"The goose wanted it both ways," reported observers of this little snippet from the world of nature. It was a glimpse into the survival of threatened species worthy of a National Geographic special. But the really remarkable thing is that the observers were not ornithologists or Fish and Wildlife agents or nature photographers. They're greenskeepers at the Hapuna Golf Course at Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii.
The kolea and nene, just two of the many new species of birds that have arrived and thrived since construction of the course designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay began, are symbolic of a movement toward environmentally friendly golf courses in Hawaii that is evident at several new and existing courses around the 50th State.
"Over-all, biologists tell us that the number of birds has doubled," reports Bill Melke of Mauna Kea Properties, developer of Hapuna. "The number of new species has also doubled here, including the American cardinal, barred dove, Japanese white-eye, golden plover, house sparrow and, my favorite, the pueo, or Hawaiian owl."
The pueo is especially significant in Hawaii. The owl, a totem of the ancient Hawaiian religion, remains an aumakua , or family deity. The reason for more birds in the arid lava hillside above Mauna Kea is simple: The golf course improved bird habitat.
The legendary Palmer and design partner Seay furthered their reputation for building challenging but eco-friendly golf holes at The Links at Kuilima, their new course at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu. They built the Links around and over Punaho`olapa Marsh, a nature sanctuary that is home to at least five endangered birds: koloa, nene, stilt, coot and galliinule, as well as the black-crowned night heron, egret and great frigate bird. The Links is the only course in Hawaii with interpretive nature signs "I like golf and I like birds," says Sig Kramer, the Honolulu graphic artist who created the signs. "A round at the Links is a special golf experience."
The Links also happens to be rated the third-toughest course in Hawaii. Which brings us to another trend that makes playing golf in Hawaii more enjoyable than ever: The new generation of courses -- at least 20 courses have opened around the state since 1990, compared to eight new courses during the entire decade of the `80s -- are more challenging and feature more creative designs than many of the older courses. There are so many great new courses, in fact, that years from now golfers will look back on the `90s as the Golden Age of course design in Hawaii.
The most daring of all is Ko`olau Golf Course on Windward Oahu. At the base of the steep, fluted Ko`olau Mountains, Dick Nugent created a course that is rated the second most difficult in the United States! Nugent also discovered a semi-brackish aquifer on the course, which provides irrigation.
Another notable newcomer is Poipu Bay on the sunny south shore of Kauai. The Robert Trent Jones Jr. design, rated among Hawaii's 10 best by Golf Digest, sweeps along a stretch of seaside cliffs reminiscent of Pebble Beach, but more colorful. From those cliffs, golfers regularly see three other endangered species -- monk seals sunning on the beach, green sea turtles swimming just outside the shore break and humpback whales leaping free of the sea just offshore. And nene and koloa have taken up residence in ponds around the course. An ancient fishing heiau , or temple, has also been preserved.
Yet another Palmer design, The Bay Course at Kapalua on the island of Maui, is the first in Hawaii and just the second in the nation to be certfied by the Audubon Society of New York's National Cooperative Sanctuary Program. Kapalua's Village Course has returned 16 acres to a natural state, creating habitat for birds and animals. The VillageCourse and the new Plantation Course at Kapalua have also applied for Audubon certification and expect it soon. Criteria include watershed enhancement, creating animal habitat, integrated pest management and preserving and planting native plant species. At the Plantation, wild native grasses are part of the design. (On the other hand, designers Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore built putting greens at the Platation with multi-undulated Maui potato chips in mind.)
So many birds sing and twitter at Kapalua -- at least 20 species have been identified at the Bay Course alone -- that director of golf Gary Planos has instituted a first-of-its-kind scorecard that includes a bird-watcher's check list of species that might be seen during your round. He calls the program, appropriately enough, "Birdies and Eagles."
As Planos says: "Now you can score a birdie even if you don't shoot under par on any of the holes."
With so much wildlife around, and in a state that leads the nation in species extinctions, Hawaii golf courses are increasingly sensitive to the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.
