Kapalua, on Maui’s northwest tip, is defined by the Plantation Course—Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s sweeping layout that has long opened the PGA Tour season at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Broad fairways tumble toward the Pacific, elevation changes create optical illusions on approach shots, and the finishing stretch is as cinematic as any in Hawaii. The Bay Course offers a more intimate, ocean-hugging counterpoint for resort play.
Golf here is inseparable from the West Maui landscape: pineapple-era plantation contours, consistent trade winds, and views that pull the eye from Molokai across the channel. Visitors come for the tournament pedigree and stay for the pacing—unhurried mornings, soft evening light on the slopes, and a sense that every hole was drawn for the camera as much as the card.