AROUND THE GREENS
Phengsavath, Lee best of 2002

By Bill Kwon

In recapping the highlights of local golf in the palindromic year of 2002, Joe Phengsavath and Regan Lee out-drove the field. You might as well add the names of Michelle Wie and Dean Wilson as well.

They joined professional tour players Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, Hale Irwin, Jerry Kelly and Sergio Garcia in hogging the headlines in Hawai'i this year when it came to golf.

Phengsavath enjoyed one of the dominant performances in years by an amateur, winning the Hawai'i State Amateur for the second straight year, the Brown 4-Ball Championship with Phil Anamizu, the Mayor's Cup and the inaugural Amatour Championship. He capped his fine year by qualifying for the lone amateur spot in the Sony Open in Hawai'i next month at the Waialae Country Club.

"It's my lucky year," said the 27-year-old Phengsavath, a former national racquetball champion who took up golf only five years ago. He couldn't even break 100 then.

Now, Joe P. is looking forward to teeing it up with the PGA pros in what he hopes will be an even luckier 2003.

Nervous? No, he's not.

"I'm really confident. I've been playing well," said Phengsavath, a Thailand native who moved to Hawai'i when he was 6 years old.

Lee, also 27, won the Mid-Pacific Open, Mililani Rainbow Open and Waikoloa Open besides finishing 15th on the money list in the summer Gateway Tour in Arizona. When his game is on, Lee can be a dominant player as attested by his wire-to-wire victories at Mid-Pac and Waikoloa.

"Locally, I played well and I feel like I did decent on the Gateway Tour," said Lee, who added that the Arizona mini-tour and another shot at the PGA Qualifying School are again in his plans next year.

Wilson successfully made it out of the Q-School this month — becoming only the fourth from Hawai'i to do so — culminating his boyhood dream of playing on the American tour. Not that Wilson didn't do well on the Japan Golf Tour, finishing fourth on the money list in 2002 to earn nearly $2 million in three years on that circuit.

The 5-foot-11 Wie literally and figuratively towered over a talented group of local junior girls, including Stephanie Kono, Amanda Wilson, Britney Choy, Ha'aheo Manini-Hewlen, reigning Jennie K. champion Kira-Ann Murashige and Mari Chun, who won the national high school championship in Orlando, Fla.

Wie enjoyed national exposure in playing in three LPGA tournaments as a 12-year-old. She missed the cut in all three events, but nearly qualified in the Wendy's Classic, failing to survive the 36-hole cutoff by two strokes because of a two-shot penalty for slow play.

Although still too young to play for the Punahou School golf team, Wie recorded several more firsts in local golf, becoming the youngest at 13 to win the State Women's Open by an appropriate 13 strokes and the first female to win a Manoa Cup match. She also advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Women's Public Links Championships during a busy summer of golf on the Mainland.

The Michelle Wie Factor is so apparent in local golf that even University of Hawai'i president Evan Dobelle mentioned it.

"There is no reason why Hawai'i isn't a national champion in women's golf," Dobelle said at a golf conference sponsored by the Aloha Section PGA.

He added jokingly and, perhaps, with some wishful thinking, "We're looking for Michelle Wie to come to the University of Hawai'i."

Three other significant performances were recorded this year:

• Jim Seki, a Punahou School alum playing for Stanford, won the Pac-10 individual golf championship at Corvallis, Ore.
• Travis Toyama, 15, a University High junior, became the youngest winner in the 94-year history of the Manoa Cup. Chipper Garriss, 17, had been the youngest champion in 1967.
• Ron Castillo Jr. captured the Aloha Section PGA's stroke-play and match-play titles, becoming only the seventh player to do it in the same year. His father/caddy, Ron Sr., won both majors in 1976 when Ron Jr. caddied for him.

World's best in Hawai'i

In Woods, Sorenstam and Irwin, golf fans had the opportunity this year to see the world's most dominant golfers of their respective tours win events in the 50th State.

Woods won the PGA Grand Slam for a fifth straight time at the Po'ipu Bay Resort with a course-record 11-under-par 61 in the final round in what ranks as the best round of competitive golf seen locally.

Sorenstam captured the first tournament of a remarkable 13-win LPGA season at the Takefuji Classic at the Waikoloa Resort on the Big Island. And Irwin took the Turtle Bay Championship again en route to becoming the senior tour's first $3 million man. That's not counting the $450,000 he pocketed in the Senior Skins Game at Wailea earlier in the year.

There'll undoubtedly be Tiger and Hale sightings next year. But Hawai'i is no longer a stop on the LPGA Tour schedule for the first time since 1982. Too bad.

Sorenstam, however, will appear in the Skins Game at Wailea.