Short Honma, long-time director of maintenance at Kapalua, offers two salient statistics: Chemical use on his courses has been cut by 50 percent and the number of birds that wildlife biologists have surveyed has doubled. "Golf courses can and should take the lead in protecting the wildlife that call these courses home," says Honma. "Caring for our courses is secondary to our need to protect those who inhabit them. It's not only our desire to preserve the environment, it's our responsibility. And if it's good for the birds, it has to be good for birdie-seeking golfers, too."
That attitude is spreading. A major topic at a recent meeting of the Hawaii Golf Course Superintendents Association was how to break away from golf courses' chemical dependency. They're even listening to several of the small organic farmers who grow much of the produce used in local fine-dining restaurants.
Robin Nelson, Rodney Wright and Neil Haworth, the only golf course architects based in Hawaii, have been leaders in the eco-golf movement. At their new Sandalwood course at Waikapu, Maui, they planted hundreds of sandalwood trees. It was the first substantial planting of sandalwood, a native Hawaiian species, since it was harvested nearly to extinction by 1825, the fragrant wood sold by the monarchy to China.
At the Ewa Beach International Golf Club on Oahu, Nelson, Wright & Haworth planted fairways and common areas -- 85 percent of the course -- with paspalum, an Australian hybrid of Bermuda grass that thrives on brackish water up to 50 percent saline. The result is a savings of millions of gallons of freshwater -- which also makes good business sense. They also preserved ancient Hawaiian fishing shelters on the first hole.
And at West Loch, the endangered Hawaiian stilt has taken up residence in the new wetlands that Nelson, Wright & Haworth created adjacent to the course on the banks of Pearl Harbor.
Golf courses have another benefit for even non-golfers. Robert Trent Jones Sr., who created the original Mauna Kea course and Royal Kaanapali North on Maui, has done studies that show a golf course lowers the ambient temperature of an area by five degrees. Which means that residents of the area use less electricity for fans and air-conditioning.
All of this will probably come as a major surprise to people who drive past a golf course and see not open green space that contributes to bird and animal habitat while also fighting global warming, but a glorified chemical dump that steals land from the poor for the recreation of the rich. In fact, the platform of the Hawaii Green Party, which fielded 17 candidates in Hawaii's November 1992 elections and received enough votes to put it on the ballot in upcoming elections, included a plank that called for a moratorium on construction of new golf courses.
"The thing that upsets me is that I'm a strong environmentalist and I'm getting a bad rap because I design golf courses," says Nelson. "When we build a course, it makes the land better for birds and animals than it was before. A golf course can be good for the environment."
The Ewa Beach site, for instance, "was nearly impassable with weeds and kiawe (a thorny scrub tree) and coral, there was no topsoil. It had become a dumping area for junk cars and rubbish, and there was some crime in the area, usually late at night," Nelson says.
"More to the point," adds Wright, "the site had been a toxic waste dump of questionable origin. We found a lot of powdered chlorine lying around, which we sent to a chemical disposal plant."
Today, it is a green gem, one of Oahu's best two or three best courses. It's also ironic that when the arid lava and scrub hillsides through which Palmer and Seay built the Hapuna course received a wee bit of water, wild ilima, the delicate unscented yellow-orange blossom reserved for making leis for royalty in old Hawaii, began to sprout where only the oldest of old-timers knew it had ever existed.
As the Rev. Abraham Akaka, who blessed the original Mauna Kea course in 1964, said at the blessing of Hapuna in the fall of `92: "The native seeds that lay dormant in the ground for so many years, the royal ilima, have blossomed again. A blessing is the connection between God and man. This golf course is a blessing. It's water has caused God's seeds to grow."
You don't have to be a supporter of the Sierra Club or Nature Conservancy to appreciate Hawaii's new generation of golf courses and maintenance practices. But neither do you have to be a golfer to appreciate them. And if you happen to be a golfer with an eco-conscience, playing golf in the 50th State is the best of both worlds.
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