Postcard From Kapalua

We recently played the Plantation Course at Kapalua which hosts the Tournament of Champions in January, the PGA Tour’s first event of the year. For those Golf Channel addicts who are golf deprived in January it is a ritual for us to take in the vicarious thrill of watching the 30 winners of last year’s tour events play this magnificent course in Maui.

The protagonists-Moe is the taller one by virtue of the curb.

Owned by the Ritz-Carlton this place pulls out all the stops when it comes to presentation.

The hallway of champions is owned by Aussie Stuart Appleby who has a three-peat in this event.

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw designed this majestic course with it’s breathtaking vistas above Kapalua Bay.

Click on any photo to see an enhanced view of the image

You get looks like this on Number 7 tumbling down toward Kapalua Bay with the remote island of Molokai in the background.

Some holes are beyond description like this view of the back side of the replica Mucha Picchu burial mound that feeds down to the 6th green.

Kathy was up for the challenge across the environmental abyss on the par 3 8th where she hit it to 4 feet and made birdie.

To say the elevation changes here are severe is an understatement. Where else do you see guard rails running up the side of the fairway.

The wind always blows big time. But as you can see here on the par 4 12th the golf gods smiled on both of our approach shots and we made birdie-par as a result.

As you would imagine in such a place there are some modest homes overlooking the course. This little bungalow on the high ground above #16 even has it’s own practice green in the back yard.