Sunday, April 15, 2001
[HAWAII'S SIGNATURE HOLES]
Conquering Koolau HOW TOUGH is the toughest hole on the toughest course in the United States?
After 17 holes of long carries,
golfers playing this course are
faced with a long par-4
that tops them allBy Grady Timmons
Special to the Star-BulletinPro golfer Scott Simpson, a former Kailua resident, has said of the 18th hole at Oahu's Koolau Golf Club, "It's as tough as any hole we play on the PGA Tour."
Most of what other golfers have to say about it is not fit for print.
Any way you play it, the 18th at Koolau is a brutal hole. It's the kind of hole that could be the finishing hole in a U.S. Open and would make even the pros quiver. The par-4 measures 476 yards, 448 yards, and 432 yards, respectively, from the pro, championship and regular tees, but length is only one aspect of what makes this hole -- and course -- so difficult.
Set at the edge of a tropical rain forest on the windward side of the Pali tunnel, the Koolau Golf Club was built by architect Dick Nugent and design consultant Jack Tuthill in the early '90s at a cost of more than $100 million.
As its price tag suggests, Koolau is colossal in every respect, beginning with its vistas of Kaneohe Bay, the windward coast and the deep green folds of the Koolau Mountains overhead. From the back tees, it measures a whopping 7,310 yards, with cavernous ravines and fairways bordered by thick, jungle-like vegetation. In 1994, the United States Golf Association rated Koolau "the toughest course in America," with a Slope rating of 162 from the back tees.
Koolau's difficulty comes into full focus at the 18th. The drive must carry 200-plus yards across a gaping ravine and waste bunker to reach the fairway. If that isn't enough of a challenge, the shot is right into the wind.
All that together makes the landing area from which you can actually have a go at the green seem about the size of your kitchen counter top.
From there you face an uphill shot of some 200 yards back across the same ravine to a long, narrow, undulating green surrounded by about a dozen bunkers, most of which are so deep you have to have the neck of a giraffe to see out of them. The summit of the Pali looms overhead, providing a stunning backdrop that makes a golfer feel like a mountain climber making an assault on Everest.
There are basically two ways to play the 18th. You can go for broke and try to hit the two heroic shots described above, or you can play it as a par five, which it what most golfers say this hole really is. The second option requires that you aim your drive more to the left, which shortens the distance across the ravine but lengthens the second shot and makes it almost impossible to go for the green.
Instead, you hit a short or mid-iron second shot up the fairway on the left side of the ravine, and then another short iron across the ravine to the green. But even this "easier" route is filled with potential pitfalls.
Par is an extraordinary accomplishment here. Most golfers will take bogey -- if they can muster it -- and retire happily to the clubhouse. The 18th at Koolau is the kind of hole that can bruise your ego, ruffle your psyche and outright ruin your score.
But it's also a great hole that keeps you coming back for more.