Manele Golf Course: Golf on Lānaʻi, Hawaii

Lānaʻi has no road or bridge connection to another island; a visitor reaches it by air or by sea. Hawaii Department of Transportation's own site describes Lanai Airport (LNY), on Airport Road, Lanai City, HI 96763, as an airport "served by interisland planes." By sea, Expeditions operates the Maui–Lānaʻi ferry across the ʻAuʻau Channel, on the route Māʻalaea, Maui, to Mānele, Lānaʻi, and back; the ferry lands at Mānele, the same bay the golf course sits above. By road, Lanai Airport is 10.8 miles from Four Seasons Resort Lanai — a road distance, not a straight-line one. Hawaii carries zero incorporated places statewide in every Census TIGERweb vintage (against 483 in California, 149 in Alaska and 8 in Rhode Island); the state instead carries 163 census-designated places, among them Lanai City, the CDP nearest the course and the mailing address the Census geocoder returns for it. The county-equivalent is County of Maui, the jurisdiction's own name for itself on its site, its address block, its footer and its charter's cover page.

Golf Digest's Best in State list for Hawaii, 2025-'26, ranks Manele Golf Course second and labels it "Public" — corroborated by the same ranking page's own embedded data (displayedFacilityType "Public," private: false, facilityType "Daily Fee") and by Golf Digest's course page, which records "Best in State: Ranked second, 2021 to current" and, on its current page, "2025-'26 ranking (and previous): 2nd." Only one course ranks above it: Nanea Golf Club, which Golf Digest labels "Private." Four Seasons Resort Lanai, which operates Manele Golf Course, publishes hours of Tuesday through Sunday, 8:00 a.m. first tee to 6:00 p.m., and the course is closed Mondays. The resort's own pages, fetched live, state that Manele Golf Course will be closed for aeration 21 to 28 September 2026, 29 March to 4 April 2027, and 20 to 27 September 2027, and that "Special post-aeration rates are available" — no figure is given.

Golf Digest labels Manele Golf Course "Public." Four Seasons Resort Lanai, which operates it, states on two of its own pages: "Course access is not available for day guest use." On the golf-experience page, that sentence is immediately preceded by "Preferred tee times, complimentary food and beverages, and our warm aloha spirit ensure a memorable day – or days – on the greens" — the "or days" naming the multi-day stay the sentence assumes. Club rentals are described as complimentary "for resort guests playing 9- or 18-hole rounds after 12:00 noon," scoped to resort guests. The resort's one unlimited-golf product, "Member for a Week," is sold as "unlimited golf for one player at any time during a seven-day stay" — the unit of access is a stay, not a round. The resort publishes no green-fee page, no tee-time booking page and no non-guest rate; the only published routes to the course are a telephone line, +1 (808) 565-2000, and a chat widget, both offered as a concierge service for guests rather than a public tee sheet. On this evidence, a visitor who is not staying at Four Seasons Resort Lanai cannot play Manele Golf Course, and this guide does not say otherwise.

For a visitor who is not staying at Four Seasons Resort Lanai, Golf Digest's same Hawaii list points to a different course. Kapalua: Plantation, in Lahaina, ranks third on the 2025-'26 Best in State list and carries the same "Public" label; Kapalua fields two ranked courses on the list, Plantation at third and Bay at nineteenth. Kapalua: Plantation is on Maui, not on Lānaʻi — a visitor reaches it by crossing the ʻAuʻau Channel on the Expeditions ferry, from Mānele, Lānaʻi, to Māʻalaea, Maui, or by flying into one of Maui's own airports. This guide makes no claim about Kapalua: Plantation's green fee, tee-time policy or hours; no source verified for this guide reaches that course's own booking pages.