Mauna Lani Golf

You are invited to Experience Mauna Lani. Mauna Lani, meaning "mountain reaching heaven," is a tropical resort oasis set upon the famed Kohala Coast on Hawaii Island. Located north of the Kona International Airport, Mauna Lani Resort features 45 holes of golf, including Mauna Lani's famed North and South golf courses, along with the WikiWiki short course. Since opening in 1981, the Mauna Lani Courses have collected numerous Best Courses You Can Play awards from Golfweek, Golf Digest, and GOLF Magazine and was a ten-year host venue of the Senior Skins Game hosting many of golf's greats, including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, and Gary Player.

Mauna Lani Resort's championship South Course was the home to the Senior Skins Game from 1990 - 2000, one of the world's most exciting televised golf matches. A "skin" is the pot given for the low score on each of the 18 holes in around. In the Senior Skins Game, the format is the same, except that each hole is carried over if two low balls tie on the preceding hole. Mauna Lani Resort hosted golf legends Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriquez, Gary Player, Hale Irwin, and Jim Colbert.

The two courses -- the Francis H. I'i Brown North and South Golf Courses were constructed on vast fields of dark black lava. The original 18 hole course was opened in 1981, with Homer Flint and Raymond Cain as the lead architects. It was a visually spectacular golf course that featured one par-3 hole crossing a wide Pacific inlet, another par-3 playing into a coliseum of lava, and many holes whose primary challenge was to hit the bright green fairways and greens, avoiding the lava formations in the landing areas and on both sides of the fairways. Both courses have received rave reviews from the time they opened.