I got to play a round at the Kapalua Plantation course during my recent visit to Maui. Summarizing the experience in a quick paragraph isn't easy but I'll offer a brief review along with some photos.
For the first-timer, the Plantation is a difficult test on very severe terrain made even more interesting by the steady 30 mph tradewinds. Although the fairways were quite generous, any ball hit off of the turf area will be lost or certainly unplayable in the thick jungle vegetation. This is a course that one could not expect to conquer on first visit, a lot of knowledge is needed with greens and some of the fairway slopes and aiming points for the blind shots. The advice about putts "break toward the ocean" is obvious, but no way one could anticipate the some of the optical illusions on the greens. Coupled with the totally distracting vistas of the ocean and overall scenic beauty, the Plantation course offers a substantial test.
Despite the challenges, it was just plain fun. I played with three strangers, all first-timers, all in the handicap range of 9-16 or so, and all with the good humor to enjoy the experience. No grumbling about unfairness or difficulty, we all just shrugged and laughed as we proceeded thru the day with the frequent looks of "WTF?" We played the 6500 yard tees and I shot a 97 and am damn happy about it! Only lost three balls. I managed to cope with the wind pretty well on tee shots and approaches, but really ran into problems on the greens, both adjusting for wind and break, resulting in five three putts and many failures to get up and down. Nonetheless, we all had a great time and an enjoyable morning.
Some photos for your viewing pleasure:
^ A view of the green on the long par 4 first from the landing zone. I duffed two shots off of the tee and from where I was, I could not see the crap in the valley short of the green. Without consulting the GPS, I launched a 3-wood right at the green only to arrive to see the dense foliage that had swallowed the first of three ProV1s that I lost this day. Something else - this green appears to be severely sloped back to front, but after three tries to get to the hole from above, I realized the green is actually fairly flat.
^ Shot to the par 5 fifth green, a "cape" hole surrounded by jungle vegetation. Intimidating shot with uncertainty of club selection due to wind and elevation factors.
^ Blind tee shot on #6. Note the bunker that splits the fairway and the aiming target just right of that.
^ 6th green from the edge of fairway. I hadn't hit a drive far enough to have this view, I had to use the aiming pole. Definitely want to stay left as a bank left of the green feeds everything to the right.
^ Par 3 #8. My fat tee shot fell short into the junk which claimed ProV1 #2.
^ Par 5 ninth from tee shot landing area. Uphill dead into the wind. From here I crushed a 150 yard 3-wood that barely cleared the valley.
^ Tenth (?) green. Nothing to show architecturally, just an awesome view of the ocean and the neighboring island of Molokai.
^ Me on the tee of the medium par 3 eleventh. I really should do something about that gut
