Kauai Lagoons Golf Club Detail
This writeup was done from the white tees (6280 yards). The blue tees run 6733 yards, and for those true gluttons for punishment, the gold tees are 7055 yards.
The opening hole is a wide open straightaway par 4 that really sets the tone for the front nine. Plenty of room to hit your driver, a little bit of length, and punishment greenside for bad approach shots. Take advantage of this hole to establish your game - tempo, patience, execution.
#2 is a short par 5 (488 yards). There is a gruesome collection of bunkers stacked up in front of the green on the right. Take heed, and go around them, even though you possibly add 20 to 30 yards to the overall length of this hole. Hit your second shot well left of this whole mess, and you'll be fine.
#3 is a medium length par 4, with a ditch running across the fairway that you have to clear on your tee shot. It's not really in play, it's mostly there to get in your head (well, and probably provide drainage for the course). Ignore it, and concentrate on hitting a solid tee shot to the left half of the fairway. You'll notice on your second shot that the green stretches from from right to back left, fronted by a giant bunker the whole length. Take plenty of club (there's a bank behind the green to stop shots that are a bit too long).
#4 mixes it up a little bit, because Jack put the trouble on the left side. Hit it out to the right to miss the bunkers. This a 412 yard hole, but don't try to shorten it!
#5 and #6 are the chasm holes. #5 is a longish (176 yards) par 3 that's basically all carry. Take plenty of club - if you're short there are bunkers to catch you (if you clear all the junk). #6 is the same thing writ large. It's a par 5, so you want to hit your driver over the chasm. From the tee box it looks like you really have to crowd the bunkers on the right in order to have enough room. This is purely an optical illusion. Stay the heck away from the right!!! The farther right you go, the farther the ball has to travel to clear the junk. Even if you clear the junk there are bunkers over there! Hit it to the left center of the fairway -- there is plenty of room over there!
#7 is a shorter par four (339 yards). It's a straightforward hole with plenty of room to use your driver. Do it.
#8 is one of those postcard par threes. The tee boxes are elevated, the green sits down in a hole with a pond on the right. Lots of flowers and foliage. Gorgeous. Obviously stay away from the pond...
The ninth hole is a long par 4, protected in front by a bunker. I find I do better on long holes if I don't try to kill it. Hit quality straight shots, and if you don't quite reach it in two, leave yourself an easy chip to try and get up and down. Swing hard often leaves me trying to hit impossible shots out of bad places. But maybe that's just me...
The 10th hole has a really different character to it than the front nine. For one thing, you drive past the wreckage of a bunch of out-of-service holes, and the cart paths are temporary. Parts of the course feel a little temporary too. #10 is 386 yards, and it sits in a low spot, so shots that are a bit wide will tend to funnel in toward the green when they start bouncing. The green has a really weird depression in the middle of the left side (weird in that the rest of the greens really didn't look this way).
#11 is a short par 4, with a massive waste bunker to the left of the green. There's really no reason to land there on a hole this short. (Yes, you guessed it, I did.)
#12 is a 171 yard par 3. There are bunkers on the left that aren't immediately obvious from the tee box. So miss right if you're going to miss.
#13 is a short par 5, at 489 yards. The tee shot is wide open -- hit your driver. On the second shot, spend a few seconds examining the lay of the land. There's another complex of Nicklaus-esque bunkers on the right side that you know you need to avoid. Just left of those bunkers is a low spot. But while there's no water down there, there is rough. The place to hit your second shot is across that low spot, out to the left, on the flat place, where the grass is short. This sets up a nice short third shot where you can hit in to the green from a comfortable angle.
#14 is a ridiculously short par 4 (299 yards). There's a bunker squatting smack in the middle of the fairway to psych you out, and make you think you need to go left or right of it. My advice is to aim down the middle just like you usually would. Any well-hit drive will comfortably fly over that bunker, so don't rob yourself of margin of error trying to avoid it.
#15 is a par 4 that's a bit longer at 389 yards. It has a gentle dog leg to the left and feeds into a two-tier green. Look where the pin is positioned and make sure you wind up on the right tier. Landing on the wrong one usually adds at least one extra putt for me.
#16 is a par 3 over a pond. There is also a bunker short, so you need to land on the green. Don't get too muscular here -- the trouble is actually worse long than it is short.
#17 is a 499 yard par 5. It's pretty wide-open all the way, so take advantage of this, and try to leave yourself a short wedge shot in on your approach. (There are bunkers protecting the green short.)
#18 is a slight dogleg to the left, so stay to the right off the tee for your best approach into the green. There are bunkers on the front left side of the green.
This is a credible course, although they clearly are have some improvements to make on the back nine. There are a few distractions from airplanes and helicopters from the nearby airport, but the scenery is gorgeous to compensate.
| 
