Mauna Kea Golf Course

Crushed lava, then a carry over the surf.

In 1960 Laurance Rockefeller flew over the Kohala Coast with Robert Trent Jones Sr. and doubted that a golf course could be built on that bare volcanic ground. Jones thought it could; his son later recalled him smashing two lava stones together to test them. The course opened on 10 December 1964, the year before Rockefeller’s Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Six decades on it has been rebuilt again, by Jones’s son, and reopened in the week of Christmas 2024. The reason most golfers come is still the 3rd, a par three played from old lava across the Pacific to a kidney-shaped green.

Mauna Kea Golf Course green fees and tee times.

Mauna Kea is a resort course open to visitors who are not staying at the hotel. Tee times are booked online through Chronogolf, linked from the resort’s tee-times page, and the listing advertises “reserve now, pay later”; you can also phone the pro shop on +1 808 882 5409. The resort does not publish green fees on its website, so the price you see is the one quoted in the booking engine for your date and time. Hotel guests have the strongest deal: the Mauna Kea Golf Package, booked through Marriott, includes breakfast for two each day and 50% off green fees at both Mauna Kea and the resort’s second course, Hapuna. A round includes complimentary practice balls and bottled water, and carts carry GPS yardages. No handicap limit is published.

The round, in perspective.

Jones Sr. built the course on a black lava field above Kaunaʻoa Bay, crushing the rock into a base for turf, and called the 3rd his “gem among eighteen jewels”. Its back tee was 250 yards when the course opened and now plays 272, over surf breaking on the rocks below. Rees Jones later deepened the bunkers and added length. The latest work, led by Robert Trent Jones Jr., regrassed the fairways and greens with Platinum Paspalum, reshaped the bunkers and restored the 3rd, as part of a wider renovation of the hotel. Par is 72, and Chronogolf lists five sets of tees, rated from 69.3 to 76.8 with a slope of 143 from the championship markers, so this is a serious test from the back and a fair one further forward. Nēnē, the Hawaiian state bird, walk the course, and the resort asks golfers to keep their distance.

Know before you go.

Booking

Chronogolf online, or pro shop +1 808 882 5409

Hotel package

50% off green fees at Mauna Kea and Hapuna, plus breakfast for two

Practice

Range balls and bottled water included with a round

Carts

GPS on every cart

Wildlife

Keep clear of nēnē on the course

Make the trip work.

The course sits beside the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Mauna Kea Beach Drive, so hotel guests can walk to the first tee. Check aeration before you lock in dates: the course closes for two days twice a year, on 1–2 June and 28–29 September in 2027, and the resort warns that greens roll slowly for about ten days afterwards. The hotel charges no resort fee. The 3rd has a restaurant beside it, Number 3, which suits lunch after the round. Everything is priced in US dollars.

Kona International (KOA) is the nearest airport, roughly 30 miles south on the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway, about 40 minutes by car. A hire car is the practical choice: buses are sparse on this coast. Inter-island flights from Honolulu to Kona take under an hour, and Waimea town is about 20 minutes inland up the hill.

Where it is.

Nearby: 1. Mauna Lani South Course (7 km) · Compare all Hawaii Island, Kauai & Oahu tee times

Somewhere to settle in.

There are two hotels on the resort. The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel sits on Kaunaʻoa Bay, and the golf package is booked through Marriott’s reservations page for the resort. The Westin Hapuna is a short drive along the coast above Hapuna Beach and is linked to the same golf. Further south, the Mauna Lani and Waikoloa resorts have more hotels and condominiums, and Waimea has small inns if you would rather stay up-country.

Make a trip of it.

Hapuna Golf Course, by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay in 1992, is on the same resort and climbs from sea level to about 750 feet, so it plays nothing like Mauna Kea. The two Mauna Lani courses are about 15 minutes south, and the Waikoloa courses a little beyond. Off the course, Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site at Kawaihae, a stone temple built for Kamehameha I, is a few minutes north, and the Pololū Valley lookout sits at the end of the road through Hawi.

Find your season.

The Kohala Coast is one of the driest parts of the island, and golf is played all year. December to March brings the peak of visitors from North America and Japan, and the busiest tee sheets; humpback whales are offshore in the same months. Trade winds usually rise through the afternoon, which changes the 3rd considerably, so morning tee times suit those who want a calmer carry.