Published in Golf Vacations
Spring 2003

GOLF VACATIONS "HOST"
Sam Ainslie talks about his perfect day on the Big Island of Hawai'i

BIG ISLAND, Hawaii

"I've lived a dream," Sam Ainslie says. You might call it a charmed life. Everything he touches seems to go well. .

Starting off as a club pro in the States, Sam was offered the chance to open and manage the Bali Golf and Country Club. He was then lured to help create the Hualalai Four Seasons resort on the Big Island of Hawai'i (see Golf Vacations, October 2001). Then he was asked to manage the creation of what is arguably the most exclusive real estate venture in Hawai'i - Kukio, just next door to Hualalai. Kukio, which will boast two Tom Fazio courses - an 18-hole championship course and a 10-hole executive course, is so exclusive that Sam refuses to give interviews about the property. They do no advertising, hire no public relations company. The list of property owners, who pay upwards of US$10 million for a one-acre beachfront lot, would read like a Who's Who in American business, except that the names of the owners are confidential.

Golf Vacations contributing editor Paul Spencer Sochaczewski interviewed Sam Ainslie on what would be Sam's perfect day on the Big Island.

Sam, 45, is a warm, energetic man, whose graying hair reflects the fact, perhaps, that there are strains in managing such a big project. Nevertheless he is in terrific health with the lean body of triathlete - a week earlier Sam had participated in the Kuhio Challenge: one mile swim, mile and half run on the beach, and four miles paddling a one-man outrigger canoe. He wears an outfit that surely would be the envy of most suited CEOs on the mainland - a blue and white aloha shirt with a ukulele motif, jeans, and sandals. As he admits, he's come a long way from being a club pro opposed to any kind of development to running one of the most impressive real estate developments in the state. "I'm proud of Kukio," he says. "I think we've shown you don't have to sacrifice any environmental or cultural principles."

How would you start the day?
A dawn swim at Mauna Kea, the prettiest beach on the Kohala coast.

And where would you take a visitor?
The only way to quickly see all the wonders of the Big Island is with a helicopter ride. Start on the Kohala coast, a moonscape of desert and lava, then rainforests of the western coast, right out of Jurassic Park, with magnificent waterfalls. Then the helicopter gets to the huge cinder cone, all reds and brown. The best way to see the lava flow from Kilauea is from the air. Spectacular sight -- God's quarry, the newest land on earth.

And if the helicopter could drop you off anywhere for a stroll?
Po'o'lu, at the base of Waipio, an almost inaccessible valley surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls.

And you'd take a picnic?
I'd get a takeaway lunch from the Juice Shack. Maybe a sandwich of turkey, avocado and sprouts, and 'hippie juice' of wheat grass and carrot juice.

But if you had time for a sit-down lunch?
Merriman's in Kamuela. "Best food on the island." I'd ask Peter Merriman to make a fish salad with mahi-mahi."

And for the adventurous who want to take a hike?
From Waimea drive north to the end of the road. Walk for half an hour to the rim of Waipio, you'll be looking down 2,000 foot waterfalls. Then a narrow trail will take you to the tops of several of these waterfalls.

Choose one golf course to play.
Mauna Kea. It was the first major golf course on the Big Island, and even though it hasn't been maintained as well as it could be it's still the most beautiful and challenging. My favorite hole isn't the famous par-3 3rd hole over the ocean, the one with the classic Hawai'i-view, but the par-3 11th hole which plays out towards the ocean.

And a massage and sauna?
Hualalai. Interestingly, when we were building the Hualalai Four Seasons the original plan included, almost as an afterthought, a small, box-like health club. When we were building the resort, around 1992, the idea was that all you needed was a small room with a couple of stationary bicycles. But I realized that the needs of people on vacation were changing; people don't just sit on the beach and drink mai-tais. I convinced my colleagues to re-think the concept and instead we built a huge full service, largely open-air spa, with a big lap pool - they called that Sam's Folly. People don't mention the spa as a reason they choose to go to Hualalai, but when we did interviews with people following their visit they all mentioned that the spa was one of the highlights of their stay. Just about every visitor to the resort uses the spa - more people use it than the golf course. Now Hualalai gives 50 to 60 massages a day, not bad for a 240-room hotel.

Sunset cocktails?
I'd stay at the Mauna Kea beach bar and drink a frederico - light rum and Jack Daniels mixed with passion fruit juice and orange juice. It's a slushy blended concoction that Jim the bartender says is "the only drink that'll make you think single and see double." I'd sip the drink and wait for the green flash on the horizon just after the sun sets.

And a romantic dinner with your wife?
The Pahu i'a restaurant at Hualalai Four Seasons, on the ocean. Pahuia means aquarium, and they've got a living coral reef in the tank, right in the restaurant. I'd probably ask the chef if he has moi, a small tender fish that was raised in fishponds for royalty [the fish's name is Hawai'ian for 'king']. We've got the same fish here in Kukio - we're renovating the old brackish water fish ponds - we've dredged the sludge from what looked like a mud puddle. Now people will be caretakers of part of Hawai'i's cultural heritage.

After dinner we'd take a stroll on Hualalai's beach. The Big Island has stringent controls over ambient lighting, so that light pollution doesn't interfere with the observatories on Mauna Kea mountain. So you can be almost anywhere and see a "killer sky".