HARDEST Golf Course EVER? | Adventures in Golf Season 8 [Video]

0:00 | hi I’m Eric and this is adventures and golf it is said that the golfer’s main

0:07 | opponent is nature and in this episode she’s fighting back

0:41 | welcome [Music]

0:52 | aboard there’s a part of me that feels like this was meant to be a golf course

0:57 | I’ve always had that feeling here

1:03 | I will go play a few holes uh by myself and in the right lighting when the sun’s

1:09 | setting through these mountains you feel like you’re the luckiest person

1:18 | alive there is an element where you know nature wants to take it back and so

1:25 | there’s like a yin and a Yang um and there’s where my role is I’m like

1:31 | that Center trying to find that balance between nature and the golf course

1:37 | because if nature does take it back the golf course will be lost

1:46 | forever and so that’s my job to stop

1:54 | that in 1987 a Japanese Investment Company hired Architects dick newon in

2:00 | Jack Tut Hill to design coao Golf Club their mission to build a worldclass golf

2:05 | course inside of a 242 acre nature conservancy at the foot of the coala

2:11 | mountains in aahu after opening in 1992 it would go on to rank as a top 100

2:18 | public golf course but it would also pick up a very different distinction as one of the most difficult courses in the

2:25 | world this is no longer that Golf Course so this is the 15th green right

2:32 | here how long did the back nine go without any care about 2 years yeah you

2:38 | can’t really put on that yeah I don’t think so this is Les Jeremiah the current Superintendent at coala and he’s

2:46 | giving us our first look around the course a course that has been closed to the public since 2020 why did the course

2:53 | close uh they had been through so many people uh trying to to operate this

3:00 | place and be profitable and uh no one was has been

3:06 | able to do that when the course was built Japanese investment in Hawaii was at an all-time

3:12 | high there was talk of million dooll memberships and lavish events to be held at the $20 million Clubhouse but in the

3:19 | early ’90s the Japanese economic Bubble Burst which forced Kau to be opened as a

3:24 | public course coupled with punishing rainfall and a 162 slope rating more on

3:31 | that later the course was sent into foreclosure just 2 years after it opened

3:37 | there’s a part of it that probably is not marketable to you know your average

3:43 | golfer if you’re just starting or you know you’re 20 handicapper 15 20

3:48 | handicapper you got to bring at least 25 50 balls with you it’s one of those things they they need to get in as an

3:55 | experience but it’s not one of those courses where they go I want to play it again next to own the

4:02 | course was a Hong Kong Investment Group that was able to keep the course going by focusing on marketing local charity

4:09 | tournaments and a successful restaurant and catering business but the demands of

4:14 | course upkeep continued and in 2006 they jumped at the chance to sell to the

4:19 | current owner the First Presbyterian Church of

4:25 | Honolulu in what was one of the strangest sales of its kind first PR Ian

4:30 | became the first and only church in the world to own a golf course but unfortunately it wasn’t so that the

4:36 | congregation could quickly jump out for nine after Sunday service this sale gave

4:41 | them the 110,000 ft Clubhouse and 365 parking spaces needed for their growing

4:48 | congregation leaving the course as an afterthought so much so that the tea times were actually reduced on Sundays

4:55 | to create more parking for worshippers and if the third time was the arm for the owners it would be twice

5:01 | that for finding someone to run the golf course mostly due to the cost of Maintenance no one lasted very long the

5:08 | rain is is oh my God it’s we get like anywhere from 75 to over 125 Ines of

5:15 | rain here so this is a very high maintenance facility if you want to drive the quality to a different level

5:22 | so we’re doing things a bit differently here like we’ve grown out the bunkers so there’s no sand traps to maintain other

5:29 | than the turf on the faces we’ve Shrunk The Greens down a bit to reduce the square footage so on the front line on

5:35 | the front line to keep cost down only the front nine receives any detailed maintenance the back nine gets just

5:42 | enough mowing to keep the shape of a golf course it’s overgrown and wild with encroaching borders all part of a

5:50 | strategy the latest course operator hopes will keep Kau from disappearing altogether what is kmr what is this

5:56 | school of golf here this is uh Kevin’s initials Kevin is the owner operator of

6:05 | the kmr school of golf for an annual fee you be can become a member

6:14 | and you can you can have unlimited range balls and you can play on the front line

6:20 | anytime you want and then he he offers uh for an

6:25 | additional fee lessons on the driving range or as you play

6:30 | he used to be a golf professional years ago out of wildlife so he he is a pretty well-known

