Wailua Municipal Golf Course is regularly rated as one of the top municipal courses in the United States. A tribute to that ranking is the three men's U.S.G.A. Amateur Public Links Championships held there in 1975,1985 and 1996.

The course is the oldest on Kauai and the first golf course to be built on any of Oahu's neighbor islands. Wailua originally opened with six holes in 1920s. The six holes was expanded to nine holes by Hawai'i golf legend Francis H. I'i Brown. Wailua opened as an eighteen hole course in 1962. Toyo Shirai, who was inducted into the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame in 1989, designed the front holes. The beautiful par 72 Wailua course measures a formidable 6,981 yards from the back tees with the strong tradewinds coming off the nearby Pacific Ocean affecting many golf shots.