How Robert Trent Jones and Laurance Rockefeller produced Hawaii’s signature hole, No. 3 at Mauna Kea
On a summer day in 1960, golf in Hawaii had its “aha” moment. Flying over the Big Island with an eye on development, Laurance Rockefeller—and his chosen architect, Robert Trent Jones—spotted a perfect crescent beach. Once on the ground, however, prospects dimmed. The undulating, barren terrain was covered with brown volcanic rock. Rockefeller doubted that a course could be constructed on such a site. Trent Jones showed him how it could be done—and four years later, they created Hawaii’s greatest golf course, along with one of Earth’s most spectacular par threes. Here’s the backstory.
Jones, the preeminent architect of the era, had earlier built Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico with Rockefeller, but routing golf holes atop desert-like, volcanic stone terrain was a different matter. In response to Rockefeller’s anxious query about the golf course’s viability, Jones was blunt.
“It depends on whether I can work with lava rock, if it can be crushed and used as a soil base to grow grass,” said Jones. “If it can, and there is enough water, I can build a golf course.”
Jones’s son Robert Trent “Bobby” Jones Jr. remembered what happened next. “Dad picked up two lava stones and pummeled them together. They fractured. The pieces crumbled and fell to the ground.”
“Yes, we can do it,” said Trent Jones. Golf at Mauna Kea forged ahead.
Reflecting on the process, the elder Jones wrote in 1988: “We determined that, with enough water, the lava rock could support plant life. Using a bulldozer fitted with a specially ribbed roller [that Jones and construction superintendent Homer Flint invented], we crushed the lava into a red dust the consistency of talcum powder and spread almost a foot of it over the course… We mixed it with coral sand from nearby Kawaihae Harbor and put the seed down. When it sprouted, we got the cleanest grass you’ve ever seen. There were no weeds, because nothing had ever grown in the material before.”
With 300 feet of elevation change at his disposal, Jones routed holes up and down the lava flows. He bent seven of them to the left and six to the right. Eight greens were perched atop hills, most well-fortified by bunkers. The aerial approach was a must, often with an extra club or two amid the coastal breezes. Skillful players relished the shotmaking challenges, yet there were plenty of downhill holes that let anyone in on the fun.
Nevertheless, one hole catapulted Mauna Kea into rarified air: the par-three 3rd. Jones called it his “gem among eighteen jewels,” and that was understating matters. From the original back tee of 250 yards (272 today), the hole demanded a blast over the pounding Pacific surf from an isolated tee box set into 5,000-year-old lava rock. The target: a gargantuan, kidney-shaped green ringed with bunkers. One version of the oft-told story states that when Trent Jones stood on the spot that became the tee box and looked out at that second lava promontory which became the green site, he said to Rockefeller, “Larry, if you allow me to build a golf course here, this will be the most beautiful hole in the world.” With enhancements from a recent Robert Trent Jones II renovation that restored beach and ocean cove views, it may well be.
“My dad was into drama,” says Jones Jr. “When he saw the two rock outcroppings, he routed the golf course to get to that. Any architect would kill for that site. It’s one of the iconic holes in the game.”
Mauna Kea Golf Course opened in December 1964, hosting a “Big Three” event with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player, the top three golfers in the world. The edited match aired nationwide in March 1965. Nicklaus triumphed, with a 275 total, 13-under par. Much of the lore revolved around the signature 3rd hole, with several contemporary accounts asserting that Player couldn’t handle the carry, prompting producers to move to a forward tee.
“Many of my fondest memories from Mauna Kea are of playing the beautiful par-three hole over the ocean,” said Player, 50 years later. “I had never seen anything like that before.” No one had, Gary.
