For vacationing golf nuts disappointed by prohibitive baggage fees that preclude bringing along a set of clubs for a Hawaii vacation, I have good news: you don’t need to. Vacationers on Oahu have dozens of courses to choose from.
Unfortunately, club rentals at the finer courses can be as expensive as baggage fees. But there is one course on Oahu where visitors can enjoy green fees for a round of 18-hole golf, club rental, and a cart for under $100. Bayview Golf Course is easy to find, too, and has other activities the whole family can enjoy while Dad sneaks in a round.
Located in lush Kaneohe on Oahu’s windward side, Bayview is on Kaneohe Bay Drive. Likelike Highway, one of the main routes connecting Honolulu to the windward side, turns into Kaneohe Bay Drive in Kaneohe town, so once you’re on Likelike Highway, Bayview is pretty hard to miss.
The course itself is challenging but not maddening, with trouble on most holes and small, sometimes difficult greens. The course is a par 60. Mostly par threes, Bayview also has six par fours. A couple of those are reachable for long-hitters. Recent renovations have greatly improved the course and opened views previously obscured by overgrowth.
It’s a good idea to bring a camera along, because the views from holes 13-16 afford breathtaking views of Kaneohe Bay and the Koolau Mountains. Hole 15 is itself particularly lovely, a reachable par four over water, into a tiny valley in the forest. The next hole looks directly out into the bay.
One of the nice things about Bayview is that it’s generally uncrowded, without long waits for the group in front. It’s a quiet little course with amazing views. It’s a good thing that residential development plans to cover the course with hundreds of homes were squashed. Obviously, it just didn’t seem right.
But Bayview has other attractions, too, activities the whole family can enjoy. Also at Bayview is an 18-hole mini-golf putting course and a zip-line through the forest. The snack bar has recently reopened, so it’s easy to have lunch and make an afternoon out of a trip over the Koolau.
And it’s usually best to go in the afternoon, because as with the whole windward side of Oahu, it often rains in the morning. But those squalls pass, so don’t forget the sunscreen!
