Once in a while in the golf biz I come across a story about some dotcom gazillionaire and his off-the-wall investments, which often bordered on obsession. Maybe he's a little more hesitant these days, but not long ago, if you threw a guy a stack o’ cash over a relatively short time, and if he had any vision and maverick spirit at all, he’d think of ways to drop a chunk of it on a project that many other all-American magnates would consider a fool’s errand.
Case in point — AOL founder Steve Case, that is. At the turn of the 21st century and tail end of the dotcom boom, he was flush enough with green to buy a healthy parcel of heaven in the shadow of Jurassic Park, take on a king’s ransom in debt and rescue Hawaii’s only 10-hole golf course from disaster.
That’s a lot to chew on, so let me break it down. The parcel of heaven in question is the Hawaiian island of Kauai, its southeastern corner specificially, where, back in the 1980s, Steven Spielberg scouted the perfect location for the first “Jurassic Park” movie. From virtually every point on Puakea Golf Course — 18 holes since 2003 but a Hurricane Iniki-stunted 10 holes in its previous 11 years — you can see the very hills where digital dinos dined on hapless characters with the same abandon that the island’s tropical jungle swallows bum tee shots. You can also see, and feel, and hear, why Case dropped nearly $100 million to take ownership, re-hire architect Robin Nelson to finish the job and wind up with one of the entire island chain’s most underrated circuits.
“It was like Christmas when Steve Case purchased the land and asked me to come back and finish the course,” said in 2006. “I hold it in great affection.”
Nelson now runs his design operation out of Northern California but remains a preeminent go-to guy when it comes to laying out tracks in tropical locales from Hawaii to China to Indonesia. Puakea took him “14 years to go from drawing board to finished article,” Dear wrote, figuring in the Iniki interlude. Over that time, a few things changed. Case came on board with plenty of capital in tow — $26 million for the land underneath the course (formerly a sugar plantation) and $65 million in assumed debt. Kauai’s tourist economy improved, slowly but surely, and the Garden Isle’s golf product came back up to speed. Marriott took over the largest hotel in the gateway city of Lihue, the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club, which sits next to the 36-hole Kauai Lagoons Resort complex currently undergoing an overhaul of its own. Lihue’s airport began to get more direct flights from the mainland, and that meant more business for all the courses, including Puakea, which also happens to be a locals’ favorite.
The upshot of all this activity? For one, a boom in residential development on the sparsely populated island, which in turn led to lots of retail growth — including the big ol’ Costco behind Puakea’s No. 1 green.
That’s right, Costco. Not exactly what you’d expect to see among the lush green mountains and verdant flatlands. In fact, it’s a bit jarring to step on the straightaway opener’s first tee and stare at that familiar tan-tinted box, but it quickly fades from memory as you move into the more remote, more Hawaiian, parts of the course. Nelson’s craftsmanship, spirit and sixth sense for what makes island golf work helps reignite the Kauai magic within a few holes, and that’s why he holds Puakea in such high regard. “It’s definitely among the best I’ve ever designed,” he told me, and feels it warrants a place in the state’s top five.
Most first-time players agree by the time they reach No. 6, a gorgeous downhill par 3 that plays over vine-framed pond to a green flanked by bunkers and even deeper jungle. The tee looks towards Ha’upu Ridge where scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed, and if you squint and breathe deep just before you swing, you can put the image of that poor dude being ripped in half by a two T-Rexs, thereby distracting you from any shot-wrecking anxiety. One guy in a recent FG group didn’t subscribe to this advice, yanked his tee ball dead left over a bridge, through the woods and nearly into a fellow competitor’s back pocket. It got uglier from there, but that won’t happen to you on such a benign 170-odd-yard shot, now will it? You’re much too dialed in to let anything like scenery, the humidity or that bigger-than-it-looks green derail your game, right? Yeah. Go with that thought before you pull the trigger, and you’ll be fine — and back into the open for the front nine’s final three holes — including No. 9, a great (and toughest ranked) 4-par with one lone fairway bunker that just begs to be cleared with your drive of the day.
So, does the designer rank either 6 or 9 as Puakea’s “signature?” No. 6 comes close, but he’s got some other ideas. “[Six] is a great hole but I really like the 3rd, 11th and 12th too,” he says. “None of them are overly difficult and anyone can make a par if they play sensibly, but you’ve got to have a good strategy if you want to birdie them.”
Ah, the back nine. It’s clear immediately off the No. 10 tee that Nelson really got into his rhythm as the land gives way from rolling plains to a more intimate, steamy circuit through heavily wooded low hills and hollows. No. 11, a 560-yard 5-par with a narrow lay-up area and slice-killing greenside bunker complex, offers a sweet post-putt-out payoff: A lovely view of the Pacific less than a mile away. From there the course tracks further inland for one of the best stretches of golf in the entire Hawaiian Island chain. No. 12 is the kind of short-but-strong 4-par on which Nelson stakes his considerable rep — water up the entire right, bunkers pinching the two-tiered fairway, all kinds of trouble around the green. No. 13 is, for my money, the best 3-par of the bunch, 228 slightly downhill yards from the tips over water, its green painted hard against a severe slope left and back. Nos. 14 and 15 are all about negotiating perfectly placed cross bunkers to leave an open second shot to each green, and after a quick breather at a tiny, lovely 3-par, No. 17 proves a potent penultimate test: Tee shot drawn around a corner of trees and sand, a cut approach through trade winds to a big green framed by those “Jurassic” peaks, and just maybe a birdie for the ages. The final hole brings Nelson’s tactical strengths together for a winsome and winnable 5-par — swing easy from the tee, find the short grass, load up on a fairway wood or hybrid for a go at the green, avoid the hole’s eight bunkers and find yourself in the understated, muni-like clubhouse with a low-scoring smile and a cool brew.
Now that’s a version of paradise we can all subscribe to. And barring another Iniki (knock on wood), it’s repeated every day, a full 18 holes at a time. Thank God Steve was on Puakea’s case, and if you're lucky enough to be planning a wintertime jaunt to the islands, you should be on it, too.
Puakea Golf Course
Holes: 18
Yards: 6954 (green) to 5225 (red)
Rating/slope: 73.3/1335 to 69.3/113
Rates: $25 (walking after 4 p.m.) to $135 (morning with cart)
$40 replays on same day
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