Maui's Miyajima ready for shot at U.S. Amateur

By Bill Kwon

When it comes to performance, nobody has had a better three weeks of golf locally than Shayna Miyajima, a 20-year-old Wailuku, Maui, resident who will be a junior at San Diego State this fall.

Maui's Shayna Miyajima has been on a roll lately, winning three tournaments, including the qualifying for the U.S. Women's Amateur. Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'm excited," said the soft-spoken Miyajima, who was the medalist in the local qualifying at the Mid-Pacific Country Club.

Miyajima fine-tuned her game with victories in the women's events at Olomana and the Maui Country Club, boosting her confidence for the U.S. Women's Amateur — one of the USGA's first three championships. The prestigious national tournament, which marked the beginning of competitive golf for women in America, was first held in 1985, a month after the U.S. Open and U.S. Men's Amateur.

So, it is a real big deal and you can't blame Miyajima for being excited. She leaves tonight with her father, Eric, who will be her caddy. Eric Miyajima is a mortgage loan officer in Wailuku who played college golf at Utah State.

"The best part of my game is my short game. I don't hit the ball long, but I'm consistent," said Miyajima, who won the state girls' golf title in 1999 as junior at Baldwin High School

She is working on her all-around game, especially in getting more length off the tees. To that end, she has been working with Jerry King, Kapalua Golf Academy's teaching pro.

"He has helped me a lot with everything I need to know. He's a good teacher," Miyajima says.

Apparently, she's a good student as well.

"I think as I grew up I got better, kept on improving. That gives me a sense of accomplishment," Miyajima said.

As a sophomore at San Diego State last season, Miyajima improved her stroke average by two to 76.6 to play No. 3 for the Lady Aztecs. She finished tied for fourth with a 54-hole score of 200 in the Mountain West Conference championships at Sunriver, Ore.

"She's a great competitor. A very good putter with a lot of moxie," said Lori Planos, who is confident that Miyajima will make the 36-hole cut to qualify for the tournament's match-play competition.

A good putter and a lot of moxie. Those were the same attributes that Planos had when she played in the U.S. Women's Amateur twice, qualifying both times and once reaching the semifinals.

"I'll be trying to make the cut and see what happens," Miyajima said.

Shimada-san

Golfers at the Kapolei Golf Course remember him as Shimada-san.

Masanobi Shimada, who died July 31 at the age of 67 after being stricken with cancer, was always at Kapolei Golf Course, from 4:30 in the morning until dusk, for four years after he helped to broker a deal with the state to buy the golf course in 1993.

"He really enjoyed golf, and he wanted people to enjoy the golf course. He changed more than a hundred drainage systems so that golf carts could go on the fairways," said No. 1 daughter, Chie Hearn.

Golf became a passion for Shimada after an injury curtailed a baseball career. It was the reason he moved to Hawai'i from Japan more than 30 years ago.

"He came to Hawai'i as a visitor in 1971 and played the Ala Wai Golf Course. He found out that he could play golf every day in Hawai'i," Chie said. "He didn't leave. He called my mom and told her to move our family here."

Shimada opened a golf shop in Waikiki and a restaurant in 'Aina Haina besides making a golfer of Chie, who played for the University of Hawai'i and is now a golf instructor with the Jim McLean School at the PGA West in Palm Springs, Calif. Her husband, John Hearn, who played golf at Punahou School, is now the head professional at The Reserve at Indian Wells.

Shimada is survived by his wife, Hiromi; another daughter, Misa, an attorney in Japan, and 9-month-old grandson, John Masanobi Hearn.

This and that

After gaining the semifinals of the Western Amateur in Michigan last Sunday, Stanford's Jim Seki had little time to catch a flight to join University of Hawai'i's Matthew Kodama for this week's Pacific Coast Amateur Championship at the San Diego Country Club. His only words to his dad, Jim Seki Sr., after the match were, "Dad, you need to change my plane ticket." Seki qualified for the "Sweet Sixteen" at the Western Amateur only to lose to the eventual champion, John Klauk of the University of Texas, 3 and 2, in the semis ... As a member of the 1980 Curtis Cup that was played in Wales, Lori Planos was invited to last week's biennial event in Pittsburgh as a guest of the USGA. Her father, Ron Castillo, got to tag along. "Fox Chapel Golf Club is one of the best golf courses I've seen," Castillo said. ... By qualifying for the Wendy's Classic, Michelle Wie had to withdraw from trying to qualify the past Monday in Tampa, Fla., for the U.S. Men's Amateur. That's right, the men's amateur. She had permission by the USGA to try and qualify but couldn't get the direct plane connections, according to her dad, B.J. Wie. "She really wanted to play. Maybe she can qualify in Hawai'i next year," he said.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net