Mauna Kea celebrates 50 years of excellence

Fifty years after Mauna Kea Golf Course was christened by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, it is still described with words like spectacular and visionary.

But really, before Robert Trent Jones stood on the edge of West Hawaii’s stark black background and cracked two rocks together — most critically, they crumbled — who could have imagined a classic course in the lava desert?

It sounded crazy, but Jones’ pioneering architecture has become the prototype for courses that line what is now a world-famous resort golf destination that stretches along the Kona Coast.

The resort celebrates the course’s anniversary this weekend with its 41st annual Mauna Kea Pro-Am Golf Tournament, "A Legacy of Tradition and Aloha." It ends Sunday.

Monday is 50 years to the day that the "Big Three" hit the first shots on the course, in an exhibition that helped introduce golf to TV on NBC.

At nearly 7,400 yards (from the longest of five sets of tees), and with the legendary big wind that is Hawaii golf’s greatest challenge, Mauna Kea can be a monster. The diminutive Player was hesitant that first day to play the back tee at the famous par-3 third hole, worried he couldn’t navigate the 230-yard carry over the Pacific Ocean. With breakthroughs in equipment, the 79-year-old Player could probably hit a 4-iron to the green now.

Developer Laurance S. Rockefeller provided the $50,000 purse for the Big Three. Rockefeller, whose father John was America’s first billionaire, found Mauna Kea while scouting neighbor island sites to create a resort. He was encouraged by Gov. William Quinn, who wanted to expand the visitor industry beyond Oahu.

Rockefeller fell in love with the beach at Kauna‘oa Bay. He asked Jones, who had opened the Hawaii Kai Executive Course and Ka‘anapali North in 1962, if he could build a course on the lava, believing a resort could not succeed without golf.

The legendary golf course architect wasn’t sure until those rocks crumbled in his hands. Then he knew the lava could be crushed to form a base and ideal drainage. His peers thought he was nuts.

Rocks were ground and pulverized into topsoil. A state-of-the-art underground watering system was created that could pump a million gallons a day. Special hybrid grass was brought in for the greens, allegedly hidden in the suitcases of Pan Am pilots, according to one story. Hundreds of palms, banyans, monkeypod and shower trees replaced the few cactus that greeted Jones on his initial trip.

"It was all raw land in that area so Robert Trent Jones had whatever he needed to build that golf course on," recalled Bob Itamoto, Mauna Kea’s superintendent from its opening through 2002. "There were no homes or anything else outside of the hotel (which opened after the course). He pretty much carved the golf course out of solid blue rock. People considered that an agricultural feat because we grew grass on top of crushed rock. It wasn’t done before."

Itamoto credits agronomist O.J. Noer for helping Jones with many of the course’s quirks, and Rockefeller for giving them his apparently infinite resources.

"At that time I believe Mauna Kea, just the golf course, cost $20 million and that was unheard of," Itamoto said. "Golf courses throughout the country were being built for maybe $2 or $3 million."

Jones, who designed some 450 courses before his death in 1999, called Mauna Kea one of his five finest designs. He was particularly proud of the breathtaking third hole, which remains Hawaii’s most famous.

On that first visit, Jones reportedly said, "Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, it (No. 3) will be the most beautiful hole in the world."

Like most of Mauna Kea, the third hole is also exceptionally difficult. Rockefeller asked Robert Trent Jones Jr. to tame it a bit for hotel guests in 1975.

About a decade later, Golf Director J.D. Ebersberger looked at the original plans and brought back some old tees and created new ones. He also added a little rough around perimeters so balls wouldn’t flow into the lava and in front of the greens so balls wouldn’t roll back down. Pace of play was restored to four hours.

In 2008, Jones’ son Rees was asked to "re-invigorate" Mauna Kea. He restored and deepened several of the approximately 100 bunkers, brought in new grass and improved irrigation and drainage, and added 200 yards. The back tee at No. 3 is now 270 yards.

"They made it much more difficult," Itamoto says, "and it was difficult to begin with."

It has not scared anyone away. Mauna Kea remains a unique golf destination.