The first hole at Kahuku Golf Course, a 9-hole muni a few minutes down the road from the Turtle Bay golf courses, is a 164-yard straight-forward par 3. It’s wide open, the only trees in sight are rows of dwarf cypress-like evergreens to separate the hole from the “driving range” (an open space where you can hit balls provided that you supply the balls and you shag them afterward) on the right and the 9th hole on the left. Kahuku Golf Course is a true links course with very few trees, small greens, and fierce wind that blows in off of the Pacific Ocean, whose white-sand shore abuts the east side of the course. Shots that land in the fairway kick up a puff of sand. When you inspect the fairway more closely, you see what causes this- the fairways are comprised of clumps of grass with sand in between them. The local rule that we always play by states that, provided you are not in a hazard, you can place your ball on the nearest clump of grass if you find your ball in a sandy spot. Indeed, this is an authentic, old school links course. It’s like going back in time, when the greens ran at about 6 on the stimp and it only took an hour and a half to play 9 holes. Those fancy golf balls you got for Christmas will do you no good here. Neither will those game improvement irons you bought yourself to make it easier to get the ball up in the air. The 30-mph gusts will make your driver that launches the ball so high and straight seem useless. That fancy new wedge with the milled face and fancy grooves? Nope- that’ll put way too much spin on every chip shot. To play well at Kahuku you need to manufacture some shots. You’ve got to re-learn the old bump and run shot. Dust off the old wristy pop-style putting stroke while you’re at it. Get that punch shot ready, too. Now you’re ready. When you step up to the first tee, it all seems so simple. The wind is coming hard right to left. There is no trouble right of the green. Just avoid going into the shrubs over the green, and don’t go into the bunker on the left side of the green. You have the luxury of watching your playing partner hit first. You realize that the wind isn’t just right to left, it’s also hurting a little, as evidenced by your partner’s ball short of the bunker. You switch from a 6-iron to a 5-iron. Nothing like hitting a long-iron for your first shot of the day...you shake your head as you tee up your ball. Sure enough, you catch it a bit thin, but the ball starts where you aimed at the right edge of the green. Your partner has played the course numerous times before and immediately yells for the ball to get down. The wind gets ahold of it and pushes the ball left. The ball curves to the middle of the green and lands left of the pin. Then it bounces and bounces and....it’s in the middle of the greenside bunker. Lesson number one: the ball bounces out here. Welcome to your first bunker with REAL SAND. You can’t believe how much sand is in the bunker, or how inconsistent the depth of the sand is. There’s a ton of sand under your right foot, hardly any under your left foot. Suddenly that lip looks like its higher. At least you’re hitting back into the wind, you think as you set the blade open and dig your cleats in. You catch it a hair thick and the ball barely makes it out. But the small green means that your par putt is still within 20 feet. You see that the green tilts from front to back, so your putt should break left to right. You’re still hitting back into the wind, so you aim at the left edge and hit it a little harder. Your ball doesn’t even make it halfway to the hole. Your partner apologizes for forgetting to mention that your putt was also directly into the grain. Lesson number two: read the grain. You ram your bogey putt through the break and it lips out on the left edge. Lesson number three: keep it in the hole if you’re trying to ram in short putts. Double-bogey 5.
That’s often how the first hole goes at Kahuku. Bogey isn’t such a bad score. When I first started playing the course in high school, I averaged a 5 on the hole. It was a typical round at Kahuku with my father. I was just starting to really get into golf. I had worked on my game enough to consistently shoot in the high eighties. I was playing with an old set of Acushnet irons that my father’s co-worker gave to him. They were probably about half an inch longer than standard and looked like blades. They were way too heavy for me, too. I choked up on them and swung hard, hoping to just get the ball airborne. I remember having a rough opening 9, the opening hole had been particularly ugly. The wind was blowing hard. I was hooking it and topping shots, too. I felt like my game had taken a step backward. I convinced my dad to play a few more holes. So we headed back to the first tee. I cold topped my 4-iron. It was barely off the ground for the first 30 yards or so. Then it bounced and bounced and bounced. I was thrilled when I saw that it was going to reach the green. Just before the green it took a strange bounce toward the pin, and it just kept on going. I watched the ball roll right into the hole. I threw my hand up in the air, “I think it went in!” I yelled to my father who didn’t bother to watch the shot once he saw it hit the ground 30 yards out. He wanted to make sure I didn’t get my hopes up in case it went over the green, and told me that I shouldn’t get too excited until we get up to the green. My heart was racing. I must’ve practically jogged to the green. There it was, my Top Flite XL 3000 Aero at the bottom of the cup. My first reaction was to pluck the ball and rather dramatically exclaim, “Finally!.” My father, who has played golf for over 30 years and still has not had an ace shook his head and said, “Finally?! You have no idea how lucky you are!” He was right- that shot was pure luck, but somehow I had expected it to happen again in the near future.
