Big Island Golf Courses: All 19, and What Each One Costs

Published green fees on the Big Island run from $17 to $420. North Kohala Golf Park, a nonprofit nine-hole course in Kapaau, charges $17 for an adult round; Hualālai at the Four Seasons charges $420 and lets in resort guests and club members only. Nineteen courses are open and two have closed: Sea Mountain in Kaʻū in 2018 and Waimea Country Club in 2012.

Bring clubs for a week and you can play both ends of that range. Four of the nineteen are private clubs and Hualālai needs a Four Seasons stay, which leaves fourteen you can simply book. Afternoon rounds are cheaper almost everywhere: Makalei, above Kona, drops to $59 after 2pm.

Map and green fees for every Big Island golf course

Click any marker for the course details, or use the region buttons to show one part of the island at a time. Every name in the table jumps to that course’s section below, with its address, phone number and website.

Read those numbers with three caveats. Where a fee includes a cart the table says so, because a walking rate and a riding rate are not the same purchase. Two cells say the course publishes no rate: both Mauna Lani courses quote only by phone or inside a booking system. Four more are private clubs, where a round depends on knowing a member. And most quoted rates exclude Hawaiʻi state tax, so budget a few percent on top.

Kamaʻāina rates run well below the visitor rate wherever a course publishes one: $89 against $215 at Waikoloa Beach, $58 against $100 at Volcano. Rental clubs are widely available and cost $50 to $78 a set, so flying in without your own is workable everywhere except North Kohala, where borrowing them is free.

The count of nineteen still leaves out two courses inside the resorts, Hualālai’s Keolu and Mauna Lani’s nine-hole Wikiwiki, because neither takes a visitor booking.

Related: our comparison of Big Island resorts covers the hotels attached to several of these courses.

Golf courses near Volcano and in Kaʻū

Two courses sit at this end of the island, one up at the volcano and one down in Kaʻū. A third, Sea Mountain, closed in 2018.

Volcano Golf Course

Open to all, 18 holes, par 72, 6,547 yards

At 4,000 feet on the flank of Kīlauea, this is the coolest golf on the island, and the only course where a jacket is sensible in January. It sits a mile from Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and Mauna Loa fills the horizon on clear mornings. The course calls itself the oldest on Hawaiʻi Island; it is owned by Kamehameha Schools and reopened under new management after a closure.

Non-residents pay $100 with a half cart. Nine holes, or anything after 2pm, drops to $75. Hawaiʻi residents pay $58 on a weekday with a cart, or $43 to walk. Rental clubs are $75, and whoever drives the cart needs a driver’s license on them.

• Website and Instagram
• 99-1621 Piimauna Dr, Volcano HI 96785
• 808.319.4745

The Volcano Golf Course looks out over Mauna Loa.

The Club at Discovery Harbour

Members and guests, 18 holes, par 72, 6,320 yards

The southernmost golf course in the United States, and the claim holds up: it sits below Nāʻālehu in Kaʻū, at the bottom end of the southernmost state. Robert Trent Jones Sr. laid it out in 1972, with no water hazards anywhere on the property. It is the only course left in Kaʻū now that Sea Mountain has gone, and a long drive from either Kona or Hilo.

The course was reopened and rebranded in 2022, and it now plays members and their guests rather than public walk-ups. There is a clubhouse and bar, pickleball and a disc golf course on the same grounds. No green fee is published, so call ahead to ask about guest play.

• Website
• 94-1581 Kaulua Circle, Nāʻālehu, HI 96772
• (808) 731-5122

Golf courses near Kailua-Kona

Six courses sit close to Kailua-Kona, three of them private.

Kona Country Club

Open to all, 18 holes

Kona Country Club is the closest championship course to town, about six miles south in Keauhou, and the only Kona course that plays along the water for most of the round. William Bell laid it out in 1966 around Bermuda greens and a lot of sand, with black lava rather than water as the hazard on most holes. The blowhole beside the 13th sprays on a good swell, and humpbacks are offshore from November through March.

