Maui Golf Review Dunes Feature - Summer 2007

Tee Time Reservations and Info: (808) 873-0422 • Pro Shop Fax: (808) 871-6647Group Reservations: (808) 873-7911, Ext. 10 • Internet: www.dunesatmauilani.com

“One of the five best-kept secret golf courses in America.”“One of the five best-kept secret golf courses in America.”—Golf Digest——Golf Digest—

Nominated as one of America’s Top 100 New Courses.Nominated as one of America’s Top 100 New Courses.—Golf Digest——Golf Digest—

“The best of two worlds: a tropical-paradise “The best of two worlds: a tropical-paradise layout in an Irish dunes setting.”layout in an Irish dunes setting.”

—Golf Digest——Golf Digest—

Among the “35 Best New Courses in the Nation.”Among the “35 Best New Courses in the Nation.”—GOLF Magazine——GOLF Magazine—

“The last and best place to play at the end of the millennium.”“The last and best place to play at the end of the millennium.”—Travel & Leisure Golf——Travel & Leisure Golf—

“A fabulous natural golf site...”“A fabulous natural golf site...”—LINKS Magazine——LINKS Magazine—

“...like no other layout in the state.”“...like no other layout in the state.”—FORE Magazine——FORE Magazine—

“...a British Open course on Maui.”“...a British Open course on Maui.”—Honolulu Advertiser——Honolulu Advertiser—

dunes at maui lanidunes at maui lani

Autumn/Winter 2006/7 • Vol. XI, No. III

The PGA TOUR Starts HereJanuary 1 - 7, 2007

The 2007 Mercedes-Benz Championship returns to The Plantation Course with an elite field of the 2006 PGA TOUR champions. Qualifiers to date include:

• Stuart Appleby • Tiger Woods • David Toms • Jim Furyk • Vijay Singh• Chad Campbell • Tim Herron • Geoff Ogilvy • Aaron Baddeley and more!

Buy and print your tickets on-line. Save if you purchase prior to 12/25/06. Tickets purchased on-line can also be transferred by email and lost or stolen tickets can be replaced. Tickets can be purchased at the

Kapalua Resort at all Golf Pro Shops and the Honolua Store.

For more information call (808) 669-2440 or visit www.kapalua.com

MauiGolf

3 Feature Course The Dunes at Maui Lani 6 Snapshots Makena South/North 14 Aloha MessageEditor’s Note 18 Journal What’s up on Maui 20 Memory Lane The Legends of Golf ‘on Maui’ 22 Where to Play Maui Course Reviews 24 Golf Map All roads lead... 48 Apres Golf Brad Bowentalks about Kihili at David Paul’s Lahaina Grill 52 Cover Art Artist Ronaldo Macedo and our covers.

R E V I E WMauiGolf

Autumn/Winter 2006/7 • Vol. XI, No. I I I R E V I E W

3 Feature Course The Dunes at Maui Lani 6 Snapshots Makena South/North 1414 Aloha MessageEditor’s Note 18 JournalJournal What’s up on Maui 20 Memory Lane The Legends of Golf ‘on Maui’ 22 Where to Play Maui Course Reviews 24 Golf Map All roads lead... 48 Après Golf Brad Bowenfor pupus at David Paul’s Lahaina Grill 52 Cover Art Painter Ronaldo Macedo.

81600_rev_cover 9/26/06 13:29

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PHOTOGRAPHED AND WRITTEN BY JOHN BYRNE

The 198-yard par 3 sixth often plays to left-to-

right trade wind, which helps the fade. This hole

has an hourglass-shaped putting surface that is

long, and shallow. While club selection is at a pre-

mium, carrying the water is the priority. Most

long balls waill stay nestled in the ensconcing

rough behind the green. You can bail out on the

right, but a solid shot at the pin is often a reward-

ing way to play this risky hole.

3 AUTUMN/WINTER 2006 MAUI GOLF REVIEW

6

FEATURE COURSE

A M A U I T R E A S U R E

FEATURE COURSE

continued on page 26

as the Kahului isthmus, rests

between two separate volcanic

mountain ranges.

Over a million years ago, the

present-day site of The Dunes

at Maui Lani was submerged

beneath the sea.

