Volcano Golf Course is a hidden gem on the Big Island

BY TONY DEAR • CG EDITOR

On May 15, 2018, it’s likely your eyes widened, your heart stopped beating for a moment, and you mouthed the words “What the…” when you saw an incredible photograph somewhere on the internet of a man hitting a golf shot with a volcano erupting behind him.

The gentleman was dressed in dark grey shorts and an orange polo shirt, and was wearing an orange baseball cap. He’d just hit his ball and was posing nonchalantly at the end of his follow-through assessing its flight. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the huge plume of smoke and ash billowing 30,000 feet into the sky just a mile or so away.

The image was taken at the appropriately named Volcano Golf Course in the southeast of Hawaii’s Big Island, just the other side of the Mamalahoa Highway from the Kilauea Crater and the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. At the time, the course was known as Volcano Golf and Country Club, but it closed for two years following Covid and the expiration of the owners’ lease before re-opening in March 2022 simply as Volcano Golf Course.

Now owned by non-profit Kamehameha Schools and operated by Indigo Sports, part of Troon — the world’s largest golf management company — Volcano GC first opened in 1921 with three holes “built” by eager locals. A year later, there were nine holes with small, round, sand greens and actual cups to putt into (the locals had aimed at wooden stakes originally.) When Kilauea erupted in 1925, the course was covered in ash, which proved beneficial for the Manienie turf, so the sand greens were replaced by grass surfaces.

In 1939, it was discovered three of the nine holes were within the boundaries of the national park which had opened in 1916. Because that was illegal, the course lost that part of the property, but Laura Kennedy, the wife of a wealthy, local businessman, had it rebuilt and added nine more holes which, because of WWII, didn’t open for play until 1946.

Twenty-two years later, the course’s then owner — C. Brewer & Co., one of Hawaii’s so-called ‘Big Five’ companies, which handled 25 percent of the state’s sugar production — hired course architect Jack Snyder to update it. Snyder had moved to Hawaii from Arizona in 1965 and spent three years as the superintendent at Ka’anapali (where the University of Oklahoma won its fifth Ka’anapali Classic, and third in a row, in November) on the island of Maui where he developed his own variety of Bermuda grass.

A one-time superintendent at Oakmont CC in Pittsburgh, Snyder had evolved into a course architect in the late 1950s and would design six courses in Hawaii, playing a big part in establishing it as a golf destination.

Forrest Richardson, Snyder’s associate for many years and a former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, has been a frequent visitor to Volcano since the 1980s, last visiting in 2023. Talk to him about the course and it quickly becomes apparent he’s smitten with the place.

“There aren’t really any hidden gems anymore because of the internet,” he says. “But Volcano is probably as close as you get these days. I love it there.”

Play Volcano as part of a stay and play package after booking into the delightful Kilauea Lodge.

Because of its remote location on the opposite side of the island to the west’s more famous courses (public and private) — Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani, Waikoloa, Hapuna, Hualalei, Makalei, Makani, Hokulia, and Nanea — Volcano can get overlooked at times. But a visit to the national park - a World Heritage site that 2.6 million people take in every year, is a must and a trip round this century-old layout a wonderful addition especially if you appreciate courses with a bit of history, where 18 holes cost half the price of a round on the Kailua-Kona Coast, and if you like to tee it up at courses whose nearby landmarks include places with names like “Lava Tree Molds,” “Steaming Bluff,” and “Sulphur Banks.”

Granted, the words ‘lava’, ‘steaming’, and ‘sulphur’ are apt to put some people off which is probably fair enough — you shouldn’t really take volcanoes lightly, especially those listed among the world’s most active. But they didn’t prevent Laura Kennedy from rebuilding the course, C. Brewer & Co. from buying it, or Jack Snyder from redesigning it. They didn’t dissuade Indigo from getting involved either, and nor do they prevent thousands of golfers from playing it every year (Volcano records roughly 20,000 rounds annually).

Richardson has never heard of anything harmful or unpleasant happening and says the U.S. Geological Survey’s volcano-watching is so advanced these days it would be able to provide plenty of warning if any activity was picked up.

“It’s really just part of Hawaii life,” he says, suggesting that while it may be a big deal to some, it really isn’t to others. “My take is it’s like playing golf at the edge of the Earth. It absolutely is a one-of-a-kind golf experience, and I think it would be a shame to pass it up.”

More likely to keep you away than an erupting volcano or air pollution is the rain — Volcano GC gets over 53 inches a year according to weatherspark.com. It’s at its heaviest in April (7.2 inches) after which it drops off rapidly with June receiving about two inches. Strangely, some parts of the course get very different amounts to others.

“On one side, it could be raining cats and dogs while on the other there’s just a gentle mist,” says Richardson.

Don’t let rain or ash or lava or air quality or anything like that keep you away, though. Playing Volcano is a once-in-a-lifetime thing you’ll be glad to have experienced. It’s not particularly fancy, doesn’t have the architectural bones of somewhere like the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae on Oahu (venue for the Sony Open each year), and doesn’t boast Augusta National-like playing surfaces. But it is one of those courses you’ll remember and talk about for the rest of your life.

“It just has so much potential,” says Richardson. “I know Jack was always proud of what he accomplished there, and I’d love to see it become a graceful, old-school, Hawaii layout, something along the lines of Waialae or Maui Country Club. Who wouldn’t want to be an overseas or mainland member of a course like that?”

Play Volcano as part of a stay and play package after booking into the delightful Kilauea Lodge.