, Robert Trent Jones Jnr once said of the Kohala Coast:
“Few destinations in the world offer so many memorable and
diverse golf courses in as magnifi cent a setting as this.”
This may be one reason why Trent Jones Jnr was drawn to follow his father to the Big Island to design the Beach course at the Waikoloa Beach Resort – one of the largest resort complexes on the Kohala Coast.

The Beach layout weaves through some wonderful lava
formations, which you are forced to play over, around and through as the holes lead you to the ocean. Trent Jones Jnr’s knack for extracting as much from the landscape as possible in creating drama for the player really comes into play on two holes of the back nine. The 363-metre par-4 10th features a 10-metre high wall of lava down the right edge of the fairway, which then veers slightly right to finish at a green that lies within an amphitheatre of lava as well as sand.

Where To Play and StAY 1

WAIKOLOA BEACH RESORT
Robert Trent Jones Jnr Beach course and Kings’ course, designed by Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish. Accommodation available at adjacent Hilton Waikoloa Village and Waikoloa Beach Marriott. Take the video tour www.waikoloabeachresort.com/hawaii-golf

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