But after hundreds of

thousands of years, Maui’s

volcanoes rose, and the sea

receded from the isthmus,

forming sand dunes and a

wasteland surrounded by a

unique variety of estuarine

environments...

The Dunes at Maui Lani G.C.

M A U I ’ S C E N T R A L V A L L E Y , K N O W N

MAUI GOLF REVIEW AUTUMN/WINTER 2006/7 5

26 AUTUMN/WINTER 2006/7 MAUI GOLF REVIEW

A M A U I T R E A S U R EThe Dunes at Maui Lani G.C.

WHERE TO PLAY: FEATURE COURSE

No 3 is where all the fun starts at The

Dunes. Note the bunker to the right,

which is blind from the regular tees. This

green has a lot of depth from front to

back, and club selection can be tricky,

especially with the wind. The safe play is

to the front tier, but aggressive players

will just go for the hole.

3

According to the Hawaii Department of

Land and Natural Resources, they

include “the brackish Kanaha Pond

State Wildlife Sanctuary and Kealia

Pond on the south coast of Maui....”

By all measures, the only thing keep-

ing this rare part of the world’s unique

dunes land from being “officially classi-

fied” by the USGA as a links (see About

links), is the fact that it is not located in

Scotland!

Well, that’s their call, but we

nonetheless regard it to be genuine and

authentic linksland in every way except

climate.

This is the site of the renowned

Dunes at Maui Lani Golf Course. And,

while settlers over the past two cen-

turies have cultivated much of the sur-

rounding land, the site where The

Dunes lies remains basically

untouched—an unspoiled place where

ancient Hawaiian alluvial sand dunes

exist—that is, until Maui Lani was cre-

ated.

“I remember when I first saw it,”

course architect Robin Nelson said of

the land on which The Dunes is built.

“You’re lucky if you get one of these

sites in a lifetime.”

“My vision,” he said, “was to create

an Irish links-style course in concept,

keeping in mind that it would be

unique because the grasses and humid-

ity factors in Hawaii are totally different

than those found in the British isles.”

Nelson’s design of The Dunes uses

the terrain with great imagination and

restraint. The result is a rare Hawaiian

links with both character and charm. A

course unlike any other: “The Dunes

site is as close to an authentic links as

can be built in Hawaii,” he adds.

Robin’s philosophy was simple: “I

wanted to follow the contours of the

land,” he said. “It related to other

Continued from page 5

Continued on page 29



There is a directional marker in the

fairway that you can see from the

tee. Your drive should be just right

of that. As you tee shot runs down

the hill it will either stop on the

ledge 200 yards from the green, or

roll left to the bottom left-hand

side of the fairway. A solid drive is

a must on this challenging

golf hole.

10


courses I have done in that

manner, such as The Dragon

(the Sierra Nevada layout

whose ‘Dragon’s Gate’, the

390-yard, par 4 12th, was

named among the three ‘Great

Golf Holes’ of California,

USGA Golf Journal, 1995-

2000.

The others named by the

Journal being: the 9th hole at

Poppy Ridge, Livermore and

the 18th hole at Pebble

Beach, and Ravenwood, in

New York; ranked the third most

difficult public course in New

York State).

“In each case, where we did-

n't move much dirt to create

the design. This was even more

the case with The Dunes,” he

notes.

Nelson’s use of the terrain

and the wind follows a key

architectural tenet that has

withstood the test of time: that

nature provides the most

enduring challenge. He didn’t

invent this approach, but he

was certainly one of the few

visionaries in his field who, the

more he studied the past, could

see the future. Therein lies

Nelson’s gift—the principal rea-

son why he is among the great

golf course architects of this

era.

Ron Whitten, the preemi-

nent golf course architecture

editor at Golf Digest, wrote this

of Nelson in his review of

Ravenwood: his “traditional,

timeless ideas [will not] allow

our minds to wander,” adding

that Robin is “one of those vet-

eran American architects who

is better known overseas than

at home.”

