Aloha Aspirations: Three weeks in Hawaii includes plenty of golf and a fair dose of island inspiration

Editor’s note: This story originally ran in May 2023 before a series of wild fires broke out a few months later in August in the state of Hawaii, predominantly causing devastation in Maui. It has been edited to reflect, among other things, that one of the best restaurants on the island, Lahaina Grill, on Front Street in Lahaina, burned to the ground. Tourism is a huge part of the local economy and the reasons to make the journey to Hawaii still ring true.

I signed up for a sunrise canoe trip. It turned out to be so much more.

We paddled across crystalline waters, and I broke a sweat as the beaming sun rose over Mauna Kea on the Big Island. But the 12 of us – the others strangers to me before we met at the surf shack at Auberge Resorts Mauna Lani – who boarded the double-hulled canoe in the blue hour had no idea of the spiritual embrace we were about to experience. Our leader for this adventure called himself Uncle George, and he stood at the front of the boat and spoke to me in a way few people ever have.

“Everybody thought this was a boat ride, right?” he said even before we made our first stroke. “Never think that you were going to really get in touch with yourself. We’re going to help you folks get in touch with yourself, listening not with this ear but with the inner ear that touches the heart that makes you feel like you’re in the belly.

“We’re going out in the ocean and we’re at the mercy of the ocean. We ask the ocean to invite us in, and now we can take these cuffs and shed them off and work on that word, vulnerability, and be open to everything that we’re exposed to – the moon, the sun, the sky, the water. What a wonderful way to start the day, guys. We didn’t even go in the ocean yet. Everybody put a hand on the canoe. Let’s see where she takes us.”

Kauai

When my wife and daughter headed home on New Year’s Eve, I began my island-hopping golf adventure with a short flight to the oldest isle of the chain, branded the Garden Isle, and known in Hawaiian lore as the birthplace of the rainbow.

The lush landscape of Kauai, which was created by a single massive volcano rising three miles from the ocean floor, is striking and is noted as the most beautiful of all the Hawaiian Islands.

I spent two enjoyable nights at the Royal Sonesta Kaua’i Resort Lihue, conveniently located a par 5 away from the airport – make three lefts and you’re checking in. This former Marriott property is set above a quarter-mile stretch of Kalapaki Beach with an assortment of pools, and I rang in the New Year with a delicious dinner at the hotel’s signature restaurant, Duke’s Canoe Club, named for Duke Kahanamoku, the father of Hawaiian surfing.

The next morning I took a scenic 40-minute drive to my tee time, passing Heelia Beach in Kealia. Located along Kauai’s North Shore, Princeville Makai Golf Club – ranked No. 4 among public-access courses in Hawaii – opened in 1971 as the first solo effort of course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. At the time it was very avant-garde to build on an old lava flow. RTJ II keeps a second home there and calls Kauai “the Phoenix by the ocean,” for its predictable weather. In 2009 and 2010, the course was completely renovated by Jones Jr., introducing new Seashore Paspalum turf grass on all fairways and greens. I was paired with a father and his teenage son from Northern California, who thought it was the most scenic course they’d ever seen.

I was smitten, too, especially when we arrived at the third hole, a drop-down par 3 to a jungle lagoon, which looked like a scene out of Jurassic Park. Four holes later, the stunning view of mountains and the bay from the tee was next level. Several of the back-nine holes are played along Anini Reef, the second-longest active reef in the world. Nos. 12 and 13 are exceptional in their own right but the 14th, the reef hole, is a drivable par 4 if you can cross the bunkers to the green sitting on the edge of a cliff. There is a legend that a mermaid swims about the inlet, and if you find the water she will retrieve your ball and return it to you. No need for me, as I smashed a beauty onto the putting surface. We won’t talk about my three-putt but nevertheless, this may be my new favorite drivable par 4 I’ve ever played.

Oahu

Oahu is known as the “gathering spot” for good reason – it’s the home of the state government, the financial and business center and nearly three-quarters of the state population. It isn’t exactly known for its golf. There’s Turtle Bay Resort, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design on the North Shore, and Ko Olina Golf Club, a Ted Robinson design that has hosted the LPGA in the past. But I couldn’t squeeze those in while covering the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii at Waialae Country Club, a private Seth Raynor gem that would be worth calling in a favor for a tee time.