The scenic 164-yard 17th plays toward the ocean and is protected in the front and along the sides by a huge waste area wrapping around. Out final stop was the Garden Island of Kauai, a rainy haven where Nicklaus designed both the tough Kiele Course and the less-arduous Mokihana Course at Kauai Lagoons Golf Club, part of the Kauai Marriott Resort and Beach Club. Built in the late 1980s, both are replete with mounds, bumps and hollows that were a common design feature by Nicklaus during that period. Mokihana, a par-72 course playing 6,960 yards, is the more open of the two with few forced carries. It possesses a Scottish links feel right down to the undulating greens.
Wild roosters roam the property.
Dense patches of exotic foliage on the front nine add to its unusual personality. And, of course, the finishing touch is the stone statues of animals at each hole.