Starting off by saying I'm pretty sure I played a new layout/ design...

- cement tee pads in both long (blue) & short (white) positions for each hole
- fairly easy to interpret signs (printed & laminated) posted at each tee pad, yeah both long & short as well as "next tee" arrows (yes, plural, as there's one for each next long & short) on each basket
- good mix of technical shots over/ around/ through trees & woods with a few mandatories across the course, water holes, blind holes, and wide open fairways... even a tunnel shot or few and lava boulders surrounding one of the otherwise open baskets (hole 6, I think)
- some fun creativity with hole design including a suspended basket on 13
- absolutely stunning scenery!
- friendly, helpful staff at the clubhouse with some knowledge of disc golf
- good selection of course stamped Innova discs available for sale in the clubhouse
- a few benches throughout the course
- multi day pass available

- could use better quality signs as the laminated paper ones don't hold up well to the tropical climate... I imagine that might be in the future works considering the effort it seems they're putting into the course
- the price increase... $30 now for non-residents! But at least that's for the day and not just a round
- benches on more holes would be nice
- watch out for Ne-nes ¯_(ツ)_/¯

As I mentioned in the beginning, I think I'm reviewing a new layout compared to previous reviews.
The course provided a fun challenge for this amateur level player... I logged a few birdies, got nervous with the water shots yet still had to wade a couple feet to grab a disc despite my caution, and hit a few trees. Even the wide open shots offered the opportunity to "play" with the terrain a bit.
Course was almost empty, saw one pair of players that just happened to be a couple holes behind.
Seems like that part of Makai might be slated to be a permanent DG course, all the bunkers are mostly grown over with grass now and I couldn't really imagine disc & ball golfers not getting in each other's way.
The clubhouse has a printed map they were happy to provide. I finally downloaded UDisc and the mapping was up to date and quite accurate.

I wish I had had the time to throw more than one round on this amazingly beautiful course but I guess I'll just have to go back to Kauai

-Multiple teeing areas on every hole
-Some risk and reward water shots and mando holes
-Friendly and helpful staff
-Discs available for purchase
-Some wooded holes
-Decent use of elevation

-Was not allowed to rent a cart despite perfect conditions. Given that the gold layout is over 9000ft and you're baking in the Hawaiian sun, this would have been a nice touch.
-$25 greens fee, but it's worth it considering the Weliweli course down near Poipu is such a wasteland.
-Shot shaping was very limited to mostly straight shots and didn't utilize much of the available woods strategically.
-Maps, but no signage. Confusing layout unless you're constantly looking at your map after every hole.
-No benches

High expectations for Kauai's "best course" were met with the reality that Kauai doesn't fully recognize how great of courses they could really have with a little elbow grease and an experienced course designer. The course seems to have been just tossed into the fairways of a golf course without much thought of wanting to truly utilize the trees and elevation to their advantage. Regardless, it didn't stop me from having a great time! Still definitely worth the trip to the North Shore to experience everything it has to offer. If the surf is low, check out Queens Bath early (6-7am) in the morning before it gets busy and play a round at the Princeville course afterwards!

A groundskeeper informed me that the course will likely undergo a design change in the near future with the first 6 holes moving to the backside of the course with the other holes.

If there's any question as to my 3 star rating, I've played courses such as Harmon Hills, Highbridge, Rollin Ridge, Idlewild, Blue Ribbon Pines, and many other exceptionally designed and manicured courses.

Wear sunscreen and bring water!

This must be one of the most well manicured disc golf courses anywhere. There are short red tee markers and the longer set of gold markers for every hole. Some of the tees are shared with the ball golf tees, the footing overall is usually very smooth. Playing the gold tees is maximum distance challenge with tough pin locations. It is fairly open on most holes, and strong wind really pushed my discs all over the place during this round. The red rimmed baskets are like new, but not always visible from the tee pad. Long layout has five par 4 holes and two par 5 holes, for a total of par 63.

The course is nearly flawless and is in an incredibly scenic area. It is pay to play, and not cheap. There is a pro shop with discs, golf carts are available to rent, and food and beverage options. I kind of think a cart might be worth it if you haven't been there before. It would be nice to be able to run ahead to spot the pin locations. The sand traps, water, cart path lines and ball golf greens are played as OB. Rules cost me several penalty strokes, and I lost a disc in the water.

My favorite holes had the trees featured as obstacles prominently. Hole 3 was tucked under heavy canopy among many large trunks. The trees on 9 try to get you early off of the tee, and again nearing the basket that is heavily protected by big trees. Hole 11 is the ultimate in wooded tunnel fairways, getting the tree hugger award for Princeville Mauka DGC.

The water carry on the gold tee on hole 8 is awesome, but the wind carried my Destroyer into the water. The far shore has a couple of trees that limit angles to the basket, and OB other than water comes into play. Hole 17 also plays over water, but it is shorter and slightly less exciting.

The elevation can be good in places, hole 2 and 4 show it a bit. Overthrowing the basket on 4 can put you in a very rough spot. The gold tee on hole 13 has a really fun line from hill to hill.

The $25/round cost is prohibitive, but it is a fun round. The wind made it nearly unplayable though. A lot of the holes are largely open and mostly flat. Beautiful, but likely to be full of golfers on certain days.

Tee signs that were numbered with detailed graphics would be sweet. I did have trouble reading the map on a couple of early holes. The landscaping is excellent beyond belief, but the layout is slightly repetitive.

Part of my 41st birthday celebration was playing disc golf here, and it was a great experience. The weather could have been slightly better, if the wind was more calm and it hadn't rained on hole 14. Otherwise a great location with a nicely laid out and challenging disc golf set up.

