The toughest course in the Urban Honolulu, HI metro area is Waialae Country Club, at slope 140 — ahead of Ko Olina Golf Club at slope 138 and Royal Hawaiian Golf Club at slope 138.
All 25 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Urban Honolulu, HI is a metro area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— all 25 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waialae Country Club | slope 140 |
| 2 | Ko Olina Golf Club | slope 138 |
| 2 | Royal Hawaiian Golf Club | slope 138 |
| 4 | 360 Ewa Beach Country Club | slope 137 |
| 5 | Kapolei Golf Club | slope 136 |
| 5 | Pearl at Kalauao | slope 136 |
| 7 | Coral Creek Golf Course | slope 135 |
| 8 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club B C Nines | slope 134 |
| 8 | Turtle Bay Resort Arnold Palmer Course | slope 134 |
| 10 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club A B Nines | slope 132 |
| 10 | Royal Kunia Country Club | slope 132 |
| 12 | Mid Pacific Country Club | slope 131 |
| 13 | Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course | slope 130 |
| 13 | Makaha Valley Country Club | slope 130 |
| 15 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club C A Nines | slope 129 |
| 15 | Honolulu Country Club | slope 129 |
| 15 | Mamala Bay Golf Course | slope 129 |
| 18 | Ewa Villages Golf Course | slope 127 |
| 18 | Pali Municipal Golf Course | slope 127 |
| 20 | Olomana Golf Links | slope 126 |
| 20 | Waikele Country Club | slope 126 |
| 22 | Hawaii Kai Golf Course | slope 124 |
| 23 | Ala Wai Golf Course | slope 115 |
| 23 | Ted Makalena Golf Course | slope 115 |
| 25 | Bay View Golf Course | slope 91 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 25 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— the top 25 of 36 courses with a published scorecard
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— the top 25 of 35 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hoakalei Country Club at Ocean Pointe | 2,378 yds between tees |
| 2 | Turtle Bay Resort Arnold Palmer Course | 2,348 yds between tees |
| 3 | Royal Kunia Country Club | 2,062 yds between tees |
| 4 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club B C Nines | 2,050 yds between tees |
| 5 | Royal Hawaiian Golf Club | 2,026 yds between tees |
| 6 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club C A Nines | 1,866 yds between tees |
| 7 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club A B Nines | 1,842 yds between tees |
| 8 | 360 Ewa Beach Country Club | 1,817 yds between tees |
| 9 | Navy Marine Golf Course | 1,721 yds between tees |
| 10 | Ko Olina Golf Club | 1,668 yds between tees |
| 11 | Naval Air Station Barbers Point Golf Course | 1,644 yds between tees |
| 12 | Mid Pacific Country Club | 1,599 yds between tees |
| 13 | Kapolei Golf Club | 1,511 yds between tees |
| 14 | Waikele Country Club | 1,437 yds between tees |
| 15 | West Loch Municipal Golf Course | 1,369 yds between tees |
| 16 | Ewa Villages Golf Course | 1,364 yds between tees |
| 17 | Honolulu Country Club | 1,283 yds between tees |
| 18 | Pearl at Kalauao | 1,251 yds between tees |
| 19 | Mamala Bay Golf Course | 1,193 yds between tees |
| 20 | Mililani Golf Club | 1,189 yds between tees |
| 21 | Waialae Country Club | 1,058 yds between tees |
| 22 | Bay View Golf Course | 1,000 yds between tees |
| 23 | Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course | 943 yds between tees |
| 24 | Hawaii Country Club | 941 yds between tees |
| 25 | Hawaii Kai Golf Course | 918 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— the top 25 of 27 courses with an opening year
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— the top 25 of 36 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii Country Club | 783 ft |
| 2 | Mililani Golf Club | 690 ft |
| 3 | Pali Municipal Golf Course | 423 ft |
| 4 | Oahu Country Club | 410 ft |
| 5 | Royal Kunia Country Club | 407 ft |
| 6 | Royal Hawaiian Golf Club | 299 ft |
| 7 | Waikele Country Club | 257 ft |
| 8 | Pearl at Kalauao | 232 ft |
| 9 | Makaha Valley Country Club | 216 ft |
| 10 | Moanalua Golf Club | 162 ft |
| 11 | Walter J Nagorski Golf Course | 113 ft |
| 12 | Mid Pacific Country Club | 94 ft |
| 13 | Kapolei Golf Club | 86 ft |
| 14 | Navy Marine Golf Course | 75 ft |
| 15 | Ewa Villages Golf Course | 71 ft |
| 16 | Coral Creek Golf Course | 40 ft |
| 16 | Kahuku Golf Course | 40 ft |
| 18 | West Loch Municipal Golf Course | 38 ft |
| 19 | Ko Olina Golf Club | 36 ft |
| 19 | Naval Air Station Barbers Point Golf Course | 36 ft |
| 19 | Olomana Golf Links | 36 ft |
| 22 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club A B Nines | 33 ft |
| 22 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club B C Nines | 33 ft |
| 22 | Hawaii Prince Golf Club C A Nines | 33 ft |
| 25 | Bay View Golf Course | 26 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.