Two weeks ago I wrote about the Moanalua Golf Course and whether aviator Amelia Earhart landed a plane on its third fairway in the 1930s. (I concluded it was probable but not conclusive.)
One of the things I learned in researching it is that golf was gaining in popularity 100 years ago, and the Hawaii public was clamoring for more courses. Golf was a sport that men and women of all ages could play. Where to put public courses and how to do it cheaply were problems city officials faced.
Moanalua opened its golf course in 1898. The Haleiwa Hotel had one around 1899. Several private clubs opened: Oahu Country Club in 1906, and Waialae opened in 1927 as the course for guests of the Royal Hawaiian and other hotels. Mid-Pacific Country Club was built the same year in Kailua to entice sales in the new subdivision of Lanikai.
Proposed municipal golf courses
The City Planning Commission looked at six Honolulu locations in the 1920s: Kalihi Valley, Ala Moana, Kapiolani Park, Ala Wai, Koko Head and Palolo Valley. Two of them were selected. Do you know which two?
Kalihi Valley
In 1926 a golf course was proposed in Kalihi Valley. It would begin a little mauka of School Street and extend 3,400 feet back into the valley, to about where Kamehameha IV Road meets Likelike Highway today.
Planners suggested Kamehameha IV Road could be moved to the Ewa side of the valley so motorists could look down on the golf course as they drove by. The Diamond Head side of the golf course would extend to Kalihi Stream.
Mayor John Wilson vetoed the idea in 1926, saying the cost of procuring the land had skyrocketed and was now too costly.
Palolo
A second possible site for a municipal golf course was Palolo Valley. The land was projected to be one-third the price of land in Kalihi Valley.
Supervisors gave it a green light, and Alex Bell, golf pro at Oahu Country Club, designed it. The Palolo Golf Course opened on Sunday, Dec. 6, 1931, with 2,000 in attendance.
The course was between Palolo and 10th avenues, about a mile from Waialae Avenue. It was 3,225 yards long and took advantage of the two streams that crossed the course and several hills that made for rolling fairways. These, and the natural gullies and ditches, would challenge golfers.
Jack Omuro, who won the 1960 Manoa Cup, played the course when he was young with Ken Miyaoka. “It cost 25 cents to play all day, and we’d play from sunrise to sundown, fifty-four holes, barefooted.
“We’d only have two or three balls, usually what we found on the course, and we’d have to keep our eyes on them. If we lost them, our friends wouldn’t have an extra one for us.”
The ninth hole, a par 3 across Palolo Avenue, was problematic. “If you hit the ball poorly, it could roll down the street all the way to Waialae,” he joked. “There weren’t many cars on the road then.”
It was a popular course during the 1930s, but World War II changed things. Fearing a Japanese invasion, the city planned to move people from lowland areas back into Oahu valleys. One hundred prefabricated homes were built on the Palolo Golf Course in case evacuation was needed.
The Japanese never invaded, but U.S. military personnel arrived in large numbers. The homes were used as emergency quarters by families who could find no other accommodations.
After the war, in 1955, the houses on the former golf course were torn down, and William Paul Jarrett Middle School and Palolo Valley District Park were built on the site. Jarrett had been a sheriff and territorial delegate to Congress in the 1920s.
Ala Moana Golf Course
Manuel Pacheco of the Honolulu Board of Supervisors (called the City Council after statehood in 1959) was against a golf course in Palolo. In 1930 he suggested putting it on 65 acres of reclaimed land fronting the ocean from Kewalo to the Ala Wai.
“With the Pacific Ocean in front of it, this would be one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world,” Pacheco said. “It would be centrally located, would have less rain than Palolo and would be a great tourist attraction.”
The Board of Supervisors decided to build Ala Moana Beach Park on the site, and it was dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1934.
Koko Head
In 1924, Bishop Estate offered the city over 1,300 acres fee simple for $1 to establish a public park in the eastern end of Oahu.
Two municipal golf courses were part of the plan, one on each side of Hanauma Bay. The park would include Hanauma Bay, Koko Head, Koko Crater, Halona Blowhole and two miles of coastline.
In the 1920s the area was sparsely inhabited, with a few farms and the Kuapa fishpond — one of the largest on Oahu.
Bishop Estate gave the city this land in fee in exchange for the city piping in 200,000 gallons of water a day. Golf courses use lots of water, and this killed that aspect of the plan.
Kapiolani Park/Ala Wai
City planners believed that nine golf holes could be built on the Kapiolani Park grounds on the eastern end, mauka of the polo field, and up to the slopes of Diamond Head.
Richmond McAllister Schofield, chairman of the Territorial Fair Commission, suggested in 1924 that a better location than Kapiolani Park was the nearby Territorial Fair Grounds, mauka of the new Ala Wai Canal and Ewa of Kapahulu Road.
He was the son of Gen. John M. Schofield, who recommended Pearl Harbor be made into a naval base. Schofield Barracks was named in his honor.
“Come out some time and look over our six-hole course,” Schofield invited planners. “The six holes cost the taxpayer absolutely nothing. We have made them self-sustaining by charging a nominal fee of $1 a month for those who play.
“As soon as the Territorial Fair is over, I shall add three more holes to the six we now have, and that will give us an ideal nine-hole course on the present layout.
“Five months ago, I installed the present six-hole course on Territorial Fair Grounds property,” Schofield continued. “I did not advertise my scheme through the newspapers, gave it no publicity, but made it known among a few of my friends who play golf, that I had started something that would interest them.
“There is nothing elaborate about my golf course, but it serves the purpose.”
The Territorial Fair Grounds course changed its name to the Ala Wai Golf Course on Dec. 13, 1930, with four holes in play. It expanded to 18 holes in 1938.
Planners considered using the Ala Wai Golf Course site several times for other purposes: a site for Aloha Stadium, the Waikiki Shell, Honolulu International Center auditorium and the state Capitol.
The golf course could be moved inside Diamond Head Crater, some thought. Somehow, it endured and still is Hawaii’s most played course.
Six municipal courses were considered in the 1920s. Two were built: Ala Wai and Palolo. Only one remains.
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
