The Plantation Course a True Test of Game Management

If you’re a golf fanatic than the one thing you always want to do is tee it up where the big boys play.  While there aren’t a lot of courses the general public can play that host yearly stops on the PGA TOUR, there is one in Maui, Hawaii, that is worth the price of admission.

The Plantation Course, home to the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, is a huge track that if you’re going to play, you need to put on your big boy pants.  Even if you don’t take on this assignment from the tips, which sit at 7,411 yards, the tees anywhere in front of that are still challenging enough.

With the PGA TOUR event tents still set up on the Plantation Course in Maui the day after the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, the opening hole where the fairway slopes from right to left is a truly challenging start to anyone’s day.

Continually seen as the No. 1 course in all of Hawaii, not only is the golf great on this track designed by the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, but the ocean views from up high on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains are magnificent.

Off the Regular blocks, you’re faced with almost 6,700 yards of challenges starting on the opening hole, a 434-yard downhill, right to left sloping beauty where your second shot is the key.  By the way, if you want to play it like the pros, this becomes a 520-yard par 4 behemoth.

Things don’t necessarily get much easier from that point on, but the second, third and fourth holes, again from the Regular tees, do give you a bit of a break, playing to 196, 352, and 317 yards respectively.  After that though, the real test of both your game, and your composure, begins in earnest.

The par 5 fifth is one of the narrower fairways at Plantation—although it is still wide—but if you stray too far sideways you’re in big trouble with jungle left and a huge canyon right.  The third shot is decision time on this hole, especially if you find yourself on the right-hand side of the fairway as you need to fly the edge of the canyon into a large green guarded by steep walls.

If you’re brave enough to try this shot on the fifth hole at the Plantation Course, then you fully deserve the good things that can come your way if you pull it off.  If you don’t, well, a bogey isn’t the worst score to record on this par 5 test.

The sixth is perhaps the neatest hole on the front nine, another par 4 and “only” 378 yards (398 from the tips; 362 from the Resort tees) with a blind tee shot and approach into a green that slopes severely from left to right.  The trick here is to hit and stick because if your ball is rolling when it gets to the green, chances are it is going to scoot right off and bury itself on a steep slope in some nasty Bermuda grass up to 50 feet below the putting surface.

When you swing over to the back nine, you again get a bit of a break with the relatively easy par 4 10th, the dramatic par 3 11th, where you hit directly at the ocean in the background, and the par 4 12th where as long as you don’t get a downhill lie off your drive, you can set yourself up for a good run at birdie.

The gorgeous view from the Resort tee box on the 11th hole at the Plantation Course in Maui is enough to make you forget about any poor tee shot you may have here…well, almost forget!

Turning back into the mountains after that hole, you come to the short par 4 14th, an uphill hole where the pros like to let it rip as they attempt to reach the putting surface in one.  Again though, any kind of wayward shot here puts you in a world of trouble from deep, steep-faced bunkers, to OB areas.

The 15th hole, the par 5 510 yard assignment from the Regular blocks is all about club selection.  The third shot on the hole is uphill and if you choose the wrong club, and catch the false front, your ball is coming to rest right from where it started if not even farther back.

Then you hit the two big holes on this track, Nos. 17 and 18, where good games can go astray in a big hurry.

The 17th is a big par 4 that for the pros plays anywhere from 508 to 549 yards.  While there’s plenty of room to drop your opening salvo into, again it’s the approach shot where you earn your money.  From the Regular tees the hole tops out at 467 yards while from the Resort blocks it’s a challenge at 428 yards.

This shot shows the challenge faced by golfers on the 17th hole at the Plantation Course, where you need to clear this canyon to get to the green, shown in the middle right part of this photo.

Unless you choose to play cautious and lay up, your approach shot is again key to the hole.  You must clear yet another huge canyon, this one protecting the left side of this green and truthfully that hazard is likely the graveyard for thousands of golf balls.  Convert on that shot though and you’ll walk away with par and be in the right frame of mind for the final test of the day—the dramatic, jaw-dropping par 5 18th.

From the back deck—and really, if you’re here you’ve got to play from the spot where the pros do—your duty is to let out all the shaft you can.  Aim at the chimney on the clubhouse and let ‘er fly.  If you judge properly, the trajectory of your ball, combined with the right to left downhill slope of the fairway will undoubtedly give you one of the longest, if not the longest, drive of your life, and one that you’ll be talking about for years to come.

The view of the final hole at the Plantation Course from the teeing area used at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

This hole isn’t just all about the drive though.  You need to play smart to stay out of yet another canyon down the left side that is definitely in play on the second  shot.  Coming into the green you need to stay above the hole as anything below it is going to roll off and into a bunker.

The keys to scoring well here are relatively simple: play the right tee box; learn how to read the greens and don’t step outside your comfort zone by attempting to make impossible shots.  The thing is, no matter what you score, this is one golf course you’ll relive playing, and once a year can compare your results on each and every hole with those carded by the pros.  Also, remember you’re playing at close to sea level so club distances can vary greatly.

Overall, no matter how you fare in your round and where you play from, a round on the Plantation Course is one you’ll always remember given its challenges and beautiful ocean views.