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Published in Golf Vacations MOLOKAI GOLF By Paul Spencer Sochaczewski © 1999
MOLOKAI, Hawaii
Most Golf Vacations "Choice Resorts" are the best of the best. The Kaluakoi Hotel and Golf Club on the Hawaiian island of Molokai is, frankly, not in the same league as the posh resorts we usually feature. But we feel it is worthy of being designated a Choice Resort simply because it provides a reasonably priced and totally relaxing golfing holiday. The Kaluakoi Hotel and Golf Club is the only international standard resort on the island. Molokai feels quite different to the Hawaii that visitors usually experience. At night a visitor can see the dim lights of Honolulu, just half an hour flight away. Because Molokai has just a handful of streetlights there is little to impede the soul-enriching sight of zillions of stars, as clear a night sky as many of us will ever see. Molokai and the Kaluakoi Resort feature long, white beaches with virtually no one else around. The Hotel's 4th hole, for example, parallels the three mile long Papohaku Beach Park, Hawaii's longest stretch of beach. On a sunny Saturday there were just two cars in the parking lot. Captain Cook, generally credited with "discovering" Hawaii, sailed right past Molokai in 1778 because it looked bleak and uninhabited. Not too much has changed. Thousands of tourists from Honolulu fly over Molokai daily on their way to the glamour of Maui and the Big Island. But it's not hard hard to get to Molokai, which is served by a dozen flights a day from Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. It's worth the effort. Kaluakoi offers top-rate golf and a rare chance to totally unwind. The good news for visitors to Hawaii is that most resorts in the
State are lowering prices to attract a dwindling tourist business,
hit hard by the Japanese recession. Which makes this a fine time to visit "the friendly isle". As long as they know you're not going to stay, Molokaiians warmly welcome visitors. The people of Molokai are notoriously anti-development, and refuse to turn their island into a condo-heaven as, for example, Mauii has become. Molokai may be the best place to feel the "old Hawaii." The managers at Kaluakoi face a typical Hawaiian challenge. How do you maintain the relaxed aloha spirit while running an efficient resort? Kaluakoi feels like pre-glitz Hawaii. While the facilities are a bit dated, the rooms are clean and comfortable - spacious A-frames with ceiling fans and large lanais, many of which overlook the ocean and golf course. Be warned. No health club. No 24 hour room service. No spa. And no Big Island prices - a double room with unlimited golf costs just a bit more than US $ 100. Flip that perspective around and Kaluakoi's strengths are what it doesn't have. No crowds. No waiting for tee-times. No over-priced logo shop. No over-friendly kid at the caddy cart waiting for a big tip. The golf course is like Cinderella, rich with extraordinary inner beauty waiting to be discovered and given a makeover. Designed by Ted Robinson, who also designed the Sahalee Country Club in Redmond Washington, the site of the 1998 PGA Championship, you can see the ocean from almost all of the holes, many of which run parallel to the ocean. Its 18 holes play 6,564 yards from the back tees. Highlights include the lovely 184 yards par 3 3rd hole, where you tee off towards a green set just in front of the ocean. The par 3, 124 yard 11th hole is Kaluakoi's signature hole. It parallels the ocean and is a tame version of the "drive over the ocean or say goodbye to your ball" signature holes that seem to be de rigeur for most seaside courses in Hawaii. A hook will put you in the water, but there's plenty of chicken-out space short and to the right. A badly hooked drive on the 12th hole will put your ball on Kaluakoi's clothing-optional beach. From here the course meanders inland, where you'll be likely to run into flocks of wild turkeys and deer. The course would benefit from better care. A couple of tee-boxes were more sand than grass, fairways were hard, bunker rakes were needlessly old, with short wooden handles (the handle of one rake had broken off and you had to use it like a kid's sandbox toy). It's probably a chicken and egg situation - if there were more guests there would be more money for maintenance. The golf is honest and good and cheap. Hotel guests play free - you can go around twice, or three times - there's hardly anyone else on the course. Then take a long walk on the deserted beach to watch the sunset. Sounds like a Choice Resort to us.
Kaluakoi Hotel and Golf Club
MULE RIDES ON MOLOKAI
Some 10,000 people were exiled to the famous leper colony of Kalaupapa. Today the area, designated a national historic site, houses just 54 "residents" (the youngest is 58, the oldest 92) with Hansen's disease, as the illness is now called. It occupies a beautiful "natural prison" - a large thumb-shaped peninsula of flat seaside land that is surrounded on three sides by some of the steepest sea cliffs in the world. The only way in today is by boat (in the 19th century lepers were unceremoniously dumped overboard), by plane or by mule. Take the sure-footed mule. It takes an hour and a half to descend the narrow trail's 26 switch backs. As you drop some 1,700 meters to sea level you'll witness some of the most dramatic scenery in Hawaii. It's not for those with vertigo, though. Kalele Logan is the head trail guide for the mule ride. He's a Hawaiian cowboy, and will entertain you with stories, songs and yarns. You can even ride the mules to Kalaupapa without staying on Molokai - Molokai Mule Rides offers a day trip from Waikiki hotels on Oahu, including air and hotel shutles. No one can enter the Kalaupapa settlement except as a registered guest of one of the residents, on official business, or through Damien Tours, which runs the only tour of the peninsula. The mule ride fee includes the tour. Visitors are not allowed to wander around freely, not so much to protect them from Hansen's disease, which is contagious only after prolonged contact with a patient, but to protect the residents' privacy. It's a neat, small community, and resembles rural Hawaii. A few really old cars -- Model Ts and the like -- can be seen rusitng away in half protected in open-sided garages. During the 19th century, bounty hunters throughout Hawaii were paid $5 per head to grab children who had any kind of skin rash. Many of these innocent "patients" didn't have leprosy at all, but nevertheless they all died in Kalaupapa, whose thousands of graves offer a solemn testimonial to how healthy people reacted to fear of infection. Hansens disease today can be treated quickly with sulfa drugs, but in the 19th century people exiled to Kalaupapa usually died within two years. In 1873 a Belgian priest, Joseph de Veuster, better known as Father Damien, came to Kalaupapa to care for the sick. He died of leprosy 16 years later and his body was returned to Belgium. The Vatican however recommended that a relict of the priest should be buried in Kalaupapa, and as a result his grave on Molokai contains the priest's right hand. According to the Vatican, two "genuine" miracles have been attributed to Father Damien's spirit, and once a third is confirmed, which is generally expected to happen within several years, Father Damien will be raised to sainthood. Molokai Mule Ride
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