Princeville’s Makai Course Undergoing Renovation
The par-3 Ocean 7th from the tee
Princeville closed its Makai course late last year, along with its hotel, in order to renovate and refurbish both. The 27-hole course on Kauai’s north shore is a beautiful Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design that is comprised of three distinct nines.
I had begun hearing rumors that the course is not going to reopen, that, in fact, they were going to simply pave over the course and build more condos. Fortunately, this appears to just be just rumor. The Robert Trent Jones II firm has been hired to redesign the course, and perform a series of updates to the course, which originally opened in 1971. According to the Princeville website:
The scope of work will include: introduction of Seashore Paspalum as a new turf type to be used throughout the entire course, with the exception of the rough; reconfiguring the strategy of greens complexes and green surrounds, and bold reshaping of bunkers; refurbishment of selected cart paths and comfort stations; and upgrading of the practice facility, to include two large, new practice tees, a practice fairway bunker, eight target greens with bunkers, a teaching tee, and short game practice complex.
The addition of Paspalum turf means that the course can be irrigated with highly saline water, such as ocean water or treated gray water, which is easier on water resources. Of course, it rains so much on the wet side of Kauai you wouldn’t think they would even need an irrigation system. What is particularly interesting about the quoted note on the renovation is that they are laying Paspalum across the entire course “except for the rough.” The biggest liablility of Paspalum is that it is grabby, and therefore difficult to play out of, especially on longer shots. So, it’s laudable that they’re attempting to split the turfs, but how do you keep fairway and rough grasses from intermingling?
The website also mentions that the course renovation work will concentrate largely on the Ocean and Lakes nines, which may mean that the Woods nine is headed the way of the condo. That is, however, complete speculation on my part.
The updated course is scheduled to open in the latter half of 2009, along with the renovated hotel, which will now be called the St. Regis Princeville Resort.
-Bryan Fryklund
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