"Interesting, well-designed golf courses" abound on Hawaii, and it doesn't take that much work to find them. All the big-name designers have had a hand in courses out here, from Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus to Robert Trent Jones Jr. The difference between their courses here and on the mainland is all the fascinating geography they have to work with here.

How do you build a course on a lava field? What's the best way to have a hole span a jungle ravine? Those features don't just make holes more visually interesting, they make them more interesting, period.

And like I said in my original blog, play in the morning to avoid the wind.

That's not to say reader Arnie isn't entirely correct--I have found a mediocre course or two here, with surprisingly large price tags. You'll read about them in my reviews too, I don't plan to let those courses hide.

Well your example of the Nicklaus course in Kona and Hualai (sp?) is probably one example of the better ones. But there are plenty of others, including some big name courses, that are way overrated. The point of my original post was simply, if you took away the views and dropped that course in Iowa, would you consider it an interesting, well designed, well maintained course? I've yet to play a course in Hawaii that I would answer 'yes' to that question. Now, I'm not saying it's not awesome to play golf overlooking the Pacific Ocean in a beautiful setting. I'm just saying that when writers project that onto the actual quality of the golf, it's misleading. I would place the Princeville and Poipu Bay courses squarely in that 'if it were anywhere but Hawaii, they'd be just another public course' category.

Just for the sake of argument, plop St. Andrews in Iowa and see how many play there. The cows would love it.

Environment has everything to do with golf. It's played from Iceland to New Zealand and everywhere in between. If you didn't have incredible differences in conditions, why would people pay 1000's to fly around playing?

If people stop liking Hanalei because it's windy and lush, they'd stay home in Podunk and play the arid muni.

Sorry I'm so late getting to this string, but I've been to Scotland and played the Old Course at St. Andrews, as well as another 10 links courses. Babahawaii doesn't know what he's talking about. The links courses themselves are the draw. Some are on the shore but on some you never see water. The links conditions and contours of each hole on the Old Course are what makes it interesting. Put that track ANYWHERE and people will come in droves to play it. See Bandon Dunes if you don't believe me.