Michelle and Tadd may be Hawaii's heavy hitters on the course, but many Hawaii courses are themselves heavy hitters, according to Golf magazine.

Its readers have chosen 15 Hawaii resort courses for the 11th edition of Golf's biennial Premier Resorts list, which has been expanded this year to 100 resorts from 75.

Overall, 10 received a platinum medal ranking, 25 got gold and 65 scored a silver.

Readers were asked to rate the resorts' golf, lodging, service, and food and beverage offerings. The magazine's poll crunchers gave 40 percent of a resort's score to golf and 20 percent to each other category.

The Four Seasons Resort Hualalai, which Golf describes as Hawaii's top destination, rose to 10th this year from its 2008 ranking of No. 11, inching it into platinum medal status.

The Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island has debuted on the list as a gold medal winner and was among eight Fairmont properties to make the magazine's ranking.

All four Hawaii properties belonging to Four Seasons Resorts made the grade in the top two numismatically designated groupings.

The magazine also added three properties to its Green Award list for environmentally sensitive practices—a list to which Kapalua Resort and Maunalani Bay Hotel were added in previous years.

By island, the Big Island kicked booty with five listed resorts, versus three each on Maui and Kauai and two each on Lanai and Oahu.

The magazine also touts its breakout coverage of the “;Best in Your Area,”; for the best golf and the best lodgings in each region of North America, the Caribbean, Canada and Mexico. Sure enough, there are lists for Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, California, Arizona, Florida, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest and Southeast—but not for Hawaii. Perhaps the editors and reporters are pushing for on-site research prior to publication.

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Reach her by e-mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).