Magnificent Golf in Wailea
Hawaii Golf / Beach Trip -- January 8-15, 2001

(Latest update: January 26, 2001 © Herbert E. Lindberg)


We golfers played on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. We began teeing off at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday on the Blue course, which winds around the Grand Champions Villas and private mansions. I was so excited about playing on the magnificent Wailea courses that I forgot my camera this day. But on Thursday I came prepared and took the shot below of the clubhouse for the newer Gold and Emerald courses.
 

Clubhouse and ocean from the Wailea Golf Club practice green.


If ever there was an example that a large part of golf is the beauty of the surroundings, the Wailea Golf Club provides it. Every hole is a series of photographs begging to be taken. Anyone who lets a bad golf shot deflect the sheer enjoyment of the course needs some psychological help, and anyone who thinks he or she has to be a proficient golfer to enjoy a game in Hawaii is missing the point. We began on the 10th hole of the Gold course, and on the 11th hole we saw this breathtaking view:

Gold course: sand hazards surround the par 3 11th hole
-- but who worries with that fantastic view in the background.


You may wonder about the plastic fence on the hole side of the central sand hazard in the above picture (the tee is out of the picture on the left). We played on January 11th and the Senior Skins game was to begin on the Gold course January 26th, so the entire course was being manicured with new grass around some hazards and so on. Some in our party were disappointed that we couldn't take our carts onto the fairways because of the coming event, but I loved it because that gave me more time to enjoy the beauty of the course. I took many more pictures of the Gold course but these were surpassed (within the constraints of a Web page description) by pictures of the Emerald course that we played three days later. On the first tee of the Emerald course I had someone take the following just to prove I played. I could have done a better job of faking a good weight shift in this pose, but I didn't want to take too much time.

Herb tees off on the first hole of the Emerald course.

The next two pictures are a glimpse of what surrounded us on that beautiful Sunday.

Grand Wailea Resort from the Emerald course,
with Maui's "head" in background.

View of the 6th, 3rd and 2nd holes from the 7th tee.
The large island in the background is Kahoolawe.
The tiny island peaking out behind a tree is Molokini.


That evening we had our final gathering at Morrie Brown's villa for hosted cocktails and dinner of a wide variety of hot snacks. As the early evening closed I snapped a fitting end piece from the deck:

Sunset during final gathering at Morrie's.

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