Est. 1996 · Jack Nicklaus
Why we love this place
Why we love it: Hualalai is Kona golf at its purest: black lava, green fairways, blue Pacific, and a Nicklaus routing that respects every yard of it. Playing where the Champions Tour opens its season, with the ocean breeze and that finishing stretch, feels like starting your own year right.
Via Nicklaus Design
About Hualalai Golf Club
Opened in November 1996 as the first Jack Nicklaus Signature course on Hawaii Island, Hualalai Golf Club anchors the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the Kona Coast. The par-72 layout stretches beyond 7,100 yards, beginning in a lush kipuka, or oasis, before its emerald fairways spill across jagged black lava and finish beside the Pacific. Nicklaus routed the course with what his design firm calls "extreme sensitivity to the land," letting the volcanic terrain and coastline shape play. Golf Magazine named it Hawaii's Best New Course the year it debuted. Each January it hosts the PGA Tour Champions season opener, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, drawing the senior circuit's stars to Kona to launch their year. Access is reserved for resort guests and members.
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