Youth invades Stroke Play field

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

When Rachel Kyono tees off Tuesday morning in the final Hawai'i women's major of the year, she will be defending champion and, at age 17, practically a golf dinosaur. Such is the state of Hawai'i women's golf.

Michelle Wie won the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, the year's first major. Stephanie Kono captured the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship. Both are 11.

"Both are awesome," adds Kyono, who will leave Kaua'i for her freshman year at Pepperdine in two weeks. "They just seem to be getting younger and younger."

How low can the scores, and the ages, go?

Wie had the fourth-lowest total in the 51-year history of the Jennie K. Kono won her match play final 6 and 5.

Her closing surge was jump-started by a hole-in-one on a par-4. And, a quarter of this week's HSWGA Stroke Play Championship field at Mid-Pacific Country Club can't drive a golf cart because they aren't old enough to have a license.

The field is littered with big winners.

Kyono, two-time Jennie K. champ Bobbi Kokx, 2000 high school champion Merynn Ito, and 1999 match play winner Mahina Ah Yuen are entered, along with Anna Umemura — the only woman to win all three majors in one year (1997).

But the focus — to Kyono's relief — will likely be on the 11-year-old wunderkinds.