Traveler’s Den Golf Club marks 40 years at Kukuiolono

A golf club that started with 55 golfers on June 8, 1986, marked 40 years at Kukuiolono Golf Course, gathering Sunday a little past 9 a.m. on the south coast of Kaua‘i. Traveler’s Den Golf Club has outlasted hurricanes, the pandemic and leadership changes by staying tied to the same kind of regular ritual that keeps West Side communities connected.

President Mel Robley said the club was founded to bring golfers together for friendly competition and, more importantly, friendship. That mission still shows up in the club’s schedule: new golfers are welcome, and the group plays on the first, third and fifth Sundays when there is one, with the first Sunday always at Kukuiolono and the later rounds elsewhere. After tournaments, members now gather at Pacos Tacos, a newer ending to a routine that once centered on Traveler’s Den.

The club began at the restaurant that gave it its name, Traveler’s Den Bar and Grill, long known as the westernmost bar in the United States. Jerry Santos founded the club with help from Hisao “Sparky” Kyono, both now deceased. The family ties run deeper still: Jerry Santos and Carol Santos co-owned Traveler’s Den Restaurant, and in 2000 four generations of the family reopened the business as Rollin-n-Dough in Kekaha.

Robley credited the club’s survival to a solid constitution, good leadership and regular participation, and said those habits carried it through Hurricane Iniki, COVID-19, leadership changes and the deaths of two presidents. Kukuiolono itself has helped make that possible. Walter D. McBryde set aside 346 acres in an irrevocable trust for public recreation regardless of race or creed, and the park’s community building and pro shop were dedicated in 1972 with McBryde Trust funds. The course sits on a high plateau and remains a 9-hole, par-36 layout with sweeping views, part of a public-benefit vision that general manager Robert Medeiros once said was meant to meet the “mental and physical needs of the people.”

The setting carries older meaning too, from its history as an ancient Hawaiian heiau and beacon point dedicated to Lono to the golf course added in 1928 and designed by Toyo Shirai. Even a 2014 lawsuit after a tree fell in the parking lot pointed back to the same practical question that has always shadowed public spaces: how well they are kept and who is responsible. Four decades on, Traveler’s Den Golf Club remains one more reason Kukuiolono still functions as a shared place, not just a scenic course.