Surviving Kauai for journalism sake

Road Holes — 27 March 2020 by Bob Sherwin

Editor’s Note: During this difficult time dealing with the Coronavirus outbreak, leaving golf writers nothing to write about, we decided to revisit some of the places we have gone over the years. Today, return to our series on Kauai.

KAPAA, Hi. – We live up to our name, golferswest.com.

In our efforts to cover golf in 12 western states and British Columbia we’ve had to make sacrifices. We’ve had to travel great distances, wear plant life around our necks, eat exotic fruits and endure the penetrating rays of the sun, so foreign to us this time of year. All in the name of journalism.

We, meaning golferswriters.com senior writer Jim Street and myself, faced those challenges last week during our golf fact-finding mission to the wilds of Kauai, Hawaii’s Garden Isle. Within the framework of our site, this is as far west as we could possibly travel. Any more West and we’d be in the Far East, which only makes sense using circular logic.

We ventured to Hawaii’s furthest-west-most major island, on the very precipice of the Pacific, in an effort to understand how the natives function on golf courses. Some might call it arduous duty, although no one that we know has actually said that.

We covered every corner of the island, from the Makai and Princeville courses north, to the Kauai Lagoons course on the eastern edge (pictured above), to the Poipu Bay course on the south end. We were willing to go to those kind of extremes.

Fortunately, we’ve made it back safely and have brought with us stories on the courses. Strangely, what we discovered was our golfing experiences there were not all that dissimilar to our experiences on the Mainland. It seems bad has no boundaries.

Over the next week or so, we’ll detail the island’s many golfing pleasures and treasures, along with an open, honest discussion on its many perils, such as strategically-placed bunkers, terror-filled water hazards, blind-leading-blind shots, overhanging bluffs and undulating greens.

Our Kauai Grand Slam series begins Monday with a look at the venerable ocean-side course of Makai in the Princeville resort complex.

SATURDAY: Makai

Mystic Links of Ireland: Trip Postscript

About Author

Bob Sherwin

Bob grew up in Cleveland, an underdog city with perennial underdog teams, and that gave him an appreciation and an affinity for the grinders in golf, guys such as Rocco Mediate, Jhonattan Vegas and star-crossed John Daly. This is the 53rd year for Bob as a sportswriter, the first 34 working for newspapers throughout the west, Tucson (Daily Star), San Francisco (Examiner) and Seattle (Times), and the past 19 years as a freelancer. He has covered just about every sport, including golf tournaments, Tucson Open, Bing Crosby/AT&T Pro-Am, the 1998 PGA Championship, the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, the 2010 U.S. Amateur the 2015 U.S. Open and the annual Champions Tour Boeing Classic. He also writes articles for Cascade Golfer Magazine and Destination Golfer. For most of his 20 years at the Seattle Times his primary beat was the Mariners. He then picked up Washington men's basketball in the winter. He also was the beat writer for the Sonics, including 1996 when they played the Bulls for the NBA title. After a lifetime hacking on public courses, he finally gave in and joined a country club in 2011, Aldarra near Seattle. Despite (or perhaps because) of his 14 handicap, he won the 'Super Senior'' (65 and older) championship in 2017. He has a pair of aces – 37 years apart – and in 2009 came agonizingly close to his ultimate golf goal of scoring in the 70s when he finished with an even 80. He lives in Seattle.