After seeing Michaelko's review, we decided to play Pearl CC. It's close to Honolulu and seemed like a natural choice for our "local" public golf course vacation. As we've come to expect during our ... Continue »

After seeing Michaelko's review, we decided to play Pearl CC. It's close to Honolulu and seemed like a natural choice for our "local" public golf course vacation. As we've come to expect during our tour of local courses, the staff was friendly and accommodating. The moment we pulled-up at the bag drop, an attendant appeared to take our bags and direct us to the starter -- who treated us like old friends. We even got a Mainland Visitor discount that was way below the rack rate. Perhaps it was because it was a weekday/mid-morning, but we were free to go a half hour earlier than our reservation and the PoP was an easy four hours. The course is well maintained with level and clean tee boxes. The fairways are in good shape with medium rough and plenty of trees lining many of the holes. We really appreciated the greens which rolled medium-to-fast with just about all of them breaking toward Pearl Harbor (as a sign at the #1 tee advises). It's a straightforward layout with some doglegs here and there, but it was a good track for the newer players in our group. If you're looking for a round of resort golf or challenging courses...Pearl CC may not be for you. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy playing the usual suspects, like Ko Olina, Ko'olau, Kapolei, and Turtle Bay. But for this trip, Pearl was a good fit. And Michaelko is right about the sweeping, panoramic views of Pearl Harbor on the back nine. If you want to play a bit of local Hawaii golf history, you may want to consider Moanalua Golf Club. It's a no-frills nine hole, Par 36 course that was built in 1898 and is said to be the oldest golf course in Hawaii. It has some blind tees and a few severe (uphill and downhill) elevation changes. I can't remember the last time I rode in a gasoline-powered cart but we did at Moanalua. It was like stepping back in time.