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Posted on: Thursday, August 2, 2001

• Holes in One: Ace Makes nice anniversary gift

Around the greens
Being a kama'aina has its privileges

By Bill Kwon

The practice of having different fee rates for residents and nonresidents is common on many courses in Hawai'i and on the Mainland. Maui residents pay less than visitors to play Kapalua's Plantation Course.

AP library photo • Jan. 10, 1999

The federal lawsuit challenging nonresidents a $3 fee for access rights to Hanauma Bay has raised the question whether the practice by Hawai'i golf courses of charging visitors considerably more than what resident golfers pay is legally acceptable as well.

The difference is like comparing apples and oranges.

The legal question in the Hanauma case is whether one class of citizens can enjoy free access to public lands while others, in this case, nonresidents must pay for the privilege when it should be a fundamental right.

In the case of golf, playing it is not a fundamental right. You pay for the privilege to play golf, and pay whatever the market can bear. And in Hawai'i's case, charging tourists or nonresidents a different golf fee is not an uncommon practice.

"It's a nature of the business and a standard practice most everywhere," said Marty Keiter, Kapalua Resort's director of golf. In the case of local residents (and they don't have to live on Maui), Keiter says he wants to help out kama'aina. The fees at the resort's three courses reflect it.

Residents pay $62 weekdays to play the Bay Course, $67 for the Plantation Course, the par-73 site of the Mercedes Championships. Resort guests pay $115 and $125, respectively.

The fees for non-resort guests are $165 and $200.

When you come down to it, residents will find rates truly affordable at some of the world's best-rated resort courses. Besides Kapalua, they include as Mauna Kea, Wailea, Hapuna, Mauna Lani, Princeville and the Challenge at Manele, the latter rated No. 1 in the world by Conde Nast. The kama'aina rate at Mauna Kea — Hawai'i's most heralded golf course — is $95. Resort guests pay $110, nonresidents $195.

It's a wonder why more residents don't travel to the Neighbor Islands instead of the Mainland to golf. The best bang for the bucks is right in the 50th state.

Speaking of bargains, Honolulu's municipal courses are the best buys of them all. No wonder, it's hard getting a starting time.

The resident rate at the Ala Wai Golf Course is $12 on weekdays ($7 for seniors 65 and older). It's $16 for everyone on weekends and holidays.

Nonresidents pay $42 with no weekend or holiday difference.

And if you have a retired military friend, the well-maintained Navy-Marine, Leilehua, Hickam and Kane'ohe Klipper golf courses are worth looking into because of its comparatively lower fees than most local courses.

The average difference between the kama'aina and visitor rate at most of the privately owned courses on O'ahu is about $80. At some courses, international visitors (read Japanese) pay even more than other tourists.

If anything, they're the ones who should be complaining.

As we've said, the practice isn't uncommon. Local golfers are well aware of that difference when they travel to the Mainland and find themselves as the nonresidents, the "other guys."

The popular Angel Park golf course in Las Vegas, for example, charges nonresidents $65 (weekdays) and $85 (weekends) while those who live in Clark County pay only $45 and $50, respectively. At Harding Park, San Francisco's popular public course, the rates are $17 weekdays for residents and $26 for nonresidents.

The difference is more significant at Torrey Pines, which is owned by the city of San Diego. It charges residents a weekend rate of $29 compared to $95 for out-of-towners.

Some courses don't make a distinction.

Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, Calif., charges everyone $135 with carts optional for an additional $20. It's $150 on weekends to play the only golf course in America designed by Alister MacKenzie that ?s opened to the public.

Ah, then there's Pebble Beach. Its nondiscriminatory fee comes at an eye-opening price. A round of golf costs $350, if you can get on. But as someone in the pro shop said when I called, "Pebble Beach is Pebble Beach. It's the No. 1 golf course in America."

You only live once, so you should play Pebble Beach at least once.

Besides, it's one of two U.S. Open courses available to the public. The other is Bethpage Black in New York, site of the 2002 U.S. Open.

Thank heavens for kama'aina rates.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net

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Notices
• August 12 — Tech Ready Golf Tournament. At the Dunes at Maui Lani Golf Course at 7 a.m. Entry deadline Aug. 10 . Fee: $110 per player or $330 per team. Information: Maui Economic Development Board 875-2336.

• Aug. 30 — U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Qualifying. Local qualifying for the USGA Women's Mid-Amateur Championship will be held at the Mid-Pacific Country Club. The event is for amateur women 25 years and older with a 9.4 handicap index or less. The national event will be held Oct. 6-11 at the Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka, Mo. Entry forms can be downloaded from the usga.org website. Entry deadline is Aug. 8. For more information, telephone Kathy Ordway at 262-2428 or email her at ordwayk001@hawaii.rr.com


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