I thoroughly enjoyed Makalei Golf Club! Amazing holes! Launching the ball up and down beautiful hills. Breathtaking views. Challenging throughout! I'm grateful for this unique experience overlooking Kona. Wow!

Course was a lot different than we’ve had ever played on before. Staff is great a beautiful peacocks it did rain a little bit where we’re on the course. Definitely need a golf cart. Lotta hills would absolutely go back again.

Staff are lovely, no question! However I cannot in good conscience recommend this course. It is poorly maintained, there is a lot of clover so you’ll lose a lot of balls and our golf cart started to kick in and out around 16. This mountain course is unique and challenging with a lot of potential with a major infusion of capital. If you decide to play there just bring a lot of junk balls. 😂 peacocks can be aggressive if they think you’re going to feed them… don’t.

I had an incredible time playing here and the views were absolutely breathtaking. The course was in great shape and offered a fun challenge that kept me engaged throughout the entire round. It is easily one of the most scenic spots I have played at and I already cannot wait to go back.

Overall very happy we played here and thought it was well worth the price, which is awesome for tourists visiting Hawaii that might not want to shell out big money for every round, especially if you find their coupon at the airport. It’s challenging (but not overly so) and a very interesting round, but you should not go here expecting resort-like conditions. If you don’t, I think you’ll really enjoy your round. Crazy ocean views from up above, lots of elevation changes, and beautiful holes. The drive from the clubhouse to the driving range and first tee is long through the lush woods and gives you a little peek at what you’ll be dealing with for most of the round, which is an awesome contrast against some of the lava rock filled courses closer to the ocean. The driving range has a beautiful view of the ocean and is straight downhill, which is fun. You will see an abundance of animals, including dozens of peacocks (which will aggressively pursue you, but not in a scary way - they’re just hoping for food), several wild pigs, mongooses, and many types of other birds. Yes, the pigs damage many of the holes fairly extensively, but if you go into your round expecting this and accepting moving your ball occasionally, you’ll be fine. I do wish the rough was cut a little more consistently and weeds were managed a bit more because it’s often tough to find your ball on the occasional blind shot if you miss the fairway or it takes a severe slope and a good chunk of time gets spent hunting balls. It rained off and on throughout our round, which we expected because of the course being up in the clouds, but as a result you should expect your ball to get muddied up or lost if plugging in soft turf. If I played here again I probably would bring some cheaper balls or at least start with ones I had leftover from previous rounds - I lost a few today that were confidently in play. Greens were shockingly fast for how moist and soft the greens were - I don’t think I left a single putt short, but you will be making and fixing huge pitch marks. Also be wary that they close the course earlier than most and you should probably get a tee time at 1 or earlier if booking in June - we teed off at 2 and finished 16 by about 5:30 and were told by a ranger that they’re closing up and we had to return our cart. I’m not docking them any points for that - I had read that was a possibility somewhere online ahead of time and it was in the back of my mind. But also, pace of play was great - we got 16 in within 3.5 hours and only had to wait on the group in front of us a couple times. A great cooler temp break between rounds at Mauna Lani South and North for us. I definitely haven’t ever played a course like this and for that alone I can’t be mad about anything here. If you need country club or resort conditions then this probably isn’t for you, but I think everyone should find this course fun.