Kelly's victory in the Sony Open also started another trend. He became the first of 18 first-time winners on the PGA Tour this year, all of whom will show up trying to oust Garcia, the defending champion, at next month's Mercedes Championships starting off the 2003 tour season.

Where did the year go?

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net

2002 Hawai'i Champions

January

• Mercedes Championships—Sergio Garcia, Kapalua Plantation Course
• Sony Open in Hawai'i—Jerry Kelly, Waialae C.C.
• MasterCard Championship—Tom Kite, Hualalai Golf Club
• Senior Skins Game—Hale Irwin, Wailea Gold Course

February

• Hawai'i Pearl Open—Kiyoshi Murota, Pearl C.C.
• Hilo Invitational—Dean Wilson, Hilo Municipal
• LPGA Takefuji Classic—Annika Sorenstam, Waikoloa Beach Course

March

• Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship —Joe Phengsavath, Pearl C.C.
• Big Island Candies Scotch 4-Ball—Kevin Hayashi and Lance Taketa, Hapuna Course

April

• Aloha Section PGA Pro-Pro Championship—David Ishii and Kevin Hayashi, Ko Olina Golf Club
• Mid-Pacific Open—Regan Lee, Mid-Pacific C.C.

May

• David S. Ishii Foundation Hawaii State Girls High School Championship—Leah Whiting (Waiakea). Team: Waiakea HS, Hawaii Prince
• Francis Brown 4-Ball—Phil Anamizu and Joe Phengsavath, 'Ewa Villages
• Verizon Hawaii Hall of Fame Championship—Jerry King, Kapalua Plantation
• David S. Ishii Foundation Hawaii State Boys High School Championship—Jarett Hamamoto. Team: Kamehameha, Leilehua
• Jennie K. Wilson Invitational—Kira-Ann Murashige, Mid-Pacific C.C.
• State Senior Amateur Championship—Phil Anamizu, Mid-Pacific C.C.
• Maui Open—Brian Sasada, Makena South.

June

• Manoa Cup—Travis Toyama, Oahu C.C.
• Mililani Rainbow Open—Regan Lee, Mililani Golf Club
• President's Cup—Norman-Ganin Asao, Pearl C.C.
• HSWGA Match Play Championship—Bobby Kokx, Oahu C.C.

July

• Ashworth Kapalua Clambake—John Ironside, Kapalua Plantation
• Oahu Country Club Men?'s Invitational—Ryan Koshi, Oahu C.C.
• Aloha Section Club Pro Championship—Brendan Moynahan, Po'ipu Bay Resort
• Pua Melia Invitational—Shayna Miyajima, Olomana
• Waialae Women's Invitational—Kuulei Kaae, Waialae C.C.
• Golf Concepts Aloha Section PGA 4-Ball Match Play—Andrew Feldmann and Larry Stubblefield, Oahu C.C.

August

• Maui Women's Invitational—Shayna Miyajima, Pukalani & Maui C.C.
• AT&T Stroke Play Championship—Ron Castillo Jr.; Larry Stubblefield (senior), Mauna Kea
• HSWGA Stroke Play Championship—Rachel Kyono, Mid-Pacific C.C.
• Aloha Section PGA Assistants Championship— Kevin Carll, Ko Olina
• Barbers Point Invitational—Mark West, Barbers Point G.C.

September

• Korean Invitational Tournament—John Mun, Pali G.C.
• Aloha Section PGA Match Play Championship—Ron Castillo Jr.; Ron Kiaaina Jr. (senior), Leilehua G.C.
• Hickam Amateur Invitational—Shannon Sibayan, Mamala Bay G.C.
• HSWGA Senior Championship—Mona Kim 73, Waikele Golf Club.
• OCC Senior Men?'s Invitational—Merv Matsumoto, Oahu C.C.
• Waikoloa Open—Regan Lee, Waikoloa Village.
• Mayor's Cup—Joe Phengsavath, Ala Wai G.C.

October

• Turtle Bay Championship—Hale Irwin, Palmer Course

November

• Aloha Section/Bridgestone Pro-Scratch—Lance Suzuki and Norman-Ganin Asao, Pearl C.C.
• Hawai'i State Open—Tom Eubanks (men), Michelle Wie (women), Makena South
• PGA Grand Slam—Tiger Woods, Po'ipu Bay Resort

December

• E-Z-Go Head Pro-Assistant Championship—Kevin Hayashi & Kevin Carll, Hualalai Resort.
• HSJGA Tournament of Champions—Christopher Souza (boys) and Michelle Wie (girls), Wailea Emerald.
• Amatour Championship—Joe Phengsavath, New 'Ewa Beach G.C.