As she rolls up on a cart to the Kohanaiki driving range flashing a welcoming smile, Lehua Wise seems right at home. The PGA director of golf at this incredibly beautiful Rees Jones course situated in a private residential community located on the Kona Coast of Hawaii’s Big Island is no stranger to running a golf course. In fact, she’s been doing it for quite some time.

Born and raised on Kaua’i, Wise came to Kohanaiki last year after stints as a golf pro at the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Mont. and Hideaway Club in La Quinta, Calif. After earning her Professional Golf Management degree from New Mexico State University, she competed on the LPGA Futures Tour from 2009 to 2011, winning over galleries with her exceptional skills and unwavering drive. While at Hideaway Club, she earned the Desert Chapter Women’s Player of the Year three times.

Wise is certainly not the first female Hawaiian golf pro to achieve high status. Michelle Wie, of course, bested the LPGA Tour for years. And in Kaua’i, Kellie Hines has been the PGA director of instruction at the beautiful Ocean Club.

“I originally applied for this position back in 2020, without ever being here on property,” says Wise. “It came up and I was at that point in my career where I wanted to take that next step. And I knew this was a nice exclusive club. I knew it had a little bit of a feel and culture similar to what I was used to. After I applied and became one of the final candidates, COVID got hot and heavy, and I lost my father. It wasn’t the right timing, and everything happens for a reason. Fast forward two years. I actually had some crossover members from Hideaway Club in here, and I came on a girl’s trip here, to experience Kohanaiki with other members. And I thought ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing.’ The club was far better than I ever thought. And then the position opened up that October 2022.”

Wise knew it was a step up from being the head golf pro for five years at Hideaway Club – a leap she definitely wanted to take to further her career. And she wanted to stay in the private course world. “I really fell in love with this club and the atmosphere,” she says. “It gave me the best of both worlds where I’m performing at the highest level of service and I get to be home in Hawaii. It’s been amazing, and it doesn’t get old. I especially love when people arrive here for the first time or when guests show up, and I give the tour. It never really gets old.”

Having grown up on a different island, Wise recognizes that Kona is much windier. But the golf weather overall is solid. And she loves being a woman working in a predominantly male world. There are more females in the industry now than way back in the day,” she says. “I’m very happy, especially when I get to mentor other females, and I feel like I’m well respected by all of the department heads here and my team. We’re only a third of the way built out. It’s a great thing that we’re growing but we also have the growing pains that come with it – managing expectations and keeping the levels at an ultimate high, and making sure the experience is always top notch. But also the things that come with it like we’re doing a project of one of the holes – it’s temporarily closed – and we have to be able to adapt.”

As with any other person in her position – male or female – Wise gets challenged by members to play golf. But she looks at that as an opportunity to get to know the community better. “Not only am I super comfortable in developing the ladies who are less comfortable playing with everyone, but I come from a very competitive background where I played on the mini tour and in college,” she says. “So I play with most of the men. That’s what drives me now competitively, as I know I don’t want to play for a living.”

But in life, she remains competitive by continuing to push herself. She admits she has no end goal, but rather wants to keep learning and growing. “I want to be a great leader, and really want to see what we can do here and make Kohanaiki its very best,” she says. “Where I would hopefully leave my mark is raising the standards and service even higher. Little things like knowing what a member likes to have in their cooler when they show up at the range, knowing their tendencies, and knowing their kids’ names. I get to call this home now, and I feel more in tune with my culture. Everything Kohanaiki has done, environmentally and culturally with the descendants of the land, feels right to me. There’s no hustle and bustle, it’s just very genuine here.” And that’s indeed the Aloha spirit.