The options are glorious and the extensive, ongoing renovations to the historical golf courses at the Ka‘anapali Beach Resort are as significant and as impressive as the breaching humpback whales from November to May (who, like
us, seek the warm waters every year). The Resort is the progenitor of the procession of golf resorts and hotels, villas and condominiums that stretch luxuriously along the flexuous, 50–mile, west coast of Maui.

This island of over 125,000 denizens attracts two million visitors annually and calmly boasts: unremittingly stunning weather; exuberant, mellow trade winds; and a shoreline of beautiful beaches so profoundly poetic that the waves flow to the shore like couplets in a sonnet. If Shakespeare were alive today, he would sunbathe here (imagine the Globe Theatre on pylons and Lady Macbeth in a hula skirt).

The Resort—just five minutes upocean from the centuries-old whaling town of Lahaina—encompasses 1,200 acres (more than 300 of which feature 36 holes of golf) with six resorts and four condominium complexes, and three miles of unsullied beaches.

Bring the family. If you have yet to seduce them to join you for a round on the ascending fairways or capacious greens of the venerable 6,693, par-71 Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Tournament North Course (it overlooks and hugs part of the Ka‘anapali shoreline and sits in the shadow of the looming West Maui Mountain foothills), then let them wander off and play in their own aquatic vacation world. The Resort is drenched in a cornucopia of extracurricular options.

The kids have a veritable amusement park of water rides. Tumble and splash around the Hyatt’s streams and waterfalls that . ll the half-acre pool and its enclosed lava tube ride. Or at the Westin, sluice down the 1,218-foot water slide. The Marriott has three pools that terrace down through water slides and grottos. The Sheraton Maui’s swimming lagoon twists through the property contiguous to the shoreline.

Whale watching season is best from mid-December to May, when 3,000 humpback whales winter in Maui waters (out of a world population of 7-8,000). Many putts have been delayed by the marvelous distraction of these majestic mammals leaping out of the Pacific. Snorkeling (or diving) off of Black Rock at the Sheraton, ocean kayaking, parasailing, sport fishing, and swimming with the turtles near Lahaina offer more recreational choices.

Tennis is a feature at Ka’anapali with two dozen courts (open for night play) sprinkled around the grounds. The Royal Lahaina Resort’s Tennis Ranch maintains 10 courts and a 3,500-seat stadium. Spas and fitness facilities are twin features at the Hyatt and Westin and offer splendid après golf decompressing or timely tactile attention to a vacationing, deserving body (blend this experience into a Golf Fitness Package and watch your new range-of-motion decrease your score—ah, salubrity and performance).

Ka‘anapali is the oldest planned golf resort in Hawai‘i. Opened in 1962 and dubbed the Royal Lahaina Golf Club (later, Royal Ka‘anapali Golf Courses), these tracks are bathed in history.

Bing Crosby inaugurated the July opening. Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf debuted Hawaii in 1963 and the following year Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus teamed up to beat an international field— Palmer shot a course record 65 the first day and Nicklaus matched it the next— in what is now called the World Cup of Golf.

The LPGA held the Women’s Kemper Open from 1982 through 1985. In 1987 the Senior PGA (Champion’s Tour) Ka‘anapali Classic began a 14-year run on the estimable North Course.

In 1975 Ka‘anapali’s playful executive course was expanded into the 6,555- yard South Course. Arthur Jack Snyder designed the more congenial, comfortable golf course to satisfy the burgeoning need of casual, resort golfers. It earned the encomium of one of the most “Women Friendly” courses in the US by Golf for Women.

In 2000, boasting nearly 40 years of tournament history, the 6,693-yard, par- 71 track was renamed the Tournament North Course and the South became the Resort South Course.

The North weathered 43 years of its original Bermuda grass. Then, neglected, the facets of this jewel began to smudge. In 2000 it lapsed into a state of diapause due to ownership troubles, careless management and receivership. During the course of the ensuing three years, it became a simulacrum of the experience it had always promised. An action plan was developed for the much-needed improvements. Billy Casper Golf took over management in September 2003 and has begun an expensive, extensive and impressive restoration.

“We are investing $12 million in the courses and our clubhouse facility to restore them to their world-class status and make significant upgrades,” says Ed Kageyama, the GM, who currently serves as the President of the Aloha Section of the PGA. “The South has been redesigned by Robin Nelson and is in the final phases of the eight-month reconstruction. We will re-open in November [2005]. We are installing an irrigation system, re-grassing the greens and tee boxes (and moving some), replanting the fairways, reshaping the bunkers and landscaping all over the course.”

“This course has always been our casual, family resort course and it evolved into a nondescript golf course with a second-class reputation. With Robin’s design changes, it becomes a much more compelling experience—certainly not as difficult as the North, but some shot value, lots of challenge and plenty of visual interest.”

“For example,” he continues, “we relocated the tee box at the par-3 11th— which I think will be the signature hole. Before it didn’t capture the view. Now it’s panoramic. The bunkering is beautiful and your round will require more strategy. You will have to define your shots. But the family will continue to enjoy this experience.”

Speaking of family, Scott Ashworth, the head golf professional, emphasizes the Summer Junior Golf Program. “We encourage kids from seven to 17 to join our summer program. We can start them from scratch and teach them the basics, including golf course etiquette. The instruction consists of four afternoons a week for two hours of swing and putting instruction and on-course play. They earn a Ka‘anapali Junior Golf Membership and are entitled to free greens fees after 4:00 on the South course with an adult. This summer 80 keikis joined the program. Also, we allow the kids two complimentary clinics per week with our staff.” They are on target to match the 1,500 junior rounds played in the summer of 2004.

In April 2006, the renovations on the venerable North begin. Given its patrimony, layout and routing, and the marvelous use of natural topography, the 18-holes should be polished back to its erstwhile luster.

“We will preserve the dignity of Robert Trent Jones, Sr.,” says Kageyama. “We will restore and maintain the layout by attending to the bunkering, putting the greens back to the Jones blueprint—with Tifeagle grass—and edge the ponds at the 1st, 17th and 18th with rock-lining. We will re-grass the fairways and restore the course to its world-class status. I am really looking forward to this.”

So the out-and-back, rolling, ascending golf course—with its commodious, contoured, bunkered greens; Maui, tradewind-swept fairways; and peripheral views—will again beguile.

The legacy will revive. How could it not when staff members such as Larry Bernal, the bag room attendant who has served for 26 years, and Tony Vierra, who has worked for 40 years and is now the maintenance foreman, continue to provide the exemplary service?

“This property was sugar and pineapple fields and Kiawe trees and stones, ” said Tony. “We were working for the plantation and then helped clear the fields in the early ‘60s. Joe, Harvey, John, Freeman and me all stayed on. Why leave so a great place?” In the meantime, until April, the course serves. Literally.

Try the Wine and Nine some late afternoon. Packed with an elegant cooler of wine, cheese And crackers, happy couples are set for a late Afternoon rendezvous of nine holes that romantically recede into the nonpareil, Pacific sunset.

It still entrances. Wait until next year.