Hualalai Golf Club

Building a new course in Hawaii is something of a logistical nightmare; it is exceedingly difficult to predict accurately what it will cost to ship in all the materials that can't be found on the islands, and the native soils are highly varied and idiosyncratic. The pair of courses at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai is built over a lava field, so any ball that goes wide of a fairway ends up bouncing over the dark wasteland. Jack Nicklaus designed the later of the two courses; the other, the Ke'olu, is by Tom Weiskopf. His spacious layout is not so much generous as necessitated by the winds that blow in frequently and from all quarters off the ocean; thus a par 4 may play as a drive and a wood or as a drive and pitch depending on the conditions. The Ke'olu is restricted to club members and their guests.