Posted 11:40 a.m., Friday, June 29, 2001
Kono, 11, wins women's match play tournament
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Stephanie Kono tees off at the HawaiÎi State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship at the O'ahu Country Club.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Move over Michelle Wie, there's a new young gun in golf town.
Stephanie Kono, who, like Wie, is 11 years old, became the youngest winner of the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship today.
Kono, who will be a sixth-grader at Punahou School this fall, defeated Desiree Ting, 6 and 5, at the O'ahu Country Club.
The previous youngest winner was 15-year-old Nicole Horner, who won the event more than a decade ago.
Kono got rolling midway through the competition today, gaining momentum from her first career hole in one.
Using a driver, she knocked in her shot on the 220-yard, par 4 ninth hole.
"After the hole in one, I wasn't nervous anymore and everything started going my way. Everything started to go in," Kono said.
The hole in one put Kono 3-up at the turn. She one-putted the last four holes — Nos. 10-13 on the course — to close out the match.
Kono had a tougher time yesterday to advance to the final.
She parred the first playoff hole to defeat Bev Kim, 1-up. Ting advanced yesterday with a 2-and-1 victory over Merynn Ito.
Suddenly, Baby Boomer has taken on a whole new meaning here in women's golf. First Wie won big at the Jennie K. Invitational and became the first female to qualify for the Manoa Cup — the men's match play championship.
With Wie on the Mainland — advancing to the third round of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links — Kono stepped into the pre-teen void this week.
Kono is six weeks and a grade younger than Wie at Punahou School, nearly a foot shorter and doesn't weigh 100 pounds. She still blasts her drives 240 yards and earned medalist honors Monday on the wings of two eagles. Yesterday, she ousted a three-time state match play champion, and her second 50-something golfer in as many days.
For nearly four hours, Kim chased Kono across Nu'uanu Valley, scrambling to compensate for a 30-yard deficit off the tee. They were never separated by more than one hole and were even after 15. If it was stroke play, both would have been 3-over par, while Ting and Ito were playing at a 2-over pace.
"I was just lucky to be here because that's the way it is nowadays," said Kim, who reached the final last year. "I'm here to have fun. I really had fun because it was a good match. We both earned our wins."
For the second day in a row, Kim's drive on the par-3 16th dived into the right bunker. She couldn't get up and down this time and Kono took a 1-up lead into the 17th, and then 18th.
There, Kim hooked her drive into the trees. She reached the green in three, her ball settling a few feet inside Kono's, who was on in two. Needing to win the hole to extend the match, Kim prepared to lose.
Suddenly the rain rolled in and her precocious opponent acted her age. Kono nudged her 35-foot birdie putt too hard. It caught the slope and rolled off the green.
"It was a nasty, nasty putt," said Kevin Ralbovsky, Kono's caddy and teaching pro. "I've seen pros do the same thing. That front left pin position is the hardest pin on the course. And I think with all the people around and a little extra adrenaline, she probably hit it two feet too hard. Once it got past the hole, it picked up speed."
Kono's first chip back hit pin high, then rolled back to her feet in the swale that fronts the green.
"From the 15th hole I was a little worried," Kono said. "After I missed that short chip on 18, I got a little more worried."
Kono finally got back to the green in five and drained a seven-foot putt for a six. Kim barely touched her putt. It stopped a foot from the hole and her bogey squared the match.
But it wasn't really even. Kono played as if the last hole was ancient history ... say the 1980s ... and Kim admitted later the playoff sneaked up on her. Her drive buried in deep grass on the side of the hill. Her second shot didn't reach Kono's drive — "I had to hack it out and I just hacked it," Kim said — and she was short of the green in three.
Kono reached the par-5 in two and two-putted for birdie to reach the final of her second adult event.
"I like golf because it's very challenging," Kono said. "And sometimes relaxing. But not today."
Ting, 23, has spent the last year working, finishing her degree at the University of Hawai'i and realizing how much she missed golf. Her first tournament back was last month's Jennie K.
She got in position to win her second after one-putting four consecutive holes on the back nine yesterday.
Ito, the 2000 girls state high school champion, couldn't match Ting's touch. Ting won Nos. 12, 13 and 14 to go 2-up, then took the match when Ito three-putted 17.
Today, Ting played a golfer half her young age. It is not a surprise. "Bev already told me I'm on the older side around here," Ting said.
She is also on the wiser side, which could be good or bad.
"Stephanie is so young, she doesn't get nervous," Ting said. "I didn't get nervous until I played in college. When I was young, I thought I was invincible."
