Issue link: https://digital.insidegolfmedia.com/i/977781
COVER STORY SoCal GOLF INSIDER Washington Post publisher. Nearly 25 years later, the renamed Manele Golf Course has been ranked as one of the best in the world in many polls and publications; the af- filiated Four Seasons Resort Lana'i was selected as 2018's best hotel in America by U.S. News & World Re- port; and Lana'i itself has been trans- formed into the ultimate luxury tourist destination thanks to the ef- forts and deep pockets of billionaire owner Larry Ellison. (By the way, Gates, Buffett, Allen and Ballmer also have continued to flourish, with a combined net worth today of more than $230 billion, according to Forbes. Ellison checks in at $58.5 bil- lion.) And after my first visit to Lana'i in March, I can testify that the golf, the Four Seasons accommodations and dining, and the overall Lanai experi- ence are deserving of all of their acco- lades. the history Like all of the Hawaiian Islands, the tiny, apostrophe-shaped island of Lana'i – 13 miles wide and 18 miles long – was formed by volcanic activ- ity, and geologists believe it origi- nally was part of one great land mass that also included what now are the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui and Molokai. At the time, these islands were linked by lava-flow bridges that eventually were submerged and sep- arated, resulting in the distinct indi- vidual islands we recognize today. Lana'i has a fascinating history, some of which is legend, such as the first Polynesian settlers being reluc- tant to take up permanent residence because they thought it was ruled by evil, man-eating spirits. The first Hawaiian settlers arrived in the 1200s, and in the 1400s the island was named Lana'i o Kaulukaau. According to native accounts, the island had a population of 6,000 in the late 1700s, the residents living off the crops they produced, until cholera wiped out nearly half of the population at the turn of that century. Protestant missionaries arrived in the continued on the next page > continued from previous screen The 17th hole at Manale Golf Course is one of two signature holes.