Renovation has Princeville Makai Golf Club looking and playing better than ever on Kauai
PRINCEVILLE, Kauai - Wellness is a big part of the guest experience staying at the 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay.
Whether you're playing golf along the ocean cliffs of the scenic Princeville Makai Golf Club or lounging in a beach cabana sipping Rose, it's easy to feel WELL in this place.
Kauai's north shore lives in a perpetual state of laid-back Hawaiian vibes. The blood pressure drops just breathing its air. At dinner. Walking the beach. Listening to the waves crash lying in bed with the window open. You can't help but feel in lockstep with the land.
After a decade of fits and starts, Kauai's north shore is finally realizing its full potential. The 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay reopened in February 2023 after a complete rebuild from the foundation up, replacing a St. Regis to better capitalize on the land's natural beauty. A six-month, $3-million renovation completed last fall has the Princeville Makai Golf Club looking and playing better than ever, too. Even the mysterious Princeville Golf Club, closed off and on for the past decade, is making a comeback as the rebranded North Shore Preserve, an uber-private golf community under Discovery Land's exclusive umbrella.
Kauai has always been the secondary choice of mainland visitors due to its smaller size and wetter weather. All it takes is one sunny February weekend in Princeville to convince people Kauai should move up in the pecking order. GolfPass offers multiple golf packages to the island, including one that will allow you to top my two-day adventure I'm about to share.
Playing Princeville Makai
No matter how many times you play Princeville Makai - this was my third - the incredible ocean holes never cease to amaze. This 7,223-yard layout is the first solo design of Robert Trent Jones Jr. dating to 1971. He regularly returns to check on his first child.
His routing takes golfers to the ocean cliffs twice - for multiple holes in the middle of each nine - creating incredible anticipation for both encounters. During the winter season, watching for whales spouts and breaches are part of the strategy of playing these holes.
Princeville Makai's signature shots must cover ocean coves on the dramatic 213-yard seventh and the really special 338-yard 14th, which can be drivable depending upon the tees and wind direction. Princeville Makai, managed by Troon Golf, finished fifth in Hawaii in Golfers' Choice 2025.
GolfPass reviewer 'handymn' gave the experience five stars in December after playing the newly restored course for the first time.
"Course Held Up Well With Recent Rains," he wrote. "This is on my Top 100 US Public bucket list and it did not disappoint. The layout is interesting enough to keep your attention. The mix includes subtle to steep elevation changes, some dramatic view ocean holes, standard RT Jones risk/reward decisions, challenging bunkering (just renovated), and two demanding finishing holes played over ponds."
The renovation enhanced the bunkers, while removing 20 of them, and upgraded cart paths (including some reroutings). Drainage improvements will help the Seashore Paspalum stay healthier year-round. The course averages around 78 inches of rain a year. The local call the fast-moving showers "blessings". The new Capillary Concrete bunker liners will minimize washouts, which in turn reduces maintenance costs and labor.
What my fellow "resort" golfers will love best are the missing bunkers. Multiple fairway bunkers that would be in play for the shorter hitter have been taken out, while the bunkers farther up the fairway stayed, forcing better players to carry them or steer clear.
The removed greenside bunkers are now collection areas where golfers can play the bump and run with a hybrid, chip or putt. Tree clearing opened up even more stunning views like the par-3 third hole that overlooks the 1 Hotel and Hanalei Bay (check out the photo above).
"The main thing was playability for the majority of golfers," Princeville Makai Golf Club General Manager Michael Neider said about the changes. "Long term, having fewer bunkers and better-performing bunkers, it is going to allow us to do more to maintain the course, and elevate the conditioning levels across the whole facility. We've already starting to see that early on. I've got more time to send our guys to do things that they never had time to do before."
The Woods nine, which closed in 2018, is now a disc golf course, if that's your thing.