Visitors pay $199 including a shared cart, before tax. That falls to $139 after noon and $108 for nine holes after 3pm. Guests staying in Keauhou next to the course pay $168, and a six-round coupon book is $834. Rental sets are $60 to $70. There is a dress code: collared shirts, no jeans, no tank tops and no sandals.

• Website
• 78-7000 Aliʻi Drive, Kailua-Kona, HI
• (808) 322-2595

Makalei Golf Club

Open to all, 18 holes, 7,091 yards from the back tees

Makalei climbs the western slope of Hualālai above Kona, which is why it runs cooler than the coast and why the greens are bent grass, a surface almost nothing else in Hawaiʻi holds. Dick Nugent routed it through native forest, and the course is overrun with wild turkeys, pheasants and peacocks that treat the fairways as their own. A round covers a little under eight miles with a lot of climbing, from tees that range between 5,242 and 7,091 yards.

This is the best-value afternoon round in Kona: $109 before noon, $89 until 1:50pm, then $59 from 2pm. Rental sets are $50, or $35 after 2pm. Check in 20 minutes early, because the first tee is a 10-minute cart ride from the clubhouse.

• Website
• 72-3890 Hawaii Belt Road, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
• (808) 325-6625

Makani Golf Club

Open to all, 18 holes, par 72, 6,582 yards

Formerly the Big Island Country Club, this is the island’s main independent daily-fee course. It sits upcountry off Māmalahoa Highway at around 2,000 feet rather than down on the resort coast, which puts it about half an hour from either Kailua-Kona or Waikoloa. Perry Dye designed it and it opened in 1997. Makani means wind.

Visitors pay $137 on weekday mornings and $153 Friday to Sunday, dropping to $115 in the afternoon and $70 for twilight from 2pm. Rates include a shared cart and bottled water, and state tax is added on top. Rental sets are $60. Book ahead: they ask you not to turn up without a tee time.

• Website
• 71-1420 Māmalahoa Highway, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
• (808) 325-5044

Hokulia

Members only, 18 holes

A Jack Nicklaus signature course inside a private residential community above Kealakekua, just south of Keauhou. The club and its 140-acre shoreline park are open to members and property owners, so there is no visitor rate and no way to book a round as a guest of the island.

• Website
• Kealakekua, HI 96750
• (808) 930-4101

Nanea Golf Club

Members only, 18 holes, par 71, over 7,500 yards

David McLay Kidd routed this one across old lava flows at about 2,000 feet on the slopes of Hualālai, north of the Kona airport. It is the most private course on the island: no visitor rate, no guest play, and very little public information about it. It is listed here so that searching the name gets you an answer.

• Kailua-Kona, HI

Kohanaiki

Members only, 18 holes

A Rees Jones course inside a private club community just south of the Kona airport, with six of its holes running along a mile and a half of shoreline. Like Hokulia, this is a residential club rather than a golf resort, so membership or a property here is the only way on.

• Website
• 73-2055 Ala Kohanaiki, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740

Golf courses on the Kohala coast

Eight courses run up this coast from Kaupulehu to Kapaau, including Mauna Kea, Hapuna, Hualālai and the two Mauna Lani courses. Hualālai is the only one closed to visitors who are not Four Seasons guests or club members.

Hualālai Golf Course

Resort guests and members only, 18 holes, over 7,100 yards

Jack Nicklaus built this one through black lava at Kaupulehu, opening in a green corridor before it returns to the ocean for the closing holes. A second course here, the Keolu, is for club members only.

You can’t just book a tee time. Play is limited to club members, their registered guests, and guests of the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai. Those who qualify pay $420 for the day, $300 after 2pm, or $150 for four holes after 4pm with rental clubs included. The course also hosts the Mitsubishi Electric Championship through 2030, closing it to everyone else for about a week each January.

