The Ted Makalena Golf Course fell in such disrepair just several years after it opened in 1971 that it became a butt of local jokes. To wit: the family of the late legendary golfer should sue the City & County of Honolulu for embarrassing the name of the first player from Hawai'i to win a PGA Tour event.

Glenn Kakuni couldn't agree more when he first took the job as golf course superintendent at the municipal course in Waipahu six years ago. He heard unending complaints about the par-71 course at the Waipi'o Peninsula. Among them, "If it's dry, it's dusty. If it rains, it's muddy."

"When I first went there, the workers would tell me, 'We never did get any compliments, only had complaints.' They were really down," said Kakuni.

Well, surprise, surprise. The Greening of Makalena has taken place.

Golfers are now raving about the well-manicured greens and there's even grass, not weeds, on the fairways, thanks to Kakuni and his hard-working, nine-person crew. Where once you could just walk up and get a tee time, now there's a waiting list to get on.

"Now, every day, they get compliments. It's a good thing for them, and I'm happy for them," Kakuni said. "Now, they're really working hard and taking pride in what they do. They feel good and I'm happy for them."

"The fruits of Glenn's and the staff's labor is a course that has improved and the rounds of golf has increased to the point where Makalena is now the second most played municipal course on O'ahu," said Garrick Iwamuro, the city's golf course system administrator. "It could not have happened without Glenn's guidance and leadership."

The numbers tell the story of the amazing transformation. After an increase of 15,000 rounds two years ago, Makalena had 126,844 rounds of golf played in the latest fiscal year to rank second behind the Ala Wai Golf Course, which had 162,150 rounds. They were followed by 'Ewa Villages (84,385), West Loch (78,113) and Pali (75,631).

"What's interesting," adds Iwamuro, "is that with (Makalena) getting busier over the years, I've been getting a lot of phone calls telling me, don't make the course too nice because we can't get a tee time. Which is kind of funny, actually. Before, you could just walk on."

Not that Makalena will ever be confused with Waialae or even the popular Ala Wai, mind you.

There's still a lot of improvement to be done at the 150-acre golf course that sits on 20 feet of landfill of what was once an ancient Hawaiian fish pond overlooking Pearl Harbor's Middle Loch, according to Kakuni.

"Naturally, you're going to have that salt come up from underneath," said the 56-year-old Kakuni, who has spent nearly half his life working for the city at the Ala Wai, West Loch and Kahuku golf courses before becoming the head golf course superintendent at Makalena. "As long as we irrigate regularly, we won't have that salt build-up. With new pipes and sprinklers, it helps us build grass in the fairways."

There are still bare patches of dirt along the three fairways (holes 14 through 16) at the part of the course still awaiting the last phase of an automated irrigation system. Kakuni's crew is still watering those areas manually.

"To me, the most challenging job is to improve Ted Makalena," Kakuni said. "I always tell my workers, the course is improved but it's going to get better. Just work at it every day, do a little bit every day, and after a while, the improvements will magnify."

Despite the salinity of the soil, the golf course designed by Robert Baldock (he also did Mililani and Pukalani) had a few things going for it that made maintenance a little less difficult, Kakuni said.

"Today's golf courses (West Loch, 'Ewa Villages) are built to accept runoffs from housing when they get big rain. Makalena, like Pali, is old design, and not built that way. We don't have too much drainage problem." Also, he added, "The beauty is that the bunkers at Makalena are small, easy to maintain and, thankfully, the greens are not severely undulated."

There are also plans to soon install new concrete cart paths, which will eliminate the existing paths crossing the middle of fairways, according to Kakuni, a 1970 Kahuku High School graduate who majored in horticulture at the University of Hawai'i.

Married with two daughters, the quiet and unassuming Kakuni plays to an 8-handicap and always on a Sunday with his pals.

Makalena, right?

"Nope, Ala Wai. Every Sunday with my gang, and we walk," he said. "They all live in town and don't want to drive to Makalena," said the accommodating Kakuni, who lives in Mililani.

He might not play Makalena, but he walks the course every morning when he shows up for work, disdaining the use of a golf cart.

"I try to walk as many holes as I can, front nine or back nine. That's my inspection," Kakuni said. "I try to look at everything. That's how I prioritize the work to be done. If I see something that needs to be done right away, I try to take care of it at that time.

"I tell my workers, you have to improve the greens. That's the most important thing on the golf course. I want them to say, wow, look at this green. Beautiful. So we constantly try to achieve that and maintain the greens in good condition so that the golfers, when they come, will always enjoy playing."

For that, the regulars at Makalena are grateful, even if it now means having to sign up on the waiting list instead of just walking on and teeing it up without much delay.