Ko Olina Golf Club — Attraction in Oʻahu

I will start this off by saying the course is great. The greens were a little beat up but nothing to complain about but the course is truly beautiful. However, my experience on my family vacation was basically ruined by absolutely terrible customer service on behalf of Ko Olina. I was here on a family vacation with all my siblings. We wanted to play a round with 3 adults and 3 juniors. I booked two tee times, 11:50 and 12:00 with one spectator as well. When we checked in the pro shop didn’t give us the discount posted on their website until I had to complain about it and had the pro shop manager come over to correct their mistake. When we started our round we were advised that we had a single added on to our 11:50 but we could let her play through since we had a large group. They then said we could all go up together as well instead of splitting off. On the first tee that’s what we did. She played through and we all teed of. Before finishing the first hole, another guy came over and said we now had to split up. I explained to them what we were told but he was still adamant that we needed to split up because the course was completely full on a Tuesday afternoon. Sorta weird but okay. So we split up no problem. The entire front 9 we were split. The back nine came and we had not a single group behind us for a whole 2 holes. We even got drinks at the turn and still nobody in sight. We made the decision to play together since we were so far ahead. While yes I understand golf and know that it’s four people. But given the circumstances, it was a family vacation and we were playing a scramble so we were going much faster than 6 people playing their own ball. We played the entire back nine and even at times was catching up to the single in front of us! Not once did we get caught up to and if we did we would have gladly let people play through. We get to hole 17 and a grumpy guy comes up and starts screaming that we need to play separate. I calmly explained to him that we played the entire back nine together and are not any slower than if we were playing separate. I explained that at no time has anybody caught up to us. He didn’t wanna hear it and was adamant we play separate until I explained further and pleaded with him. He finally said alright well then hurry up and play ready golf. Rude… but we did and played as we were the entire time. We finished and nothing else came out of it. Just crazy to go to a top rated course and pay over $1000 but still have terrible customer service. Good thing I’ll never have to play at this...

The golf course itself- very solid, challenging yet fun course to play. The rest of the experience was frustrating and left a sour taste in our mouths. For starters, our reservation was booked several months in advance on a Wednesday. As we got closer to our trip, we moved it to Friday given a potential hurricane/rain in the forecast. Then, the hurricane/storm shifted so we moved it back to Wednesday. When I called the 2nd time, they said "Are you sure this is the tee time you want? This is the 3rd time you've rescheduled" (Not true). They said they needed to cancel and rebook our tee time each time (not my problem...get at better POS system) yet they have many tee times showing for each day...Not sure what the big deal was.

When we arrived, I needed to purchase a golf glove. I was shown some that were 30% and others that weren't. All of them came with a magnetic Ko Olina ball marker regardless of the price/brand. The glove on sale was $37 and the regular priced glove was $25. Therefore, I would have paid more for the one "on-sale". Then we were charged full price for our rental clubs vs. the 1/2 we were told months in advance. So they had to ring it up again. Also when we first checked in, they gave each of us 2-sleeves of golf balls (6 total balls). When they charged us extra/refunded us for the rental, they said "because of our mistake, you can keep the 6 balls but we usually only give each golfer 3 balls with rental clubs". Yet, on their website it clearly says each rental comes with 6 golf balls!!

While on the course, our GPS screen stopped working twice! First time they came out and reset it. The second time, they had us change carts- Not the worst thing but less than ideal.

The course was fun overall- At times the fairways were very wet and muddy. The greens were covered in sand. Also for those renting, it would be nice if the course provided a divot tool as a tee can only fix so much itself.

Lastly, we purchased a gift card to pay for the round when they ran a promotion earlier this year- Buy a $175+ gift card and receive a $25 pro shop gift card. When we went to redeem the $25 gift card after the round, they said it was already used and couldn't be accepted...Since then, they have since continued to argue over the phone and email on this...

All in all, fun yet challenging course and pin placements. Play earlier in the day to avoid the heat.

However, I wouldn't recommend if you don't want to pay for an expensive round while dealing with their rude/uneducated pro shop team (especially if there are...

I booked a round a few weeks ago. Had issues booking online from Australia so called and they accepted the booking.

I originally was meant to have a friend joined which meant transfer from our hotel would be free but he bailed. They still arranged transport for $80 roundtrip for me. The lady driver was early, extremely professional and lovely. The car is a bit old but super comfy. We were late coming back from the round due to a slow group in front and she met me at the cart return and got me on my way. Highly recommended.

The pro shop is nice as are the staff. The merchandise is reasonably priced particularly compared to Turtle Bay.

You get a bucket of balls to warm up, and there's a nice practice green. Most of the patrons are lovely but some were pushy and rude.

Heaps of Japanese and Korean visitors. It is on par with a nice, private golf course in Korea. I haven't played in Japan.

You get an electric cart which is stocked with tees, marker, water and towel.

We had the bar cart once but saw it twice. Also, very friendly.

Greens, fairways are in good condition. Greens are very challenging. There are houses off some of the fairways. The last hole has an unavoidable water feature so if you're not confident with water, steel yourself. Bring crap balls. 😂

Only drawback is marshalling. They helped us once with a slow group and our pace time reduced from +12m to +6m, but towards the end, it returned to +12m. Super frustrating.

Playing here is expensive - about $280 per round.

The tees are also cut out lady bugs. Super cute.

Heaps of trees and wildlife. Beautiful mountain views on some holes.

Would visit again when I'm back...