• Website
• 100 Kaupulehu Drive, Kaupulehu, Kona, HI 96745
• (808) 325-8480

Mauna Lani, North Course

18 holes

The inland half of the Mauna Lani pair, cut across an old lava bed with kiawe forest between the holes, and the one the club points members and low handicappers toward. The 17th is a par three dropped inside a natural lava amphitheater. A 230-acre protected archaeological district runs along the northern boundary, and a herd of feral goats works its way across the course through the day.

Mauna Lani publishes no green fee. The rate appears once you are inside the booking system, or you call the golf shop. Public tee times open 14 days ahead.

• Website
• 68-1310 Mauna Lani Drive, Kohala Coast, HI 96743
• (808) 885-6655

Mauna Lani, South Course

18 holes

The South is the seaward course and the more forgiving, with wide fairways and approachable greens. Black lava from the old Kaniku flow runs along nearly every hole, which makes the landing areas look tighter than they measure. Its 15th plays over the water, it hosted the original Senior Skins Game from 1990 to 2000, and in winter you can watch whales from it.

Mauna Lani publishes no green fee for the South Course either; the rate appears once you are inside the booking system. There’s a third course at the resort, the Wikiwiki, a nine-hole walking layout for families and quick rounds before dinner.

• Website
• 68-1310 Mauna Lani Drive, Kohala Coast, HI 96743
• (808) 885-6655

Mauna Kea Golf Course

18 holes, par 72

Robert Trent Jones Sr. carved this course out of a raw lava field in 1964. His son Robert Trent Jones Jr. has since renovated the fairways, bunkers and greens. The third hole, played across an ocean inlet, is the famous one; elsewhere the course runs from sea level to nearly 300 feet, with more than 120 bunkers and large, heavily contoured greens.

Mauna Kea publishes no rate card, but its own booking system quotes $345 for a morning round and $270 from noon, with nine holes at $225. Public tee times open 60 days out, and the earliest slots each morning are held back for resort guests and members. Guests of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel can get half off green fees through the resort’s golf package.

• Website
• 62-100 Mauna Kea Beach Drive, Waimea, HI 96743
• (808) 882-5400

Hapuna Golf Course

18 holes, par 72, 6,895 yards from the back tees

Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay designed this one, the quieter of the two Mauna Kea Resort courses, and it opened in 1992. It’s a links-style layout that climbs from sea level to 750 feet, so the wind matters more here than almost anywhere else on the coast, and the ocean is in view from every hole. It has reopened after its greens and fairways were rebuilt.

Hapuna is the cheaper of the pair, at $245 in the morning and $185 in the afternoon through the same booking system, and the 60-day window is the same as Mauna Kea’s. A dress code is published: collared shirts with sleeves and slacks or mid-length shorts.

• Website
• 62-100 Kaunaʻoa Drive, Waimea, HI 96743
• (808) 880-3000

Waikoloa Beach Resort Golf

Open to all, 27 holes, par 35 per nine

Waikoloa Beach Resort runs three nines rather than the two 18-hole courses older listings show: the Beach (3,281 yards), the Lakes (3,285) and the Kings’ (3,226). Any two of them make your 18. The Kings’ is the Scottish links-style nine, with pot bunkers and lava outcrops. All 27 fit in one day.

One rate card covers the lot: $215 from off-property in the morning, $150 between 11am and 1pm, and $119 from 1pm to sunset. Resort guests pay $175 in the morning and the same as everyone else after that. A shared cart, bottled water and the practice facilities are included, and kamaʻāina pay $89. Every player needs a full set of at least eight clubs, so a foursome cannot share two bags; rental sets are $65.

• Website
• 600 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, HI 96738
• (808) 886-7888

Waikoloa Village Golf Course

Open to all, 18 holes, par 72

Six miles up the hill from the resorts and a good deal cheaper for it. This is a Robert Trent Jones II layout with wide landing areas and well-bunkered, undulating greens, and Waikoloa Village sits above the coastal heat at about 900 feet, so it stays dry and breezy year round. The course opens at 6:30am and runs 364 days a year.

