Hokuala (Ocean)

First set out by Jack Nicklaus within a 36-hole golf facility known as Kauai Lagoons Golf Club in the late 1980s, the remodelled Ocean course at the Hōkūala resort winds through mango and guava groves on a dramatic clifftop property.

Around 2010, the intention was to revamp the original Kiele and Mokihana 18-hole courses to form a new 27-hole layout (comprising the Mauka, Moana and Waikahe nines), with greens converted to TifEagle Bermuda grass and red sand bunkers replaced with white silica sand hazards.

Unfortunately, the Waikahe nine no longer exists and several of the holes have since been turned into walking trails and an organic farm.

The Mauka nine is routed through native vegetation, with three tough par fives in the first six holes and a heroic par three at the fifth hole, where the green sits behind a gulley filled with a forest of mango, guava plum and schefflera plants.

The Moana back nine reaches the shoreline at the 13th green then the next three holes are laid out along the coast before heading inland for the par three 17th then the 459-yard closing hole (rated stroke index 2) which narrows to a peninsula home green.