6:37 | golf professional in the islands and’s he’s taught a lot of great players seems kind of crazy to leave such a important

6:44 | position to come out here yeah I I think that one you need to ask Kevin

6:51 | about I think I’m I’m I’m a little bit of an outcast amongst teaching pros and

6:57 | golf Professionals in general why would you leave what’s what’s probably one of the best teaching gigs not only on the

7:04 | islands but I mean you’re teaching at a PGA Tour golf course I started to teach

7:11 | these really special talented Junior golfers and they started to win the big

7:17 | events local events here in Hawaii and I became the Golf Digest best teacher of

7:23 | the state and so all of a sudden now I have a tremendous amount of demand and I

7:28 | couldn’t control my lesson rate that was controlled by the club I mean I was giving I gave 2,000 lessons a year at Yi

7:37 | uh which is outrageous I might have been the most busy teacher in the

7:42 | world two fingers give it some Whip and at some point are you just like

7:47 | I’ve had enough or I have a new opportunity or what how does that I saw a documentary on uh PBS about the

7:55 | juliard school of music and um the teacher was being interviewed like we’re

8:02 | doing now and they talked about when she met um Isaac Pearlman fous violinist for

8:10 | the first time and she said that at that moment she knew you know she would just

8:17 | dedicate her life for that kind of talent right seeing something that special and I kind of felt that way with

8:23 | I without with what I had with my junior golfers and so 2003 I kind of put all my

8:29 | playing on the on the back burner and my goals and I and I really wanted to you

8:35 | know give these talented Juniors a chance to train you know properly which

8:41 | was basically every day so Kevin picked up his clubs and moved his school into the Kau Clubhouse and that was when

8:51 | 2003 of the two Bukowski which was your favorite you know that’s a good question

8:56 | because it changes for me I wanted to share that with the junior golfers so I put those in my office as a daily

9:04 | reminder there is a light somewhere it might not be much light but it beats Darkness beyond the watch I want those

9:12 | kids to know if you’re going to play this game of golf it’s not going to be an easy Road there’s a lot of fight a

9:17 | lot of perseverance you got to give up a lot and then in the end it’s going to be worth it this group has like six Pros

9:25 | you know so all of them had different Journeys in their lives some some of them have gone on to be doctors and

9:32 | lawyers and some of them were were um

9:37 | tour Pros so Lawrence Chan played the corn fairy tour and Tad

9:43 | fujikawa almost won the Sony Open at age 16 Marissa Chow is still playing she’s

9:49 | been on the Epson tour and then next to her Stephanie koono she played on the LPGA you know it seems like yesterday

9:56 | that they were right here right in this room so yep that’s a part of they’re a part

10:02 | of this place we started with just five kids in 2003 and then we ended up with

10:09 | about 30 kids in 2008 then 2016 I got my last four go off to

10:18 | college and then I wanted to get into teaching the adults again and that was

10:23 | fine until Co hit the economic downturn of 201 20

10:29 | would prove to be too much for the hospitality group running the course and just 3 years into a 10-year lease they

10:36 | terminated their contract without an operator once more the church announced that on September

10:43 | 30th 2020 the course would be permanently closed so I have to now um work with the

10:52 | church and uh basically they said well we’re happy with you you can stay here

10:57 | and you know and do your thing until we decide what we’re going to do and uh so

11:03 | I said all right and now I’m going to be a golf course operator and make it an

11:08 | amenity to the golf school and here I am have you ever heard of anything like

11:14 | this no no I haven’t heard anything like this and you’ve been soaking in golf for decades yeah oh yeah yeah I mean it’s

11:21 | yeah my whole life really so how long when they when they proposed you you run the golf course how long did you think

11:27 | about it before saying yes so so that I had about a month to think about it right and so um yeah I didn’t realize

11:34 | what I was you know what I was getting [Music]

11:39 | into it’s a very small operation that we have here we got a couple of walk mowers

11:45 | a couple of zero turn rotary mowers that we use I had to buy a lot of equipment

11:50 | mowers and you know gosh pretty much everything flag sticks hole Cutters t-

11:57 | markers a full 18 course would have twice as much stuff or yeah three

12:03 | times I thought well we just mow it fertilize the greens everything will be

12:08 | fine right doesn’t it doesn’t have to be Wily right it just has to be you know decent how many hours of your week does

12:15 | uh coow take a right now I I’m in a uh in a part-time capacity here so uh I’m

12:23 | contracted to do around around 16 to 20 hours a week here so which is which is

12:29 | fine for this size of an operations just to make it decent it just it takes uh

