Golfers can expect to see the first new golf course built on O'ahu in more than a decade open next year at Haseko (Hawai'i) Inc.'s Ocean Pointe community in 'Ewa Beach.

The 18-hole course being designed by PGA Tour champion Ernie Els is being positioned as the Island's only private country club at a resort, but Hoakalei Country Club will at least initially be open to the public.

Haseko at a news conference yesterday said the course is scheduled to open at the end of next year as the first component of its planned Hoakalei Resort.

The resort is master planned for a hotel, marina, commercial complex and vacation homes adjacent to Ocean Pointe, where the company has built about 1,800 of its planned 4,850 homes since 1998.

The hotel, which is permitted for as many as 950 units and could include time-share use, is projected to be completed in 2008 along with the marina, which is about halfway excavated.

Haseko said it hasn't determined how many of the 4,850 homes would be vacation residences, or estimated their price range. "We're working on our visioning and positioning for that," said Nancy Maeda, executive vice president of development for Haseko.

The developer also did not have an estimated cost for the golf course and clubhouse, which is still being designed.

DESIGN BY ERNIE ELS

Hoakalei Country Club initially will be open to the public, but the idea is to make it into a world-class private resort course open only to members and resort guests.

Els also said it is his goal to host a PGA tour event at Hoakalei. "That was my vision from the start," he said. "That's why I'm here."

South Africa-born Els has been designing golf courses since 1997, working with Jack Nicklaus for several years. The 36-year-old nicknamed the "Big Easy" has created three courses in Maryland, China and South Africa that are open, and has 10 others under planning or construction, including Hoakalei.

Operating Hoakalei Country Club will be Dallas-based private club operator ClubCorp, which owns or operates about 170 golf courses, country clubs, resorts and private business and sports clubs.

Mark Murphy, senior vice president of revenue and sales at ClubCorp, said it is too early to estimate prices for Hoakalei memberships, which the company expects to begin selling by year's end.

Murphy said 18-hole courses often have 250 to 300 members, though the number will vary depending on the projected play by resort guests and other factors. At some of ClubCorp's higher-end golf clubs in places like Aspen, Colo., and Monterey, Calif., membership can run around $125,000.

PRIVATE MEMBERSHIP

Greg Nichols, general manager of Ko Olina Golf Club, a resort course open to public play, said private-membership golf clubs are an underserved market on O'ahu, denoted by waiting lists at clubs such as Waialae Country Club.

"The type of (visitors) that Hawai'i is attracting, they're looking for that type of membership," said Nichols, a veteran head pro formerly at Waialae. "They want to have a place to play when they come here. They realize that golf is very busy over here, and they are willing to pay a premium."

According to the Hawaii State Golf Association, O'ahu has 36 golf courses, four of which are private (Honolulu Country Club, Mid-Pacific Country Club, Oahu Country Club and Waialae).

Creation of member-based golf clubs were a rage in Hawai'i in the late 1980s when developers raced to satisfy projected membership demand from Japan-based buyers during the Japanese investment bubble.

But the market tanked in the early 1990s, leaving the state with a glut of planned private golf courses, many of which were either not built or built and converted for public or semi-private play.

Some of those courses in recent years have been repositioned by new owners, including Maui's long-shuttered Grand Waikapu Country Club, which a new owner is transforming into a private club called The King Kamehameha Golf Club.

Other developers, especially on the Big Island, in recent years have built private courses as an amenity to exclusive residential communities. Examples of these clubs include Hokuli'a, which has a $150,000 membership fee, and Kuki'o, where Golf Digest reported the fee at $220,000.

FIRST COURSE IN DECADE

Hoakalei would be O'ahu's first golf course built since the city's 'Ewa Villages Golf Course was built in 1996. The most recent to open on O'ahu was Royal Kunia Golf Course, which was built in 1994 but stayed closed until 2003 after a new owner resolved a $13 million debt with the city.

A few other golf courses on O'ahu, are planned, but are a little farther away. Gentry Cos. plans to build two golf courses as part of its master-planned Waiawa community with 10,000 to 12,000 homes. Initial homes and one golf course are projected to be completed in 2008.

In Kapolei, an affiliate of landowner Campbell Estate is pursuing development of an 18-hole golf course and 2,370 homes as part of its Kapolei West plan, which previously was envisioned as a second golf course for Ko Olina Resort & Marina.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.