Waialae Country Club

The Waialae Country Club course and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel were both constructed at the same time in the late 1920s as part of an upmarket tourist development by the Territorial Hotel Company and it’s reckoned this was the very first golf resort unveiled on the Hawaiian islands.

Seth Raynor and his associate Charles Banks laid out the course and, in keeping with their normal golfing modus operandi, they built a number of replica holes, including a Redan at the signature par three 8th, a Road hole at the 10th, a Biarritz at the 13th and a Short at the 16th.

Apart from lengthening the par four 15th in the mid-1950s, no major changes were made to the layout until a decade later when the front nine was largely decimated in order to provide land for the construction of the Kahala Hilton Hotel and Beach Apartments.

Thankfully, the iconic 189-yard 8th (played as the 17th during professional competitions) still remains largely intact. This hole, along with strong par fours on the back nine like the 466-yard 16th and 459-yard 17th, still give the layout some bite.

The course has hosted the Hawaiian Open since 1965, when Gay Brewer won the event. Since 1999, the tournament has been known as The Sony Open in Hawaii and it’s the first full-field event played on the PGA Tour in January every year.

Tom Doak currently consults at the club where his plans for the course are intended to “remove the buildup of dust so its charm can shine through”. The par three 2nd (the 11th for the Sony Open) was renovated, the Redan 8th restored and a punchbowl green installed on the par four 15th by Renaissance Golf Design in 2017.