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Turtle Bay - Palmer Course

Posted in: USA SouthWest & Pacific

jddonovan LowIndex
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My first trip to Hawaii was in 2005. As I am in the military I primarily played the military courses there. I wanted badly to play the courses at Turtle Bay, but neither had the coin nor the game. After my first tour to Iraq I took a second trip to Hawaii in 2007. Turtle Bay was offering a twilight rate of $20 with cart for all the holes you could play after 3 p.m. I took them up on their offer twice and got to play the entire Fazio course for $40. It was a great trek with reachable par 4's, long par 5's and a par 3 that butts right up to the ocean. I still hadn't played the Palmer course, but was licking my chops too. I had heard so much about it and based on the Fazio course I was thrilled at the prospect of what the Palmer had in store. Thus, with my third trip to the island - I had the Palmer course at Turtle Bay in my gun sights. Well, I just returned from Hawaii this week and was utterly disappointed with the Palmer course. I found it contrived, poorly designed and overly hyped. Almost every fairway had a blind shot from the tee box and with no GPS on the carts and no birdie book from the club house, more than a few balls found themselves in hazards that are not visable from the teeing area. One fairway was so dotted with bunkers it was hard to find a landing area for your tee shot. I almost expected to find a windmill or clown's mouth on the putting green. Moreover, with what appeared to be a generous amount of land only one hole on the Palmer course brought the ocean into view. What a waste of a design to never bring the ocean into view except for one hole. My advice to those who are traveling to Hawaii with their clubs - play the Fazio and skip the Palmer. The Fazio course is easier to get on to, it is cheaper to play, and you will find it far more rewarding.
Goynes42 Professional Champion
# 1 5/17/2012 8:13:39 AM
Man, courses like that are a drag. There are SO many courses in the world that are contrived and tricked up, yet kept in good enough shape that they can charge exorbitant greens fees. So you pay a lot of money to scratch your head all day, but hey, at least the fairways and greens are in good shape. I'm pretty traditional when it comes to what I like in golf course design. I don't mind some quirkiness...but the quirkiness shouldn't come at the expense of strategy. One thing that annoys me about many courses is the overuse of water as a hazard. Now mind you, I'm not scared of hitting over water anymore...but there are a lot of people who ARE. What happens is that, even if you're a good player, you end up playing defense all day, constantly playing away from the water, making the holes longer...it's a B.S. way to add toughness to a golf course. I enjoy a course that makes use of a natural water feature to create a hazard...a creek running through the property, the arm of a lake...that kind of thing. A couple man-made water features is alright, but some courses just have ponds everywhere because 1) it's less grass to maintain and 2) it adds toughness...it's usually compensating for lack of toughness in other areas of the course.
ParSeeker Legend
# 2 5/17/2012 5:46:07 PM
My wife and I played the Palmer course a few years ago and enjoyed it. Although I do agree about the lack of ocean views considering the course location. We didn't get back to play the Fazio course so have nothing to compare between the two.

jddonovan

LowIndex

Go to Last Reply

65 Views 2 Replies 3 Likes

My first trip to Hawaii was in 2005. As I am in the military I primarily played the military courses there. I wanted badly to play the courses at Turtle Bay, but neither had the coin nor the game.

After my first tour to Iraq I took a second trip to Hawaii in 2007. Turtle Bay was offering a twilight rate of $20 with cart for all the holes you could play after 3 p.m. I took them up on their offer twice and got to play the entire Fazio course for $40. It was a great trek with reachable par 4's, long par 5's and a par 3 that butts right up to the ocean. I still hadn't played the Palmer course, but was licking my chops too. I had heard so much about it and based on the Fazio course I was thrilled at the prospect of what the Palmer had in store.

Thus, with my third trip to the island - I had the Palmer course at Turtle Bay in my gun sights. Well, I just returned from Hawaii this week and was utterly disappointed with the Palmer course. I found it contrived, poorly designed and overly hyped. Almost every fairway had a blind shot from the tee box and with no GPS on the carts and no birdie book from the club house, more than a few balls found themselves in hazards that are not visable from the teeing area. One fairway was so dotted with bunkers it was hard to find a landing area for your tee shot. I almost expected to find a windmill or clown's mouth on the putting green.

Moreover, with what appeared to be a generous amount of land only one hole on the Palmer course brought the ocean into view. What a waste of a design to never bring the ocean into view except for one hole.

My advice to those who are traveling to Hawaii with their clubs - play the Fazio and skip the Palmer. The Fazio course is easier to get on to, it is cheaper to play, and you will find it far more rewarding.

Goynes42

Professional Champion

# 1 5/17/2012 8:13:39 AM

Man, courses like that are a drag. There are SO many courses in the world that are contrived and tricked up, yet kept in good enough shape that they can charge exorbitant greens fees. So you pay a lot of money to scratch your head all day, but hey, at least the fairways and greens are in good shape.

I'm pretty traditional when it comes to what I like in golf course design. I don't mind some quirkiness...but the quirkiness shouldn't come at the expense of strategy.

One thing that annoys me about many courses is the overuse of water as a hazard. Now mind you, I'm not scared of hitting over water anymore...but there are a lot of people who ARE. What happens is that, even if you're a good player, you end up playing defense all day, constantly playing away from the water, making the holes longer...it's a B.S. way to add toughness to a golf course. I enjoy a course that makes use of a natural water feature to create a hazard...a creek running through the property, the arm of a lake...that kind of thing. A couple man-made water features is alright, but some courses just have ponds everywhere because 1) it's less grass to maintain and 2) it adds toughness...it's usually compensating for lack of toughness in other areas of the course.

ParSeeker

Legend

# 2 5/17/2012 5:46:07 PM

My wife and I played the Palmer course a few years ago and enjoyed it. Although I do agree about the lack of ocean views considering the course location. We didn't get back to play the Fazio course so have nothing to compare between the two.

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