The Challenge at Manele
Lanai City, HI
T&L Golf
Golf World, Oct '06
1993, Jack Nicklaus
7039, 132, 72 (Very playable for all, with 5 sets of tees)
'03 Fees: $205
T&L Golf Magazine Review: 4.5/5.0 stars. Tottering on 200-foot cliffs, with each hole boasting an ocean view (many of them of the jaw-dropping variety), this is Hawaii on steroids. The course is also as good as it is spectacular. Not alot of warm-up swings, as the 2nd is a 442-yard par 4, with not one but two shallow ravine crossings. Displaying an ever-present tension between the wild and the manicured, The Challenge builds from the famous ocean-spanning par-3 12th, through maybe one too many blind shots, to a crescendo at the 17th, a scary dog-right plunging to a cliffside green.
Best Bar Nearby, per T&L: You'll need a number of Lava Flows at the 19th Hole to cool down from The Challenge.
Where To Grub, per T&L: The formal dining room at the Lodge at Koele (Lanai City, 808-565-7300, $$$$) is purported to be the only dining room in Hawaii that requires a jacket for men. The food, strong on local game (such as pancetta-wrapped Lanai venison), merits the formality. The lucsious poached eggs on blue crab cakes with orange hollandaise sauce at the adjacent Terrace Restaurant the next morning is like starting your day with dessert.
Where To Stay, per T&L: Manele Bay Hotel (Lanai City,800-321-4666, www.islandoflanai.com , $375-$795/ night). Grand but not grandiose Mediterranean villa-style hotel, set on red lava cliffs atop the white sands of curving Hulopoe Beach. Formal gardens, landscaped courtyards, abundant waterfalls and flowers. OR, The Lodge at Koele (Lanai City, 800-321-4666, www.islandoflanai.com , $375-$525/ night). The rare inland setting, minus the traditional Hawaiian ocean views, is offset by stone fireplaces, homey porches for wildlife-watching, and the comfy Pacific-themed Great Hall. Play croquet with the family or practice rolling the rock on the 18 hole putting course, complete with water hazards.
Getting There: Lanai is accessible by air from Honolulu, or via a 45-minute ferry ride from Maui's Lahaina Harbor ($52 round-trip).
Lost on Lanai
Hawaii's sleepiest island offers golfers a series of wonderful 'peak experiences'
By Turk Pipkin
Golf World
October 27, 2006
When I get lucky enough to make the long flight to Hawaii, I don't like to think I'm headed to a beach jammed with tourists, a high-rise hotel that could be Anywhere, USA and especially not to a slow round on a busy course. I like Hawaii as I imagined it as a boy dreaming of the newest state in the union. When I go there, I don't want to find what I left behind at home. I want to get lost in paradise.
There's no better place to discover the old Hawaii than on Lanai, an island with 47 miles of coastline and just 3,200 residents -- all of them living in one sleepy town that doesn't even have a stoplight.
What Lanai does have is idyllic beaches, a small-town atmosphere and two of the world's best golf resorts. And it's only getting better because the oceanside Resort at Manele Bay and the mountaintop Lodge at Koele have both been redone and rebranded as Four Seasons resorts.
Billionaire developer David Murdock, who owns both resorts and 98 percent of the island, is spending $100 million on renovations, including a full reworking of 300-plus accommodations with signature Four Seasons beds and bedding, 42-inch LCD flat-screen televisions and high-speed Internet access. The changes at the Manele Bay are complete, while the Lodge is being reworked in phases that wrap up next month.
Arriving by 40-minute ferry from Maui, my family and I recently spent two serene days at Manele Bay, then two more at the Lodge atop the mountain. The trip was a sublime series of peak experiences.
The Challenge at Manele is my second favorite Jack Nicklaus design (ranked just below Baja's Cabo del Sol). At 7,039 yards with forced carries over canyons and ocean, it's almost too hard to play from the black tees, but too much fun not to give it a try. The ocean views become more dramatic as you wind and climb from the clubhouse to the fifth, an over-the-top 462-yard par 4 that takes a huge dive from the landing area to the green.
The peak experience at Manele comes at the 12th, a 202-yarder that is nearly all carry from a cliff-top tee to a cliff-top green. Addressing your tee shot just a few feet from the 150-foot vertical drop, it takes serious concentration to keep your balance and hit it pure.
Looping back to the same cliff-top tees, you're faced with a much longer carry across the ocean to the fairway of the par-4 17th. I was so gassed to reach the fairway with my drive from the tips that I hit three more just to prove I could do it again. And none of them made it.
With the cool mountain air and massive Cook Island pines towering over everything, it's hard to believe you're in Hawaii. That's especially true at the Ted Robinson/Greg Norman-designed Experience at Koele, which is much more alpine than tropical. The course best lives up to its name at the signature par-4 17th. Not to be outdone by the Challenge course, this one has a 250-foot drop from tee to fairway. You almost have to hit a provisional because it's too far to see if your shot has landed in the fairway. Though completely different, both courses can be described with the same word -- fun. Afterwards, have lunch at The Lodge at Koele.
The prices for this kind of luxury, of course, may remind you that your credit card is having a peak experience. One alternative is to stay at the more reasonably priced Hotel Lanai, the only other lodging on the island.
The most important thing about Lanai was that my wife and daughters -- non-golfers -- thought this was the best golf trip we've made. Special thanks to the spinner dolphins that frequent Hulopoe Bay, just below the Resort at Manele. When we swam out to meet the dolphins, the entire school of 200 turned and swam toward us, some so close we could almost touch them. Another great afternoon, we drove to Shipwreck Beach, where we strolled wind-swept beaches near big green sea turtles feeding at the surf's edge.
You could build a great course on those beaches, but no one will because they are perfect the way they are.
The Challenge at Manele (800-565-4000) and The Experience at Koele (808-565-2000). Green fee: $190 for resort guests, $225 for day guests. Room rates: Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay Lodge and the Lodge at Koele, $395-$1,499 a night (www.fourseasons.com/lanai); Hotel Lanai, $115-$175 (www.hotellani.com).