I played awfully, racking up penalty shots (5), missing a lot of putts, and and letting the wind send my drives in all directions. I only made par on 6 holes. 16 over par (79) was pretty humbling. It was still worth the visit, and if you're on Kauai you can probably afford the green fees. Happy Talk Bar at the nearby resort is a really good spot to grab a snack and a cold drink.

Doofenshmirtz's review below captured most of the pros and cons of the course. By habit I played the sand traps as hazards, which made the course much more complex. The water holes are fantastic and in general it is just tons of fun to play on a manicured golf course.

As noted by other reviewers, the lack of signage made some of the tees hard to find and the course can get very soggy in the rain.

The one bit I do have to add to the previous reviews is all about the experience. Renting a GPS guided cart, with a full beer cooler is a lot of fun and lets any non-golfing travelling companions enjoy a round with you. The pro shop is awesome and carries custom stamped discs and all the swag you'd expect from a ball golf resort. You also get a very nice personalized metal bag tag with your round (or at least I did), so if you're into disc golf memorabilia (and I am), this a great stop. The golf is very good here, but the experience is really what pushed this to a 4.5 rating. It's expensive, but worth the price.

I have played some very good courses that either coexisted on golf courses (Wild Horse) or were on extinct golf courses (Branson Cedars). This course doesn't really compare to the other two that I played. But, it is still a very good course.

Most of the holes are open, but there are a few exceptions.This is on a golf course and the natural tees are in excellent condition and the best I have ever played (tees are marked by yellow and red stakes with a white line painted around the stake just below the top). The layout includes some excellent holes, including two water carries and a few holes with significant elevation change. The course is, however, mostly flat and mostly open.

Obstacles, though underutilized (see cons below) are mostly due to minor elevation changes. On a handful of holes, there are a significant number of trees guarding the basket. There are some communication issues on the course map handed out at the pro shop. So hole 11 is either a mando, dead-straight fairway lined with trees or a somewhat easy hyzer around the trees (The map says that 10 has a mando, but there's nothing to be a mando on 10 that I could tell and nothing was marked).

The scenery is nice, if not particularly awesome when compared to the rest of Kauai. The pro shop has a selection of a few, custom stamped, Innova Molds as well as some bags and minis and golf stuff. Carts are available for rental and come stocked with towels and iced-down water bottles.

The cons for this course are mostly in what it could have been. There are no tee signs and tees are inconsistently marked. Some have a yellow stake and a red disc, others only have a yellow stake. To a golfer, these stakes look like distance markers for the golf course. There is nothing telling you how the tees are marked and I wasted a significant amount of time looking for tees on the first three holes until I figured out the markers.

Some tees are poorly positioned next to cart paths. Some tees are on golf tee boxes. They are all good, but, really a course that claims to be championship caliber should have concrete tee boxes and tee signs.

Cart paths are OB, but are underutilized. They rarely come into play. Bunkers are underutilized and should be OB. They aren't, or at least the courst map that I was handed did not designate the bunkers as OB. And, if you had any doubt, when you reach hole 15, you will see that the basket is actually in a bunker. Making the bunkers OB would make this a much more challenging course and, ultimately, that is what this course lacks.

I think the designers fell into the trap presented by all golf courses and simply opted to make long holes when they didn't have enough obstacles to add difficulty.

Finally, you should note that the true rough on the edges of some of the golf fairways is chest-high, disc eating vegetation that, if you throw your disc into, you might as well just save yourself the time and effort of trying to find it. I can see this sort of rough being a nightmare for anyone who gets stuck behind one of those poor souls who thinks his beat-in Tee Bird is molded from pure gold.

This is a course well worth playing. But be advised that if you play by yourself and rent a cart, you will be paying about $50 for your round. This is a quality course with some minor navigation issues. Just look for the yellow stakes and you will be alright.

Empty!!! Take your time...enjoy the views...throw a couple discs if you like. Has a couple of great holes for a lefty like me. The water hole (#8) is fantastic.

The price. The overwhelming majority of the courses I have played are really cheap to play...this one not so much. I was on vacation however, so oh well. I can't wait to go back and play it again. Also I really wish there were Tee-Pads. Maybe sometime soon?

Flew all the way to Hawaii and just happened to be a block away from a disc golf course (on a ball golf course) so I had to give it a whirl. The surroundings are amazing. Beautiful views of the island's mountains and the course is quite wooded with mature trees. It's on the ball golf course so it is a mix of manicured turf and less manicured areas under trees, etc. A long and challenging track though that was enjoyable to play.

The ridiculous amount of rain during my vacation limited me to a single visit. The course can only absorb so much water and it was very muddy when I played. Makes it tough on the footing. Signage/tees were not yet installed but the map and the posts/ground markers were adequate. Less groomed than the fancy ball golf course with crazy ocean views but that is understandable. Price could be lowered however.

Had the course to myself and if the weather had cooperated I would have played it multiple times. Maybe not a ton of birdie ops but I appreciated the chance to play in such a gorgeous setting.

Love the use of hills, bunkers and trees. Having the baskets near hazards or out of bounds made for more thinking about shots than just long throw after long throw that some golf courses tend to lean towards. The tee shots that were open seemed to have a more difficult green (e.g. hillside with OB on two sides.) And when there were trees in the fairway that requires a shaped shot, the basket didn't have as much nearby punishment which I felt was fair.

Not really a con because the signage had been installed yet but the "Red Discs" used for marking the tee location are fairly difficult to see. Pink marking flags were near most of the tees but not all. This led to some wandering and driving back and forth. I can see myself deleting this portion once the signage is complete.

I was able to play the long tees and had hoped to play the shorts as well but that was before Hurricane Lane threatened Kauai. I can't wait to be back on the island and play this course again. At the time I played, there were no other golfers of any kind on the course so it was quiet and peaceful. All of the employees I encountered were happy to see the disc golf course getting use.