Fast forward several years. I’m still in high school, but now I’m able to shoot in the mid 80s pretty consistently. I’ve even had my first round in the 70s. I’m wild off the tee, mostly because I swing as hard as I can, but my chipping and putting is pretty solid. It’s another typical round at Kahuku with my dad. The wind is really blowing hard. We reach the fifth hole, which is down in a low area so you can’t feel the wind. It’s a straight ahead par 4 that measures 310 yards on the scorecard, but it plays directly downwind and is easily reachable with a solid drive. From the tee, the fairway rises gently and crests about 35 yards from the green, then it drops off more steeply down to the green. From the tee, all you see is the horizon created by the crest of the fairway- you can see the top of the flagstick, but much of the green cannot be seen. I tee up my ball and aim way out right for my low slinging draw/hook. I swing hard and I get under the ball a bit. The ball climbs way up high into the air and stays up the right side- there’s no draw at all. The wind at my back pushes it hard enough to clear the crest of the fairway and I’m glad to see it take a big bounce forward and left, toward the green. As I approach the green, I can’t see my ball anywhere. It should either be short and right of the green or in the greenside bunker to the right of the green. It’s not in either spot. Just before I drop another ball, my dad tells me to check the hole. I wander over to the flag expecting to be disappointed. There it is! A hole-in-one on a par 4- an albatross! I almost can’t believe my luck, but somehow I can.
That hole-in-one somehow made me more confident. From that day on, my game seemed to improve rapidly. Before I knew it, I was able to shoot in the low 80s fairly consistently. If I was putting well, I knew I was going to be in the high 70s. I played one season of JV golf in high school, which featured 9-hole tournaments with the exception of the conference tournament, which was 18 holes. In my very first tournament I birdied the first two holes, including making an 80-foot putt, and held on to shoot 38, which gave me runner-up honors. If memory serves me right I shot an 84 in the conference tournament to finish top-20. I didn’t play tournament golf again until I walked on the college golf team my sophomore year. About three tournaments into my first season, I shot a 78 in ugly conditions (the tournament was delayed an hour because of hail) to finish in third place. That really boosted my confidence, and I ended up putting up a few more good rounds in my college career. I managed one other top-3 finish, finished in the top-15 of the conference championship several times, and twice held the 18-hole lead in 36-hole tournaments. Not bad for a self-taught golfer who started late and couldn’t find a fairway to save his life (I literally played out of the left trees for the entirety of my college career). For all that success, I did not record a hole-in-one in college. I never really came close. I did hole out a pitching wedge for eagle on the hardest hole on the course during the conference championships one year, but my par-3 scoring was not so hot. I often go through stretches in the summertime when I consistently shoot in the low to mid 70s. I’ve never made a hole-in-one during those hot streaks.
My third hole-in-one came in the midst of one of the worst slumps of my golfing career. I was working at a golf course and was hitting a ton of balls as I worked on a swing change. It was getting me nowhere. I was back to shooting in the low to mid 80s. Beyond golf, I didn’t know what I was doing with my life- I had graduated from college two years prior and was earning barely over minimum wage at the golf course. I was living paycheck to paycheck and wasn’t using any of the skills I had gained in college. I was pretty much playing for the exercise at that point. It was a sunny Monday. I came to the par-3 sixth hole, a downhill 175-yarder with bunkers protecting the front, left, and right of the green. The green slopes severely from left to right, so much so that the only place flat enough for pin locations are on the far right side of the green. I struck my 6-iron right on the sweet spot, but with a shut face. The little draw I was playing for turned into a hook that luckily caught the far left edge of the green. It took a nice kick forward and right. Then gravity took over as the ball raced down the hill toward the pin. I watched to ball smack off the flagstick and into the hole. I remember not knowing what to do. I was playing alone. There was no one in sight. I also remember feeling like that was my first “legit” hole-in-one because I had actually struck the ball solidly. While it was still a bit of a lucky shot, it didn’t require nearly as much luck as my two previous aces.
My most recent hole-in-one was my favorite one. I had moved to Chicago and hadn’t touched my clubs in 4 months before visiting the islands during the holidays. Knowing that I’d be playing some golf, I spent the weeks leading up to the trip visualizing playing golf. For some reason, over and over again I found myself envisioning making a hole-in-one. As expected, I found myself at Kahuku Golf Course, this time accompanied by my entire family. I was playing relatively well when we came upon the 6th hole- a severely uphill par 3 that only measures about 135 yards, but plays closer to 150 yards due to the slope and hurting right to left wind. I decided to hit a hard 8-iron instead of a 7-iron to take over the green out of play. I absolutely pured it, and it started exactly where I was aiming- some 15 yards right of the flag. I hit it so well that it seemed to be boring through the wind, and I was convinced the ball was going to fly the green. It wasn’t until the ball reached its apex that the wind started to push the ball toward the flag. Only the top of the flagstick is visible on that hole, so I had no idea where the ball ended up, but I knew it was online. I muttered to everyone that it probably went over the green, but my best buddy was convinced I had hit it close. It was no surprise that my ball wasn’t on the green. There is a steep downhill slope over the green, so I made my way down to look for the ball, but found nothing. I came back up to the green and decided to check the hole. There it was- hole-in-one number four. Finally, a hole-in-one that required almost no luck. I chose the correct club, hit it on the screws, and started it on the line I had intended- it was a perfect shot. Best of all, my family was there to join in on the celebration.
It will be difficult to top my most recent hole-in-one. It’s incredible that three of my four hole-in-ones have come at the same golf course. If you’re ever on Oahu, I encourage you to go play Kahuku Golf Course. As I mentioned, it’s like a trip back in time, and it’s golf in a very pure form. It’s also the cheapest course you’ll find on the island and there are some magnificent ocean views. Unfortunately, Kahuku Golf Course will likely not be around for very long, as the owners of Turtle Bay have been looking to purchase the land for many years now. It will be a very sad day for me and my family when Kahuku Golf Course is no more.
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