12:35 | yeah it takes a lot of effort a lot of people a lot of equipment a lot of expertise I’ve come from some real

12:42 | top-notch operations and uh so this is a bit of a step back but that’s what makes

12:47 | this one fun we’ve had one challenge after another you know just with like getting the irrigation system working

12:53 | getting the water back on the greens right yeah simple things like this they

12:59 | they took weeks and weeks of problem solving it’s a very uh limited budget at

13:05 | the moment but we’re working to build it up as we can increase in in membership we do have plans to increase the the

13:11 | maintenance uh budget

13:17 | here hey I want to take a quick second and thank United Airlines for allowing

13:23 | us to travel the world these last eight years and make this show it’s truly been an adventure

13:29 | so for your next adventure consider booking your trip on the airline with more International destinations than any

13:35 | other on united.com Kevin is definitely not your average

13:41 | course operator but he’s not your average golfer either pretty much all my life golf has

13:48 | been sort of my spirituality I got into

13:53 | yoga because I wanted to prepare myself for the champions tour and get flexible

14:00 | and strong and balanced and then having this connection to the mind the body the

14:07 | breath this has all helped me a lot staying calm and control my emotions on

14:13 | the [Music] course and handan was just a challenging

14:19 | pose that just called to me just amazing sense of freedom and

14:26 | meditation you’re on this weird precipice of

14:31 | danger and Stillness and calmness and yet you have to focus and

14:38 | constantly be aware of your legs and your and your center of gravity and and

14:43 | your alignment so in some ways there are a lot of similarities between the golf swing and doing the handstand practice

14:51 | and so that’s probably why in yoga that probably most drew me to

14:57 | it 200 16 I decided to work back with adults again I had to get away from

15:04 | junior golf because at any given moment the parent can pull the plug and I never

15:12 | see that child again and I’ve spent six days a week with that child for six

15:17 | years and then all of a sudden they’re gone that’s tough it’s like that’s that’s real

15:24 | loss so I became a yoga teacher to learn more about the anatomy and how to make

15:30 | people more flexible so that they could learn the golf swing that I

15:36 | [Applause] teach you’re Barefoot out here on the Range yeah oh yeah the shoe in golf can

15:43 | sometimes be like a cheat and so to hit balls with your bare feet you’re going

15:48 | to get better balance but to feel the Earth in your toes and the grass there’s

15:54 | a great feeling tell me about your mentors Ma so

16:00 | Mac comes in around right after I start at w maybe 87 I meet Mac for those that

16:05 | don’t who ma o Grady is yeah Mel Grady is kind of this he’s an enigma he’s got a

16:13 | reputation that is uh quite different difficult at times um I think he thought

16:21 | he had the perfect swing um biomechanically and anatomically how can

16:27 | I not be contented with with that expose of art sassan from the heavens he was

16:34 | promoting his methodology to young young Pros like myself it was very very

16:40 | interesting and of course very charismatic very easy to be drawn into

16:45 | his narrative and so yeah I started to learn from him and I teach that method

16:52 | in a very general filtered down version uh that people can

16:57 | understand it’s not open it’s a golf school just a golf school just a driving range and that’s it no no we have front

17:03 | line open so you’re not familiar with kmr school of golf no I’m not I I live in Seattle but I played here oh I want

17:11 | to say 20 plus years ago okay and was dying to play the course again I heard

17:16 | someone told me the back Nine’s closed and I’m like oh what’s going on we took it over so now the front nine is an

17:23 | amenity to the golf school so you join the golf school it’s a membership one year and then you can play as much golf

17:29 | as you like the front nine only yes front nine only well thank you it’s good to know all right thanks all right

17:35 | you’re welcome I probably join you but I’m not I’m only here for three weeks all right so like are you surprised that the course isn’t operational anymore

17:42 | yeah yeah I kind of disappointed I wanted to get out here and maybe play it

17:47 | again I I grew up in the east coast my father is a member of Pine Valley okay has a slope rating of 150 and I said I

17:54 | got to play a course it’s 160 slope and so I had to play it then

17:59 | and uh that’s what brought me back here this one has a very interesting history because it was rated at a 162 this is

18:07 | Zeke Schmo the director of golf and slope ratings for the Hawaii State Golf Association in the beginning they had a

18:14 | lot of uh number crunching that they had to do so when they finished the rating they came up with a 162 rating let the

18:20 | golf course know that that was their rating when they started looking into the slope they couldn’t find 162 155 was

18:27 | the highest so they called back to the usgaa and spoke to the guy who developed the system a guy by the name of Dean K

