Hualalai

[Marty Bonnar]

You know, architectural snootery and snobbery aside, it's still a bloody spectacular golf course.


F.

[Marty Bonnar]

Oh yeah, and no dormant Bermuda, btw.


F.

[BHoover]

I'd be perfectly happy spending my winter (or any other time of year) at this place.

[Marty Bonnar]

I'd be perfectly happy spending my winter (or any other time of year) at this place.

Embrace the lava, baby!
F.


PS Although you'd probably have to be a gazillionare...💰

[Dave McCollum]

It's really a nice course and well suited for it's purpose:  resort golf, a fun round with your wife or kids.  Super wide and playable, even for a newbie.  I spent a week there as a guest (way beyond my usual means or style) and the only thing I could come up with to bitch about was "aloha abuse" (the staff was too friendly).  It's a rare place for 1%ers, but it is hard to criticize for perfect execution.  Perhaps the most amazing component of their presentation is that it is kid and family friendly, perhaps a product of the staff actually seeming to consider itself as some form of extended family.     

[William_G]

Hualalai

grind up ancient lava and build, crazy stuff

[Marty Bonnar]

Hualalai

grind up ancient lava and build, crazy stuff

HualalAi!
Don't know where that e came from!


F.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Perhaps the most amazing component of their presentation is that it is kid and family friendly, perhaps a product of the staff actually seeming to consider itself as some form of extended family.   

Must be the neighborhood...that sounds exactly like the (closed, but hopefully reopening on schedule in 2019) Kona Village next door.

[Marty Bonnar]

Watching again tonight (postponed, too Windy!) and still quite enamoured with the look. I think sometimes it's the addition of features to my personal architectural lexicon which hooks me into liking a golf course. Obviously here it's the lava. I spent the entire time we were in Hawaii excited by the variety of lava. There's lovely Hawaiian words for each of the different types - the flowy stuff, the powdery stuff, the rough stuff, the big lumps, the cracked and broken planes, etc. I think as a designer, you couldn't help but be inspired with the material. In terms of architectural strategy, it's used in so many ways. Creating blind shots here, forcing a carry there, framing that view, shaping the edge of a fairway and so on. Drains even better than sand, too!
Teeing off whilst watching Sea Turtles has to be cool, right?


F.

[Carl Johnson]

Marty, thanks for the sunny (no pun intended) perspective.

[Dave McCollum]

Perhaps the most amazing component of their presentation is that it is kid and family friendly, perhaps a product of the staff actually seeming to consider itself as some form of extended family.   

Must be the neighborhood...that sounds exactly like the (closed, but hopefully reopening on schedule in 2019) Kona Village next door.

Good observation from my memories of KV many years ago.  Great place for kids & families, especially since back then I had kids.  Nowdays, those kids have kids.  Matter of fact my game at Hualalei was a good match with my now grown kids and one of their friends.  My kids rarely play and are really just beginners, yet, without much wind, they were able to get around and have fun.  I confess we modified the rules to make the match competitive:  we treated the lava as laterals and, under no circumstances, went out there to retrieve a ball.  I don't think I lost a ball.  They left a medium bucket to mark their passage.