If You Know Where To Look, Golf Is Affordable On Maui
- Details
- Category: Inside Golf
- Published: 2025-02-07
By Gord Montgomery, Senior Writer, Inside Golf
MAUI, Hawaii — Let’s face it: golf on Maui is expensive unless you know where to head to tee it up for less than a few hundred dollars (US) for green fees and rentals.
While a trio of the lesser priced courses may not have the glitz and glamour of the big name tracks, where say a day swinging the sticks at The Plantation Course in Kapalua, home to The Sentry, will set you back an astounding US$469 (that is not a typo!) The green fee alone (at an exchange rate of $1.40 as of February 2, 2025, works out to roughly CA$656.60). Add in a set of rentals and you can increase the price by another $80. At those rates, shooting 125 may not be bad as you try to get your money’s worth!
There are however much more affordable places to tee it up and two of the courses I recently played while visiting Maui are worth the price of admission. The first is the Maui Nui GC, located a chip shot above Keihei Town. It was undergoing some renovation work while I was there and there were a few holes closed because of storm damage, but the price that day for 11 holes of play was, get this, $29! (I did have a bit of pull as I played with a friend who works at the course but still, a bargain is a bargain). On a normal day here, including rentals with two sleeves of balls, the usual price, where you can get the full 18-hole experience of an interesting muni, is well under US$150. There are also deals on Player Cards, which give you an even better deal for several rounds. Maui Nui also offers a great place to get your game in shape as they have recently installed 21 TopTracer screens on their driving range.
This Downhill Par-3 At The Pukalani CC Is One Of Many Scenic Holes On This Up-Country Layout That Offers Great Green Fees & Rental Club Deals For Visitors. (Photo By Gord Montgomery/Inside Golf)
Another great play in the Up-Country of Maui is the Pukalani Country Club in Makawao. The scenery is outstanding and the course is well worth a half-hour drive from Keihei. Again, pricing at this muni, which features wide fairways, large greens, and outstanding views of the Pacific Ocean and the West Mani Mountains, is nothing to sneeze at. When you pull out your wallet in the pro shop here to look after the day’s expenses, it will only cost you $99 for a green fee which includes a shared power cart (a good idea given the number of uphill climbs here) and a set of rental clubs. On Thursday, that price drops to an unbelievable $49! There are Player Cards as well where for $169, you can get an unlimited pass for seven days or if you’re on the island for longer, you get 30 days of play for $299 (if you figure a round every two days — you don’t want to wear yourself out — the cost per round is a meagre $19.93!) Try getting that green fee price in Wailea or Kapalua! The one other good thing to note here is that shots do travel further than down below sea level, as the elevation of 1,100 feet allows for that.
Lastly, the town-owned muni, the Waiehu Golf Club is well worth the investment of time. In my opinion, you’ll find the best ocean-side holes on the island. The green fees are spectacular at $66 for visitors ($17 for a resident!) for 18 holes on an interesting layout. Club rentals are also a deal at only $25. This is a busy place though and when I played here a few years ago, the two of us were paired with another foursome making for a 6-some which meant you had to have a mark on your ball to know who was where! Even so, this is a true bargain and a photo-worthy stop on your search for inexpensive golf on Maui.
You can find golf deals on Maui. You just have to know where to look!