18:34 | and he said well it’s mathematically impossible to get there so he came out here and rated the course and it dropped

18:41 | to 155 in its simplest form ratings agents test what a scratch and bogey

18:46 | golfer would score on the same course the slope rating is based on a comparison between both of them there’s

18:52 | some multiplying involved but the theoretical minimum slope rating would be a 55 for the easiest course and the

18:58 | hard AR would sit at 155 was it easy to believe that this is

19:04 | the hardest course in the world yes so where are we going uh we’re going

19:11 | to number six wow I can see why you like this

19:17 | screen that’s your Landing Zone from the T and you got to hit over now there a

19:23 | lot of guys won’t they just won’t be or women won’t be able to make that shot and that’s what at the minimum perfect

19:29 | drive it’s 1 180m that’s that’s Cola yeah so that’s what makes Cola special

19:35 | and branded the toughest course in the nation I mean do you think this course was just too hard and that’s why it

19:40 | closed there is no question to that anybody that wants to pick play this just wants to play it to say I played

19:46 | the toughest course in Hawaii that’s it all right well let’s uh let’s play a

19:52 | home see how it goes

20:10 | I think the hole turns a little left that should be oh yeah it does dog legs be on the left side the biggest reason I

20:15 | wanted to keep this course alive for nine holes is to give people playing lessons there are some people

20:23 | that they only practice all they do is hit balls on the Range and hit balls at

20:30 | on the course and they don’t play golf in a traditional manner what do you think of that I think that’s fine yeah

20:37 | so maybe that’s their meditation their stress relief they want to master maybe

20:42 | hitting the golf ball and getting the ball in the hole for 18 holes and posting a score maybe that doesn’t

20:49 | interest them that much yeah I can associate with that do you play golf these days oh yeah I play every day

20:54 | where do you play I play here of course no but do you play for yeah I play with them but you play for you no no when was

21:00 | the last time you played 18 for you yeah I don’t know if I’ve ever done that probably practice rounds at tournaments

21:07 | I might do [Music] that oh that’s not as good as I can hit

21:14 | [Music] it D if I make an eagle on a course that

21:19 | was like closed maybe it’s an albatross that was very nice that was a good shot right I was impressed by that

21:26 | what’s the future with this property yeah I mean I’m not um it’s a transition

21:32 | period right now uh with what the church is doing what is coala to you seeing what

21:39 | it was in the you know during its peak time and then seeing it now it’s kind of

21:44 | like uh in Hiatus but uh we’re hopeful one day that there’ll be someone with a

21:52 | vision to come in and uh rescue us but in the meantime uh we need to shoot for

21:58 | a profitable operation lessons free range balls and unlimited

22:04 | golf for $1,500 a year and something dollars

22:10 | a month yeah yeah why doesn’t everyone join yeah what yeah I mean that really is the

22:16 | question I mean what would you say the quality of the course is well again I try to I try to make sure people realize

22:22 | that you know it’s a practice course and it’s a little rough it’s a little rustic it has a naturalistic feel which I think

22:31 | I which a lot of people like we’re not like overly manicured and with Les’s help we’ve revived it quite a bit when

22:38 | was the last time you walked around over here it’s been a while it’s been a while my focus is more on the front so

22:44 | yeah the amount of moss yeah I said you you get anywhere

22:51 | from 75 to 125 in of rain plus so and it doesn’t dry out it stays shaded yeah so

22:59 | and and I mean I’m sure like operationally if it was functional you would people be clearing all the stuff

23:06 | yeah that’s what was you know mentioning earlier right the the normal operations you got a lot of hand detail they got to

23:12 | cut this stuff back and keep it you know semi manicured uh and that costs money yeah

23:19 | cost money and people say well you know who who pays for the mowers who does who

23:24 | does the mowing who does all the maintenance you know it all comes from me and my le you know it’s all it’s there’s no

23:31 | million dooll billionaire owner it’s just me and then I have a staff so now

23:39 | you have a responsibility also you know to provide them with some kind of

23:45 | stability and income and so that’s another responsibility I never

23:51 | had what’s going through your head uh just thinking of the past how it

23:56 | used to be I feel that we are hanging on to

24:03 | hope that we can take this in a Direction Where We can revive this

24:10 | property to the way it deserves to be we’ll do the best we can to to

24:16 | um you know keep the legend alive I guess fourth hardest hole in the world

24:22 | that this is number four all right I got to think about this but here all right little left to right

