By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — If you live on Maui or plan to visit sometime this year, it’s time to brush up on your short game.
Two multimillion-dollar miniature golf course parks are being proposed on the island, one in Lahaina and the other in Ma‘alaea.
Maui restaurant owner Jerome E. Metcalfe plans to build an $8 million restaurant and miniature golf course and amusement center at the Lahaina Business Park that would also feature batting cages, water sports, a rock climbing wall and specialty shops.
Meanwhile, Maui developer Lance Weisel and his wife, Stephanie, say they’re going to build a $3 million Maui Golf and Water Park with two 18-hole miniature golf courses and a bumper-boat pond on 1.4 acres in the Ma‘alaea Harbor Village shopping center. The project is scheduled to go before the Maui Urban Design Review Board on Tuesday.
Metcalfe, owner of the Rusty Harpoon in Ka‘anapali and Kahului Ale House, said his project will stretch across five lots at the business park and include a 12,000-square-foot Lahaina Ale House Restaurant to open in November. He said it will be the largest sports bar and nightclub on Maui.
The family entertainment park will open in May.
Metcalfe’s son, Chad, will be president of the entertainment park, while Chad’s wife, Lisa Metcalfe, will run a specialty shop called Hawaiian Photo Arts featuring ink-jet digital reproductions of work by local artists.
The Maui Golf and Water Park, expected to open this fall, will have a jungle theme with streams, waterfalls, bridges, rock and cave formations, and a 38-foot-high volcano. Electrically powered bumper boats will navigate a 3,000-square-foot pond.
Weisel said the courses will be developed with the help of the U.S. Pro Mini Golf Association, and he’s hoping to hold a tournament of professional miniature golfers.
The Weisels, parents of three young children, came up with the idea for the miniature golf project because they felt there aren’t a lot of things for families to do here. There is only one miniature golf course on Maui, Menehune Golf in Kahului.
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