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Posted on: Thursday, May 3, 2001
Around the greens By Bill Kwon
It's the ones with fins that now lure Allan Yamamoto These days, Allan Yamamoto would rather go fishing. But in his prime, there was no better amateur golfer than the Maui native after his baseball playing days at the University of Hawai'i. I wasn't surprised that he turned 66 on April 12. After all, we were classmates at UH. I was covering his baseball exploits for Ka Leo. Neither of us knew a thing about golf then. But Yamamoto was a fast learner. At 6 feet 1 and a coordinated athlete who also starred in basketball for Baldwin High, Yamamoto took to the game quickly after first picking up a golf club belonging to Dick Hadama, a quarterback on the UH football team. They were roommates at what was euphemistically called an athletic dorm. The dorm — a Quonset hut with bunk beds — was next to the old football field on Dole Street. Yamamoto would be in one end zone and Hadama the other, hitting golf balls at each other. After a while, Yamamoto and Hadama thought they were pretty good. They got on at the Ala Wai Golf Course, thanks to starter Sam Kapu. Soon they entered a bestball tournament. Their bestball 80 didn't make the cut. Yamamoto hung around Ala Wai and got tips from Guinea Kop and Ted Makalena. Needing an established handicap to play in tournaments, Yamamoto joined the Palolo Golf Club in 1960. His baseball buddy, Kazu Shirai, was the club's handicap chairman and told Yamamoto that he had to start with a 7-handicap. "He wanted to make sure that I didn't win so they wouldn't get mad at him because they knew we were friends," Yamamoto said. The first of Yamamoto's 35 amateur championships came in the 1962 Tournament of Champions. Yamamoto won the Mid-Pacific twice (1976 and 1980), the State Amateur Stroke Play Championship four times (1966, 1970, 1974 and 1976), as well as the Army, Navy-Marine and Barbers Point tournaments when they were open events. The highlight of his golf career came in the 1975 U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links Championships at Wailua, Kaua'i. Yamamoto, David Ishii and Wendell Kop led Hawai'i to the Harding Cup team championship. Yamamoto lost to Randy Barenaba in a stirring match of local boys that went 37 holes for the individual title. Perhaps it was destined for Barenaba to win. His brother, Charley, had captured the national title the year before in Pasadena, Calif., making them the only brothers ever to win back-to-back titles. Yamamoto's contribution to golf wasn't just on the golf course. He became golf's guru to a legion of golfers, who still are involved in the game today. When he operated the pro shop at the Pearl Country Club, one of those he employed was Ishii, who had just graduated from the University of Houston where he helped the Cougars win the NCAA championship. "He helped me so much. He helped me with my game and that's how I kind of got an introduction to Pearl Country Club," said Ishii, now the Director of Golf there, and among the career money leaders on the Japan PGA Tour. "He always helped whoever was interested. He never turned anyone away. In those days, he was the best player, too, so everyone listened." When Yamamoto opened his own golf shop on Sheridan Street in 1983, it was like a golf apprentice school. Among those who worked there were Mark Takahama, Robbie Murakami, Beau Yokomoto, Jerry Mullen, Damien Jamila and Philip Chun. He gave them the opportunity to work and become more knowledgeable about golf equipment and customer relations. "It was a good situation for us. We learned while we worked," said Yokomoto. "He was a mentor to all of us. He didn't only teach us about golf, he taught us lessons in life, too." "If anything, it's the non-golf things I remember him the most for," said Takahama, who worked there for five years, including his senior year at UH. For Yamamoto, it wasn't just the matter of helping young golfers. "It was two-fold. They were all good boys and treated the customers well. They could back up what they were selling because they had the (playing) credentials," Yamamoto said. He finally closed up shop, nearly two years ago. "It got to be a point where it was like work. I never felt that way before," Yamamoto said. A bad right knee limits his golf to an occasional social round or two — golf cart only — these days. So Yamamoto is grateful for his new pastime. He got hooked on fishing seven years ago after hurting his left shoulder. His doctor told him to stay away from golf for 2-3 months. "Fortunately, it was my left shoulder. I could still use my right arm to cast," said Yamamoto, whose biggest catch is a 50-pound ulua near the Waikiki Natatorium two years ago. Pure luck, he says. He was out that night to catch some white eels for bait, and put out a line — just in case. It's strictly shoreline fishing for Yamamoto, who makes sure that it's a spot that he can drive right up to. And he goes out when he feels like it. "That's the beauty of fishing. You don't need a starting time." Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net. • • •
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