24:29 | seems like they’re grabbing more than I think it’s going to be

24:36 | slow oh he did nice birdie thank you

24:42 | sir man let’s go

24:51 | Zeke we used to think that golf was a game for stuffy old dudes with Argyle pants or that golf courses were just a

24:58 | great place to make out but over the years we found that golf is actually an adventure whether you play in your

25:04 | backyard or thousands of miles [Music] away so when we set out to make a club

25:11 | we didn’t look around at what everyone else was doing we made it for us for

25:17 | everyone join random golf club for events tournaments and Golf Course benefits in your area

25:29 | you said yesterday people didn’t think you could pull this off yeah they still think my

25:38 | peers you know do you think you can do it I think I’ve already done it I mean I’ve already been here three years and

25:44 | it’s only getting better so using the golf course as an amenity to the golf school and creating memberships I could

25:51 | have easily just taken another teaching pro job somewhere else so there’s no part of you that just wished it was

25:57 | different I mean I wouldn’t consider myself like

26:02 | you know the king of a kingdom but it’s just me yeah so my vision can really you

26:09 | know come through um I don’t have an excuse Royal Hawaiian next door that’s

26:16 | fine why why are they fine what’s the difference in the business model I think they’re struggling

26:22 | too curious we travel just 5 miles down the road to the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club

26:27 | to see it for our elv so when did this course open uh it

26:32 | opened up in 1993 redesigned by Greg Norman and Pete

26:37 | d uh originally designed the course so opened a year after col out correct yes

26:44 | mhm I mean so my big question is like uh what’s the difference why is one now uh

26:51 | you know like a a crazy Garden that you can’t do anything on and the other is a

26:56 | beautiful golf course that people pay a lot of money to play so where the courses are located uh between the two mountain ranges as you can see the

27:03 | clouds just hang and rain is a big issue out here okay um massive amounts of

27:10 | rainfall especially during the winter seasons and do you get less than col drastically less than Co out interesting

27:18 | mhm already I can tell this course is different I don’t know if it’s the

27:23 | proximity to the mountains or it could be the fact that there’s no mths all

27:30 | over uh there’s no branches in the cart path all in all

27:37 | uh you know it’s a it’s an experience you can take for granted which is that this golf course is open for

27:47 | business how long have you been the head pro here six years okay so you were here

27:52 | before Cola closed yes I was [Music]

27:59 | all right oh work are you at all like scratching your head as to why they

28:05 | closed I mean I’m not really quite sure what happened uh why they closed but I

28:10 | mean it’s hard to get golfers to go out there and play even in the summer months too with the amount of rain that they

28:16 | get over there the conditions are they can be pretty pretty nasty have you

28:21 | gotten better here because the course is harder short game yes yes absolutely

28:29 | I’ve I’ve learned to not just grip it and rip it actually play the shot and

28:35 | maneuver my golf ball around the course oh solid roll good speed nice how

28:40 | different is the maintenance over there as compared to the maintenance here I mean it’s difficult to maintain a property as vast as this is um you got

28:48 | to know what you’re doing out here and the super knows what he’s doing and he’s doing a good job so I give him a lot of

28:54 | credit for what he does can cam live how many hoing ones you got long uh three let’s

29:05 | go get

29:10 | left it’s all right be all right easy up and down you chip that in for birdie what do you think is going to

29:16 | happen over there I mean a lot of locals would like to see it reopen um only time will

29:26 | tell you know I’m going to try my best to keep things as is but yeah I mean the

29:33 | course is like my life I mean this this golf school um the golf course my the staff

29:42 | my students not that I I don’t mind it because I love what I do so it’s not

29:47 | like you know it doesn’t feel overbearing or overwhelming at all um

29:54 | and again I look at it always as this amazing opportunity yeah yeah so I

29:59 | always remind myself of that but I’m here s days a week often times 12 hours a day um and you know for a lot of

30:07 | people that would be way too much but for me it’s just normal

30:16 | [Music] now no matter what happens to COA I know

30:22 | one thing’s for sure this could be my last chance to ever play The Back Nine and I’m not missing

30:35 | [Music]

30:55 | second as I weighed through the uncm fairways of of this golf course and wonder if it’s perhaps more of a golf

31:01 | corpse I am reminded of a line from Charles Bukowski’s poem hanging on the wall of Kevin’s office The Laughing

31:09 | heart you can’t beat death but you can beat Death in life sometimes your life

31:16 | is your life know it while you have it you are marvelous the gods wait to

31:21 | Delight in you

31:30 | [Music]

31:52 | [Music]

31:57 | for

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HARDEST Golf Course EVER? | Adventures in Golf Season 8 [Video]

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