Discovery Harbour Golf & Country Club

Overview: Discovery Harbour is an open, coastal Big Island course on the Kaʻū district’s sloping terrain. Robert Trent Jones Sr. laid out an 18-hole, par-72 course with no water hazards, allowing wind, elevation and the natural contours of the land to shape the round. The fairways look toward the Pacific, while the exposed setting makes club selection important.

History: The community received final approval in 1972, the clubhouse was built that year, and the course opened in the same period. Local history records stonework by William Apo Young and walls that preserve the remains of ancient heiau along the fourth and tenth fairways. The club later reopened under its current members-and-guests model in 2022.

Did You Know? The course was developed with a naturalist approach rather than a water-heavy resort template. Ancient Hawaiian structures and dry-stone features remain part of the landscape around the routing, giving several holes a direct connection to the site’s earlier cultural history.