Where to Play Golf in Hawaii: A 2026 Luxury Guide

Pack the clubs. That is the short answer.

Hawaii is one of the few destinations where the golf justifies the checked-bag fee. The courses here are not an amenity bolted onto a beach resort. Several of them are the reason the resort exists. The honest split looks like this: Maui for the trophy round, Oahu for variety in one trip, Kauai for the most scenery per green fee, and the Big Island's Kohala Coast when you want four different rounds inside twenty minutes.

Here is how we build a Hawaii golf trip, course by course, with real 2026 rates and the resort we would pair with each. If you are still deciding which island fits your traveling party, start with our island-by-island guide.

Maui: the trophy round

Kapalua, Plantation Course. The Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore design that hosted the PGA Tour's season opener from 1999 through 2025. Wide fairways, huge elevation swings, and ocean views on nearly every hole, with wind that changes the course by the hour. Green fees run $475 plus tax, or $445 for resort guests, and tee times open 30 days out. One planning note for 2026: the neighboring Bay Course remains closed, so the Plantation tee sheet is the one that matters. We book golfers at the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua, a short shuttle from the first tee, which also unlocks the resort-guest rate.

Wailea Golf Club. Three courses, one address, and the easiest golf trip on Maui to share with a non-golfer. The Emerald is the couples course, forgiving and gorgeous from the first tee. The Gold is the championship test, and the Blue is the relaxed original. The Fairmont Kea Lani sits five minutes away and finished a full renovation in 2024, so one of you plays 27 holes while the other never leaves the pool.

Best for: the bucket-list round, and couples where only one of you plays.

Oahu: links golf, then jungle golf

Turtle Bay, Arnold Palmer Course. The North Shore's marquee course plays like two in one: a windswept, links-style front nine, then a back nine threading tropical wetland around the Punahoolapa marsh, a 100-acre bird sanctuary. Visitors pay $250 for 18 holes and guests of the Ritz-Carlton Oahu, Turtle Bay pay $220, which is honest value by Hawaii resort standards. The 17th delivers the course's one ocean view, and it earns the wait.

Royal Hawaiian Golf Club. Twenty minutes from Waikiki in the Maunawili Valley, a Greg Norman redesign carved through rainforest so lush it reads as a movie set. Narrow, tree-lined, and demanding. Pack an extra sleeve of balls and count the lost ones as the price of the scenery. We pair it with a Waikiki stay so the golf day is the quiet day of the trip.

Best for: travelers who want serious golf without giving up the energy of Waikiki.

Kauai: the most scenery per green fee

Poipu Bay Golf Course. Home of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf from 1994 to 2006, set between the mountains and Keoneloa Bay on the sunny south shore. Rates through December 15, 2026 run $295 before noon and $245 after, with a $200 replay rate inside ten days. The trade winds pick up after lunch, which is exactly why the afternoon is cheaper. Guests of the Grand Hyatt Kauai next door should ask about the resort rate before booking anything, and we do that ask for our clients.

Princeville Makai Golf Course. Robert Trent Jones Jr. oceanfront golf above Hanalei Bay on the north shore, a fixture of national top-100 public course lists. The 2026 rate is $369 with cart and range included, juniors 12 and under play free after 10 am with a paying adult, and teens play half price. The 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay is five minutes away and one of the most striking resorts in the state.

Best for: the round you will still be describing at dinner parties years from now.

The Big Island: a full golf week on one coast

Mauna Kea and Hapuna. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. course at Mauna Kea is the granddaddy of Hawaii resort golf, built into a lava field in the 1960s, and its par-3 third over a Pacific inlet is one of the most photographed holes in golf. The sister Hapuna course, an Arnold Palmer design, climbs from sea level to 750 feet of Kohala Coast views. Both sit on a resort fresh off a $240 million renovation of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel.

Mauna Lani, Auberge Collection. Two championship courses woven through black lava. The North plays through kiawe forest past a protected archaeological preserve, with a par-3 17th set in a lava amphitheater. The South runs to the sea, and its 15th asks you to carry the surf. There is also the Wikiwiki, a nine-holer you can play in about an hour, which is how the kids end up hooked. Staying on property at Mauna Lani puts all three outside your door.

Best for: groups and families who want a different course every morning without moving hotels.

The details that decide the trip

Tee sheets at the marquee courses open 30 days out, and the 7 am times go first. When we book your trip, those tee times go on our calendar, not just yours.

Stay where you play. Resort-guest rates save $30 to $50 a round, and the resort concierge desk gets priority when the sheet is tight. Our hotel amenity programs stack on top: same room rate, plus property credits that offset a green fee or two.

Rent before you ship. Kapalua rents current Callaway and Titleist sets for $95 including balls, and the other marquee courses offer similar programs. Unless you are playing four or more rounds, rentals usually beat dragging a travel case through two airports.

Quick answers

Which course if we only play once? Kapalua Plantation. It is the round Hawaii is famous for, and 2026 is a good year to play it, since the course reopened in November 2025 in tournament shape.

When should we book? Suites at the golf resorts for winter and spring book six to twelve months out. Golf is the easy part; the room is the constraint.

Do any of these work for beginners? Yes. Wailea Emerald, Turtle Bay from the forward tees, and the Wikiwiki at Mauna Lani are all fun at any skill level, not just survivable.

If Hawaii golf is on the 2026 or 2027 list, email Blake at blake@haus-travel.com or call our Oklahoma City office. We will match the course to your game, the resort to your traveling party, and handle the tee sheet along with the suite.