In today’s short-attention-span society, it’s little wonder that the game of golf is losing popularity. Dedicated golfers know it takes focus and patience, as well as commitment in time and cash.
But the sport certainly makes sense in Hawaii, given our superb year-round weather and natural vistas. That’s why it’s good to see the city pursuing a reset for the 18-hole Ala Wai Golf Course, a public course that opened in 1931, with a modern model that’s hoped to attract both seasoned and neophyte golfers.
It’s an intriguing concept that aims to retain the 18-hole course and “the rights and pricing of current patrons,” while allowing development of a sports entertainment venue featuring food, beverages and activities. The city envisions a public-private project that has golfing at its core, but includes commercialization of and around the driving range that welcomes more socializing.
One company actively pursuing the city contract, Topgolf, proposes multilevel driving ranges, big-screen TVs, live entertainment and private event spaces. It’s a contemporary, pumped-up concept compared with the current Ala Wai Golf Course — and that’s not necessarily a negative, given the site’s proximity to Waikiki and accessibility for all-ages fun.
The Ala Wai Golf Course was once called the world’s busiest, with about 220,000 rounds played annually; that’s now dropped to about 120,000. Further, golf in Hawaii has been struggling after the boom years that came with Tiger Woods, when interest in golf surged in the early 2000s, and youngsters flocked to courses here and across the nation. With waning interest, it’s clear that the city’s commitment to its municipal golf courses could use help, financially.
The Ala Wai project, in addition to preserving needed open space, aims to resurge interest in golf as well as revenues to help upkeep this and Oahu’s five other public courses. The city’s request for proposals for a private firm to “design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Ala Wai Golf Course driving range and other golf-related activities” is open through the end of next month.
A handful of private partners have been identified — and the profit potential of this lively concept isn’t hard to see. Located along the Ala Wai Canal and Kapahulu Avenue, the Ala Wai course abuts bustling Waikiki, one of the world’s most iconic tourism venues, with views of that skyline, Diamond Head and the Koolaus.
“We want to enhance the revenue generated by the golf division in order to ensure the perpetuity of (municipal) golf in Hawaii,” said Guy Kaulukukui, city Department of Enterprise Services director. “Golf in general as a sport is threatened. … We are at a vanguard trying to staunch the receding tide of rounds played in Hawaii and start to grow the sport again.”
Aligned with that thinking is a new ordinance enacted this summer that allows minors under age 18 to golf for free at municipal courses once they obtain a junior golf ID card. It’s a perk that more local youths should indulge in — a challenging mental and physical activity to counter an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in our computer age.
Once the project bids come in, the price of admission will be a main consideration. It’s vital that whatever comes not be geared only for tourists and the affluent. The free junior-golfer policy was promoted as a way to get more local youths interested in this sport; any revamp of the Ala Wai course must keep that goal in sight.
For golf purists or those who have long enjoyed low-key tee times at Ala Wai, this amped-up vision might not be theirs. But let’s be real: Ala Wai is a public course in an ideal location that has much drawing potential beyond longtime players and retirees. It makes sense to get it teed up for today’s marketplace to help boost activity and increase revenues for new generations — and it just might help spark another cycle of golf popularity.
