Warm Weather Getaways: Lanai
April 13th, 2007 | Written by Editor | Category: Golf Vacations |
by Tom Callahan
In the pineapple days, before cheaper labor was discovered in Asia, Lanai was Hawaii’s pineapple island. The only golf course was Cavendish, a gift from the Dole company to its workers, who swarmed the free property in rollicking 16-somes and 20-somes that required a wartime level of readiness. At Caven-dish, golfers were well advised to keep their heads both up and down.
When the pineapple people left, and the great fields turned to alfalfa and oats, Lanai became the closest thing Hawaii had to a deserted island, and it still is. You can drive for an hour there and come across no one. You can find your own beach and feel like planting a flag. Then, when sundown turns everything cherry red, you can return to Koele or Manele Bay, new settlements that have joined with Cavendish to make Lanai a three-course island.
The Lodge at Koele is a step into the 1940s, a cedar chest of graceful details. In the morning, barefoot couples in terry-cloth robes take putters (instead of croquet mallets?) out to a rolling green miniature course that is as delicately clipped as a bonsai tree. In the afternoon, some of them play The Experience at Koele, Greg Norman’s first whack at drawing on the sky.
The front nine, the mountain nine, is a walk in the clouds. From the sixth tee, a Normanesque par 5, Maui and Molokai can be seen flashing semaphore signals in the reflective mirror of the sea. The eighth hole drops 200 feet to a valley of brooks and birdies. All of a sudden, it’s summertime again.
Not far away, hard against the ocean, Jack Nicklaus has built The Challenge at Manele. Although the inferences in the titles “Experience” and “Challenge” are very much intended, Manele isn’t exactly heavy lifting. A few water hazards ave to be negotiated, but the biggest problem is the distracting beauty. Porpoises are moon-walking just offshore, splashing about for attention.
This is the softest island in the archipelago, the one without neon or hamburgers, grass skirts or ukeleles. Also be warned: It’s a lousy place to get a tattoo.
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