Aloha Bruce made one other considered one of 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 price range. 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 fee”. We right here on the weblog did simply that final week, enjoying 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 group rivalry (go Phillies!).
Hawaii is dwelling 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 scores gold, and it has been because it started in 2012. It’s a weeklong and internationally televised celebration of Hawaii tradition and delicacies. Hawaii celebrity 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. In actual fact, the 10th gap, throughout the road from the Aulani, options a big fairway bunker within the form of the pinnacle of Mickey Mouse. That’s cute!
However be warned: Ko Olina is certainly not a “Mickey Mouse” course. It performs lengthy, practically 6,500 yards. It additionally performs scorching. The Ewa Plain, dwelling 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 dwelling 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.”
A number of slugs of Large Island, Hamakua-grown espresso roasted by a neighborhood purveyor obtained me out the door. By the point I ponied up the inexperienced charges ($85 per, kama’aina fee) and we obtained set to tee off, I counseled my colleague on the early tee time. The solar was nonetheless comparatively low within the morning sky. Teeing off within the noon solar and enjoying 18 troublesome holes can be a giant “ask” for an informal duffer like me.
After the preliminary sting of paying the inexperienced charges (and the guess), it was simple to settle in and benefit from the “splurge” of enjoying a PGA-level golf course. Ko Olina is attractive. It’s fairways and greens are exquisitely manicured. There are just a few rolling hills however the course, for probably the most half, is mercifully flat. Luxurious houses and condominiums line most of the fairways. It may be unnerving, however most holes supply beneficiant fairways and minimal likelihood of shattering somebody’s lounge image window with an errant drive.
To achieve the signature 12th Gap, a deceptively inviting 170-yard Par 3, you drive below a waterfall that roars as you hover over your tee shot. It’s downhill, which is sweet. However it is usually on the entry to the Ko Olina resort space. It’s laborious to not fear about shanking one into oncoming resort site 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 enjoying 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 luxuriate in the most effective that Hawaii golf has to supply.
We suggest to these planning a Hawaii trip that taking that type of alternative is a superb thought. Whether or not it’s eating or skydiving, a room improve or flashy rental convertible, there may be a lot to be mentioned 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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