Whitten quickly points out

why golfers here in the United

States are in for a treat when

Robin’s new, bold American

courses (and there are a bunch

on the way) open: “He [Robin]

did one of the world's great

seaside venues at Mangilao on



Continued on page 31


What i s a t rue l inks course?According to the USGA: “‘Links’ is a term that refers to a very specific geographic land form

found in Scotland. Such tracts of low-lying, seaside land are characteristically sandy, treeless, and

undulating, often with lines of dunes or dune ridges, and covered by bent grass and gorse. To be

a true links, the tract of land must lie near the mouth of a river—that is, in an estuarine envi-

ronment. From the Middle Ages onward, linkslands (generally speaking, poor land for farming)

were common grounds used for sports, including archery, bowls and golf. Because many of the

early courses of Scotland were built on these common linksland, golf courses and links have for-

ever been associated. The term ‘links’ is commonly misapplied to refer to any golf course. But

remember that a true links depends only on geography.”

abou t


Guam and one of the world's

loveliest at Bali in Indonesia.”

Ron Whitten and Golf Digest

backed up their words of praise by

instantly recognizing Robin’s first

East Coast layout as the No. 5

"Best New Public Course" in

America when it opened in 2003.

(This is in addition to the long list

of accolades bestowed on The

Dunes since it opened in 1999.)

But awards and accolades mean

only so much. It’s the golf itself

that is what counts.

“I play to a 10-handicap,”

Nelson explains. “So although I’m

usually looking down the middle

of the fairway, my eyes are always

darting to the rough. This helped

me a lot in designing The Dunes

to be enjoyable for both the pro

and the average golfer alike,” he

said.

“I never intend holes to be

birdie or bogey holes. I try to cre-

ate strategic holes—where

risk/reward values are higher on

some holes than they are on oth-

ers,” he declares.

“For example, on hole No. 2 [a

381-yard par 4], if the tee shot

carries the bunkers on the right,

the second shot is not blind from

the berm long of the landing area

on the left.

“On No. 4 [the 509-yard par

5],“ he adds, “it is more obvious:

the perfect tee shot rewards the

possibility of going for the green in

two.”

“On the [362-yard par 4] 5th,

the longer the tee shot, the easier

the second, but longer gets

increasingly more difficult.”

Robin’s focus on player strategy

is consistent throughout the

round: “On the [547-yard par 5]

9th,” he points out, “the tee shot

is wide open, and the challenge is

on the second shot. The pot

bunkers in the middle of the fair-

way are bigger than they look, so

it appears that the golfer can eas-

ily carry them to set up an easy

pitch to the elevated green.

However, because of the scale of

the bunkers and the background

of the hill and the blind green,

depth perception is skewed, and

those bunkers come into play a lot

more than one may think.”

Robin drives his point home on

No. 12: “The tendency,” he says,

“is to hit as long a tee shot as pos-

sible, but the best shot is to lay

back on the top of the hill. There

is a trick to each hole, and the

more you play, the more you

learn,” he confides.

In the tradition of the classic

links courses of old, the front nine

heads out, and the back nine

heads in. According to Nelson,

“Anyone who has seen Ballybunion,

Royal County Down, or Shinnecock

Hills will recognize a similar look and

feel at The Dunes at Maui Lani.”

In their August 2004 “Secrets

Issue,” The Dunes was listed as

one of the “five best-kept secret

golf courses in America” by Golf

Digest. The number-one monthly

golf magazine in the world went

on to say that The Dunes: is the

“best of two worlds: a tropical-

paradise layout in an Irish dunes

setting.”

In sum, make sure you play this

course during your visit. •



The 381-yard par 4 5th has prevailing

trade winds and a slope all heading

toward the fresh water pond that guards

the left side of the fairway as well as the

green. A long iron or utility wood is the

play, unless you think you can carry that

mound on the right and stop your ball.

The approach can easily run right into

the pond so play for it.

5


Located in Maui's central valley, The Dunes at

Maui Lani Golf Course is a championship linksland-

style track designed by architect Robin Nelson, and

opened for play in January 1999. The course is con-

structed over natural, alluvial sand dunes created

when the island of Maui was formed. Nelson wisely

made sure the design artfully followed this naturally

sloping terrain. The course also takes advantage of

the Pacific trade winds, which add challenge to play.

