Posted on: Thursday, July 15, 2004

Rockefeller left legacy with Mauna Kea

By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser

The death of philanthropic billionaire Laurance S. Rockefeller Sunday — yes, of that New York Rockefeller family — should not go unnoticed by anyone with an interest in Hawai'i's golf industry, especially for its impact on tourism.

Rockefeller left a legacy that has made Hawai'i the most popular golf destination after California, Florida, Arizona and South Carolina, according to a Golf Digest survey last year.

His legacy?

The Mauna Kea Beach Golf Course designed by golf's master builder, the late Robert Trent Jones.

Its signature hole, the par-3 third requiring a carry over the ocean for the heroic and a bail-out to the right for the less hardy, continues to be the most photographed and identifiable green locally. And it's perennially listed among the world's greatest holes in golf.

How Rockefeller and Jones combined to turn Mauna Kea Beach from black lava fields into a world-class golf course and resort is now part of Hawai'i golf legend.

I had the privilege of hearing it first hand from Jones when he visited the Big Island resort during its 25th anniversary in 1989.

William F. Quinn, Hawai'i's first state governor, in 1960 asked Rockefeller, then chairman of RockResorts Inc., if he could build a major resort that would attract tourists to the Islands.

Two years later Rockefeller turned to Jones, who had designed 10 other golf courses for him, including Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico, and asked him to come up with a layout worthy of the resort.

Jones remembered flying over the Kohala Coast with Rockefeller. As they looked down, Rockefeller saw Kaunaoa Bay and remarked, "That's the kind of beach I'm looking for."

Later, as he stood on a barren lava field overlooking the Pacific and was caught up with its beauty at the site where the third hole eventually would be, Jones told the business-minded billionaire, "Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, it'll be the most beautiful hole in the world."

Jones called the third "one of the best par 3s I've ever designed."

He recalled banging two pieces of lava together and when they crumbled, he knew the terrain could be crushed down to form the base and perfect drainage for a golf course.

With its pioneering success, Mauna Kea Beach became the flagship of a string of golf courses up and down the Kona Coast, turning West Hawai'i into a golf destination second only to Maui locally.

Rockefeller's important legacy is not without irony.

In today's environmentally sensitive times when development of golf courses can stir heated debate on the Big Island, as in the case of Hokuli'a, Rockefeller is remembered at his death as more of a noted conservationist than someone who did so much for tourism and golf in Hawai'i.