Aloha Bruce made one other one in all his casually astute observations on the newest Hawaii Vacation Connection Podcast: most individuals reserving a Hawaii trip need to plan a day or two to “splurge” on their vacation funds. An costly eating expertise, maybe, or a helicopter tour. Perhaps an evening in a luxurious suite at an unique resort.
Or, perhaps, a spherical of golf at a premier course that may be prohibitively costly even for these of us lucky sufficient to be eligible for the “kama’aina price”. We right here on the weblog did simply that final week, taking part in a spherical on the world-famous Ko Olina Golf Club in West Oahu. We are going to confess that it wasn’t a lot a “splurge” because it was paying of an ill-advised wager with a colleague over a Main League Baseball staff rivalry (go Phillies!).
Hawaii is residence to a handful of PGA Tour championship-caliber programs. Ko Olina is amongst them, notably internet hosting the LPGA Lotte Championship. The Males’s and Champions excursions additionally maintain championships within the Aloha State. The LPGA Lotte Championship is tv rankings gold, and it has been because it started in 2012. It’s a weeklong and internationally televised celebration of Hawaii tradition and delicacies. Hawaii famous person Michelle Wie received the championship in 2014.
The course is positioned within the Ko Olina resort space of West Oahu, with Disney’s Aulani and the Four Seasons being the marquis properties there. Actually, the 10th gap, throughout the road from the Aulani, options a big fairway bunker within the form of the top of Mickey Mouse. That’s cute!
However be warned: Ko Olina is in no way a “Mickey Mouse” course. It performs lengthy, practically 6,500 yards. It additionally performs sizzling. The Ewa Plain, residence to the course, is Oahu’s most arid panorama. It’s as shut the “the desert” because it will get on the island. An 8:30am tee-time practically an hour’s drive from my residence would usually be out of the query for me. However a guess’s a guess, and I’m no deadbeat. As we are saying, “It’s a small island.”
Just a few slugs of Massive Island, Hamakua-grown espresso roasted by an area purveyor obtained me out the door. By the point I ponied up the inexperienced charges ($85 per, kama’aina price) and we obtained set to tee off, I recommended my colleague on the early tee time. The solar was nonetheless comparatively low within the morning sky. Teeing off within the noon solar and taking part in 18 troublesome holes could be an enormous “ask” for an off-the-cuff duffer like me.
After the preliminary sting of paying the inexperienced charges (and the guess), it was straightforward to settle in and benefit from the “splurge” of taking part in a PGA-level golf course. Ko Olina is beautiful. It’s fairways and greens are exquisitely manicured. There are just a few rolling hills however the course, for essentially the most half, is mercifully flat. Luxurious houses and condominiums line lots of the fairways. It may be unnerving, however most holes provide beneficiant fairways and minimal probability of shattering somebody’s front room image window with an errant drive.
To achieve the signature 12th Gap, a deceptively inviting 170-yard Par 3, you drive underneath a waterfall that roars as you hover over your tee shot. It’s downhill, which is good. However it is usually on the entry to the Ko Olina resort space. It’s exhausting to not fear about shanking one into oncoming resort visitors.
My play that day was “regular”, which is to say “ghastly”. However taking pictures the lights out was by no means the purpose of taking part in at Ko Olina. Sure, I used to be paying off a guess. However I used to be additionally glad to take the chance to “splurge” and revel in the most effective that Hawaii golf has to supply.
We suggest to these planning a Hawaii trip that taking that form of alternative is a good thought. Whether or not or not it’s eating or skydiving, a room improve or flashy rental convertible, there’s a lot to be stated for treating your self in paradise. Hawaii Aloha Journey is right here that can assist you make that occur.
Posted by: Jamie Winpenny
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