Caddie's Gear Advisor
Curated for today's 73°F · Clear
Low-Spin Wind-Cheating Balls
Penetrating ball flight that holds its line in the gusts
Wind-Blocking Layers
Cut the chill and drag without choking your swing
Low-Launch Drivers
Lower spin off the tee for control in a crosswind
Secure-Fit Caps
Stay-put headwear built for a blustery round
Wailea Emerald Course: Course Intelligence
Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed the Emerald Course at Wailea Golf Club in 1994 on a piece of South Maui coastal land within the broader Wailea Resort development. The Emerald is the most recent of the three Wailea courses (Emerald, Gold, Blue) and was conceived as the resort's tropical-landscape signature — Jones Jr. routed the eighteen holes with native Hawaiian plumeria, bougainvillea, and hibiscus organized as landscape features alongside the playing corridors. The combination of the lava-rock topography and the bright tropical landscaping gives the Emerald a different visual identity from the more open, links-style routings elsewhere in Maui.
The course plays around 7,000 yards par 72 from the championship markers, with paspalum turf and a slope in the upper 130s. Jones Jr. routed the eighteen holes through the natural Wailea coastal-slope terrain with the Pacific Ocean visible from many holes — the course descends from the resort heights down toward the coast. The fourth hole is a 195-yard par-3 with the Pacific visible behind the green; the eighteenth, a 555-yard par-5 along the resort property, has decided multiple Champions Tour Senior PGA editions hosted at Wailea over the years. The greens carry Jones Jr.'s strategic-design contours and the tropical landscaping is part of the daily visual signature.
The Emerald Course is open to resort guests at premium daily-fee rates and to public daily-fee play. The pricing puts it among the higher-priced public-access courses in Hawaii. The Wailea Resort property includes lodging at multiple hotels, and resort guest stays bundle preferred tee-time access to all three Wailea courses.
South Maui coastal climate keeps the Emerald playable year-round with consistent trade winds and the firmest conditions in the dry season (October through April). The leeward Wailea position keeps the property significantly drier than the windward and central Maui regions. Pacific marine influence keeps temperatures moderate through the year, and the afternoon trade winds give the routing daily wind that the architectural defense depends on.
Related Reading
Before you tee off at Wailea Emerald Course
How Cold Weather Steals Distance: The Ball Compression Physics Every Golfer Should Know
Every 10°F drop costs the average golfer two to four yards of driver carry. Here is the physics — ball compression, air density, muscle temperature — and the field data we pulled from G-Score-monitored cold rounds to show exactly how distance loss compounds, and how to compensate without changing your swing.
Read Story
Best Golf Weather by State: Ranking America by Average G-Score
We ranked all 50 US states by average G-Score golf playability. California tops the list, but the results beyond the top five may surprise you.
Read StoryDanorie
Editorial & Data
Golf Weather Score is built by Danorie. We compute the G-Score — our own playability rating — from live NOAA forecasts and published course scorecards, so any US course can be compared on any day with a single number. Methodology and data sources are documented on every page.
Every Friday Morning
When Wailea Emerald Course plays best next weekend.
Friday 6am ET: peak G-Score windows for Wailea Emerald Course, wind direction by hour, and one gear call. Three minutes to read, save you the round.
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The Caddie's Oracle
Draw your luck before the tee off