Kapalua (Bay)

Kapalua Resort once hosted 54 holes worth of golf, but now it makes do with just two courses from world-renowned architects. The Coore & Crenshaw Plantation Course hosts the PGA on an annual basis but getting a tee time at the Bay Course is hardly bad luck. This was one of Arnold Palmer’s earlier design forays, which he undertook in partnership with Frank Duane.

Palmer was the first architect to build a par three over the ocean on the island of Maui and, as the resort happily proclaims, he remains the only one. No. 17 is a 205-yard par three that plays from a tee out on Dragon’s Pointe across Oneloa Bay to a green perched on a cliff above the bay.

The course was always destined to host the best in the game, and indeed more than 20 professional events have been staged at the Bay Course during its lifetime. It has a special place in the hearts of Welsh golf fans, as Ian Woosnam and David Llwellyn captured the World Cup of Golf here during 1987. Eventually, the onset of technology took some teeth away, which prompted the addition of the more muscular Plantation Course to host further events.