Visitors pay $139, or $114 after 1pm, cart included. Hawaiʻi residents pay $80. There is a nine-hole sunset rate of $67 riding or $47 walking from 3pm, open to everyone, and rental sets are $78. This is the only course on the island that dates its rate sheet, and the current one runs to the end of 2026.

• Website
• 68-1798 Melia Street, Waikoloa Village, HI 96738
• 808-883-9621

North Kohala Golf Park

Open to all, 9 holes, par 3

Nothing else on the island is this cheap or this informal. It’s a nonprofit run by the North Kohala Community Resource Center in Kapaau, with a nine-hole par-3 course, a practice range and a putting green. Clubs are free to borrow. There is an 18-hole disc golf course on the same grounds for $10.

An adult round is $17, seniors $15, and children under 18 play free with a paying adult. A gas cart is $8 and pull carts are free. No reservation is needed and there is no dress code: the park’s own words are come as you are. Open 8am to 5:30pm, with the last nine-hole start at 4:30pm.

• Website
• Kamehameha Park Road, Kapaau, HI 96755
• (808) 937-0768

A video review from YouTube user Quite the Chap:

Golf courses close to Waimea and the Hāmākua coast

One course on the Hāmākua coast, and one in Waimea that closed in 2012.

Hāmākua Country Club

Open to all, 9 holes played as 18, par 66, 4,800 yards

Nine holes on the ocean side of Highway 19, 41 miles from Hilo in the old sugar town of Honokaʻa, at around 1,200 feet. Founded in 1926, it calls itself the second oldest course on the island. You play the nine twice off two different tee sets to make up your 18.

It’s also the most local place to play on the island, and it doubles as a community club. Asked once whether it had a restaurant, the club’s answer was that you could bring all the food you can eat.

Non-residents pay $25, and that buys the whole day rather than one round: play as many nines as you like. The cart is separate, at $20 for 18 holes or $15 for nine, and a pull cart is $5. Juniors play free with an adult. If nobody is at the clubhouse, the club asks you to put your money in the slot in the wall and sign yourself in.

• Website
• Ocean side of Hwy. 19, Honokaʻa, HI
• 808-775-7244

Golf courses in Hilo

Two courses in Hilo, and both are a fair bet if the rain isn’t putting you off.

Grand Naniloa Golf Course

Open to all, 9 holes, par 35, 2,875 yards

Older guides still call this the Banyans. It was built in 1970 on Banyan Drive beside what is now the Grand Naniloa Hotel, and runs under the hotel’s name. Nine holes on flat ground beside Hilo Bay, with a driving range and a putting green. The course rating is 35.4 against a slope of 115, so this is a pleasant walk rather than a test.

The general public pays $37.50 for 18 holes or $25 for nine; hotel guests pay $30 and $20. A cart is another $37.50 for 18 or $25 for nine, which is the same again, so walking is the sensible choice here.

• Website
• 120 Banyan Drive, Hilo, HI 96720
• (808) 935-3000

Hilo Municipal Golf Course

Open to all, 18 holes, par 71, 6,325 yards

The county course, and the only municipally owned golf course on the island. It’s the only full 18 in Hilo, and it’s busy with local players most mornings. Open 7am to 6pm daily, closed only on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

The county publishes no rate schedule online. Golf directories put the visitor round at $44, which is worth confirming when you call the clubhouse to book. Ask about the cart on the same call.

• Website
• 340 Haihai Street, Hilo, HI 96720
• (808) 959-7711

Courses that have closed

Both still turn up in older guidebooks and on mapping apps.

Sea Mountain Golf Course, Punaluu

The 18-hole course at Punaluu in Kaʻū opened to the public in 1971 and has been closed since April 2018. It played 6,416 yards to a par of 72, with a course rating of 71.1 and a slope of 129. A redevelopment proposal for Punaluu would restore the course, but no reopening date has been set.

Waimea Country Club

Waimea Country Club opened in 1994 and closed in July 2012. It has not reopened, and the property was sold later the same year. Don’t confuse it with Makani Golf Club upcountry, which is open.