Wailea - Emerald Course

Robert Trent Jones Jr. opened the Emerald at Wailea in December 1994, the same week as its tougher sibling, the Gold. The two share Maui's southwest-coast topography and the same dramatic Pacific elevation changes, but where the Gold rewards length and precision off the tee, the Emerald is built around playability, wider corridors, fewer forced carries, and tee shots that tend to play downhill more than up. The course has been a fixture inside Hawaii's top 20 since opening, ranked 18th in the state for 2025-26 by Golf Digest after sitting inside the top 15 for most of the early 2000s. It was one of the first courses in Hawaii to be rated women-friendly by Golf for Women, an honor it has won seven times, which tracks with its overall design philosophy. Greens fees in the $300 range put it firmly in the premium-resort tier; among the three Wailea layouts it's the most popular, largely because the views and the pacing land for a wider mix of players.