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Posted on: Thursday, December 27, 2001

Around the Greens
An 11-year-old like no other

2001 Hawai'i Golf Champions
This week's Holes in One

Michelle Wie, 11, this year became the youngest person to win the Hawai'i State Women Golf Association's Stroke Play Championship and the Jennie K. Invitational.

Advertiser library photos 2001

Not surprisingly, as the best golfer in the world, Tiger Woods left his imprint on golf in Hawai'i in 2001 by winning the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Kauai's Po'ipu Bay Resort for an unprecedented fourth straight year.

But the biggest impression — and Hawai'i's golf story of the year — was provided by Michelle Wie, a precocious 11-year-old.

In 2001, Wie established breakthroughs that any golfer, let alone pre-teen prodigies, will find hard to surpass:

• The youngest to win the Hawaii State Women Golf Association's Stroke Play Championship.

• The youngest to win the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational in its 51-year history.

• The youngest player — and first female — to qualify and play in the Manoa Cup, symbolic of the Hawaiian Amateur Golf Championship, which was first played in 1907.

• A qualifier for the second year in a row in the National Women's Public Links Championships, advancing to the third round. In 2000, at age 10, she was the youngest player to qualify in a USGA event.

Wie again turned heads and drew raves from her opponents this summer in the women's publinx at Kemper Lakes in Chicago.

"The reporters kept asking me how young I was. They were (skeptical), I guess, that I'm only 11," Wie said. Perhaps it's because she stood 5 feet 9 and averaged 270 yards off the tee.

Well, she's now a little over 5-10.

A Punahou School seventh-grader, Wie won't be eligible to play for her high school team for two more years. But she's looking forward to trying to qualify for more national tournaments in 2002, besides competing in more men's events, starting with the Hawai'i Pearl Open in February.

Wie unquestionably was the hottest topic of conversation around the local links and deserving as the No. 1 golf story of the year in Hawai'i.

The rest of the Top Ten:

Hilo native Steve Veriato, won his first PGA Tour event after 25 years at the seniors' Novell Utah Showdown.

Advertiser library photos 2001

• No. 2 — Dean Wilson, a Kane'ohe native, wins three times on the JPGA Tour, including the Japan PGA match play and stroke play championships, to finish third on the 2001 money list. He also qualified and played in the 101st U.S. Open, tying for 31st with a 72-hole score of 288 for the best showing by a Hawai'i golfer in the national championship.

• No. 3 — The Turtle Bay Resort comes to the rescue when Amfac Hawai'i decided not to host the Senior PGA Tour event at its Ka'anapali North Course for the first time since 1987. Hale Irwin captured the inaugural Turtle Bay Championship, successfully defending the title he won the previous year in the Ka'anapali Classic.

• No. 4 — Hilo native Steve Veriato earns his first PGA Tour victory after 25 years — the Novell Utah Showdown — in his 99th Senior PGA Tour start. That's not counting an oh-fer streak when he first joined the regular PGA Tour in 1976.

• No. 5 — Mark Chun's victory in the Mayor's Cup in September was the year's most inspirational story. The 40-year-old Chun won the first individual tournament of his career in the first tournament he played since suffering his stroke Dec. 12, 1999.

• No. 6 — Kevin Hayashi swept honors as the Aloha Section PGA's player of the year in winning five individual championships, including the Hawai'i State Open for the third straight year.

Dean Wilson,found success in Japan with three victories on the JPGA Tour. He also finished tied for 31st at the U.S. Open.

Advertiser library photos 2001

• No. 7 —Talk about timing for Larry Stubblefield. The day before being elected into the Hawai'i State Golf Hall of Fame, he won the Mid-Pacific Open —19 years after winning the same tournament.

Stubblefield won three other tournaments for a blast-from-the-past performance in 2001.

• No. 8 — Parker McLachlin made most of his time away from the UCLA campus, where he's a senior and member of the Bruins' golf team, to record quite a year for himself. He beat the pros to win the Sports Shinko Rainbow Open, won the Oahu Country Club Invitational and represented Hawai'i along with fellow Punahou grads Jim Seki and Tony Okano in the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship in Flagstaff, Ariz.

No. 9 —Stephanie Kono, another pre-teen prodigy, trounced former University of Hawai'i golfer Desiree Ting, 6 and 5, to win the HSWGA Match Play Championships, making it a clean sweep for 11-year-olds in the three women's amateur majors. Kono was the event's youngest winner since 15-year-old Nicole Horner.

• No. 10—Senior Jarett Hamamoto took the individual title to lead Waiakea High School to a record fourth straight state high school boys championship. During the year, Hamamoto had also qualified to play in the U.S. Men's Public Links Championship and the USGA Boys Amateur Championship, held in San Antonio.

Tiger Woods , the No. 1 men's golfer in the world, won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Po'ipu, Kaua'i, for the fourth consecutive year.

Advertiser library photos 2001

If 11-year-old Wie took the spotlight in 2001, 47-year-old Kuulei Ka'ae also earned the respect of her peers, showing that golf has no age barriers.

Ka'ae deserves a special citation for winning the Moanalua Women's Invitational — her first tournament victory since taking up golf 12 years ago — and following up with a victory in the Waialae Women's Invitational a month later.

Besides Woods and Irwin (who also won the Senior Skins Game at Wailea), Jim Furyk won the Mercedes Championships at Kapalua, Brad Faxon the Sony Open at the Waialae Country Club and Larry Nelson the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai to record the other victories in Hawaii's "Aloha Season" on the PGA Tour.

Lorie Kane won the LPGA Takefuji Classic, while Catriona Matthew got an asterisk as the final winner of the Hawaiian Ladies Open, which came to an sudden end after a 15-year run on the LPGA Tour.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net


Wanted: Aces with story to tell
Advertiser Staff

Was hit a perfect shot?

Was it blind luck?

Did you judge the wind?

Did you just hack away?

Tell us about your experience shooting a hole-in-one.

Fax or e-mail your hole-in-one experience and you could be featured in The Advertiser's Golf Report.

Stories must be typed and brief, around 50 to 100 words. They must include the date, course, hole, yardage and club selection.

Return phone numbers must be listed. Holes-in-one must have been reported to The Advertiser by the golf courses.

Fax submissions to 525-5491 or e-mail to: sports@honoluluadvertiser.com.


Golf notices

Dec. 14-15 — Jackie Pung's 80th Birthday Celebration Golf Tournament. At Waikoloa Golf Course. Tournament begins at 8 a.m. Format: Four-person scramble, full field, full shotgun, $5 mulligan, four maximum mulligans. Fee: $55 per golfer. Information: (808) 883-8445.

Jan. 31 — Heisman/Hula Bowl Golf. At the Dunes at Maui Lani. Shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. Format: three-person scramble, paired with Heisman, NFL player or coach. Fee: $450 per team. Information: Francis Yamada, 526-2266 or Hula Bowl Maui, (808) 871-4141.

Feb. 21— Dawg Day Maui Island Golf Classic. At the Wailea Gold Course. Husky Dinner Celebration at the Maui Tropical Plantation. Guest speaker University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel. Tee times will be assigned. Information: UW Alumni Association at 1-800-AUW-ALUM or visit www.UWalum.com.


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