The rolling fairways are characterized by massive ele-

vation changes, and the medium-sized greens are

undulating and often tricky. The fairways are lined by

dense kiawe forest, and strategically placed revetted

pot bunkers lurk throughout the design. Water

comes into play on three holes: Nos. 5, 6, and 18.

This par 72 course plays from 4,768 to 6,841-yards

and offers four sets of tees to accommodate all skill

levels. The Dunes Clubhouse features one of Central

Maui’s better bars and grills, aptly named: The

Dunes. The course also features a great pro shop

with some of the best new lines of logowear to be

found. Instructor Bill Greenleaf is a master PGA pro-

fessional, who is joined by local PGA legend Henry

Yogi, on the Nelson-designed lit all-grass practice

range. •

The short par 3 third at The Dunes is where the course really begins, with

dunes, and wind and undulation awaiting.

www.dunesatmaui lan i .comPro Shop: (808) 873-0422THE DUNES AT MAUI LANI GOLF COURSE

FROM SOUTH MAUITake Mokulele to Kahului. Go righton Kuihelani Hwy. Two miles on right.

FROM WEST MAUIHead toward airport. When onKuihelani Hwy., look for course onthe right. About five miles fromcrossroads.

David H. Gleason, PGAGM/Director of Golf(808) 873-0422

“Ranked by GOLFWEEK (2006) as the No. 2 resort course on Maui, Top

10 in Hawaii. Golf Digest called it: “One of the (five) best-kept secret golf

courses in America.”

N/A6413 5833 4768

Year built: 1999

Rating/Slope: 73.5/136

Practice Range: yes, lighted

Lockers/Showers: yes

Architect: Robin Nelson

Course Supt.: Brian Kaulupali

Metal spikes: not allowed

Dress code: collared shirt

Greens: TifDwarf

6841

5612N/A 6495 6494N/A

Pukalani differs from the island's 16 other venues

because of its 1,200-foot elevation. The climate is

cooler, and the location affords golfers gorgeous

views of Maui. Opened in 1978, the course measures

6,945 yards from the back tees, has 19 greens, and

plays to a par of 72. The course was designed in part

by developers Robert E. Baldock Sr. and Jr. Pukalani's

18 holes wind up, down, and around a 160-acre res-

idential community. This course has doglegs, so the

fade and the draw work here. The fairways are

ample, and the loosely spaced Norfolk pines framing

most of the holes are set 10 to 15 yards into the

kikuyu rough. Pukalani is straightforward in design

and offers many spectacular views. It is very easy to

under- or over-club on this course, so the golden rule

is get the ball to the hole on uphill shots and play for

the front on downhill shots. Pukalani has many

unique holes. One is the short par 3 third, which fea-

tures two greens. Golfers can choose which to play.

The fairways, tees, and roughs at Pukalani consist of

a thick-bladed, ruddy perennial species from Africa

known as kikuyu (Paspalum urvillei). Fortunately, balls

tend to sit up high, and judging what the ball will do

is part of the fun. We highly recommend you play

this cool, well-maintained course. The views are mag-

nificent, and the course is a very thoughtful design.

Despite the fact that the clubhouse was struck by fire

this year, Pukalani has never looked better. Be sure to

add this course to your list of must-plays. You’ll be

happy you did. •

This well-maintained golf course has some of the best views on Maui. Be sure

to play it!

puka lan igo l f .comPro Shop: (808) 572-1314PUKALANI COUNTRY CLUB

FROM SOUTH MAUITake Mokulele to Dairy Rd., goright. then right again onto HanaHwy (by K-Mart). Follow HanaHwy. two miles then go right ontoHaleakala Hwy. Go right onto OldHaleakala Hwy, and right ontoPukalani St. Course is at end ofthis road

FROM WEST MAUIGo to Kahului, then follow above.

Yasuo NishidaManager(808) 572-1314

“It is tough to beat Pukalani for what you get for the price. Try it!”

Year built: 1979

Rating/Slope: 72.8/128

Practice Range: yes

Lockers/Showers: no

Architects: B.E. & R.L. Baldock

Course Supt.: Pat Watanabe

Metal spikes: allowed

Dress code: shirts and shoes

Greens: Bermuda

WHERE TO PLAY

Maui Golf Review Dunes Feature - Summer 2007

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