Wai'anae's Medeiros gets final say in pro-junior golf
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Special report: 2002 Sony Open
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Tournament historical statistics
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
When Brad Faxon last left Waialae Country Club a year ago, he was hitting ridiculously close to the hole and sinking every putt in sight. Little had changed yesterday, except Wai'anae High junior Earl Medeiros was making the putts.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Medeiros, cast as the hero by Faxon's brilliant pitch shot, sank a three-foot birdie putt on the final hole to lift him and Faxon to victory in the inaugural First Hawaiian Bank Pro-Junior Golf Challenge.
Wai‘anae High junior Earl Medeiros teamed with Brad Faxon to win yesterday's First Hawaiian Bank Pro-Junior Golf Challenge.
The exhibition teamed six pros with six of Hawai'i's finest juniors, over six holes. After all 12 teed off at No. 10, the players alternated shots. Going into the final hole, four teams were tied for the lead at 1-over par.
Faxon, who opens defense of his Sony Open in Hawai'i title tomorrow, took care of that with a little help from his big friend.
Medeiros fanned Faxon's flair for the dramatic by flaring the team's second shot wide right, behind the sponsor boxes. Faxon got a free drop in the deep rough that fronts the JumboTron.
"I got an awful lie, the ball mats down there, it can come out any way," Faxon said. "It came out perfectly and he had about a 2 1/2- to 3-footer up the hill with a little bit of break. Then Tom Lehman starts going, 'This is for the win, don't miss this one.' Davis Love is saying stuff.
"Oh, I felt so nervous for him (Medeiros) I went over and told him: 'You've made a lot of these before. Don't listen to these clowns.' He was breathing hard, but I knew he'd make it."
Medeiros had to watch six other putts before he got his chance. Scott Simpson came closest to birdie, his 40-footer from the fringe hanging on the right lip and refusing to fall. Simpson went to partner Gabe Wilson and pretended to cry.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Then, when Medeiros was ready to putt, Simpson grabbed the microphone to echo all the other grief surrounding the winning putt.
Hawai'i pro David Ishii asked junior golfer Michelle Wie for an autograph yesterday at Waialae Country Club.
"This is for the win, right?," Simpson asked the large crowd that surrounded the green. "Just checking."
Medeiros looked over the putt again, stood over the ball and —doing his best Faxon imitation —knocked it into the heart of the hole.
"Oh ...I felt whoooo ... I had butterflies in my stomach," Medeiros said. "Now I feel good."
He had looked good from the beginning. Faxon and Medeiros were the only team to bogey the opening hole, when Faxon — who has led the PGA Tour in putting three times since 1996 — missed a short one. Medeiros grinned at him.
Faxon made it up on the next hole (196-yard par-3) by driving within four feet of the pin. They got back to even, while Davis Love III and Ayumi Hori, the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association Player of the Year from Moanalua, took the lead on Hori's 12-footer for birdie.
That advantage stood up until the fifth hole (189-yard par-3 17th), where they bogeyed to create the four-way tie. The ocean hole was also the site of the day's most entertaining exchange. Partners Lehman and Michelle Wie, one of two 12-year-old prodigies in the field, swapped bunker-to-bunker shots across the green, finishing with double bogey to take themselves out of contention.
"I put her in the right bunker, which is the worst place to be," Lehman said. "She had a really difficult shot that went across the green. Then they said I was one of the best bunker players on the tour. I knew that was the kiss of death."
• WHERE: Waialae Country Club (35-35i70, 7,060 yards) • WHEN: 7 a.m. tomorrow and Friday, 7:30 a.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. Sunday
Hawai'i's David Ishii and Jarett Hamamoto, the reigning state high school champion from Waiakea, also birdied the final hole to pull into the four-way tie for second, with Hori and Love, Simpson and Wilson, and Fred Couples and Stephanie Kono.
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• WHAT: Full-field PGA Tour event
The $25,000 Challenge, which replaced the Johnny Bellinger Shoot-Out after a 14-year run, donated $12,000 to the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association. Faxon won the $5,000 first prize and designated the huge duplicate check — suitable for framing — to Medeiros.
"It never ceases to amaze me how young some of these people are, and how good and composed they are," Faxon said. "That's the most impressive thing. Obviously, there's some people out there with great swings, but to see the way they handle themselves ... that's the most impressive thing."
SHORT PUTTS: Michelle Wie, the youngest player ever to qualify for the U.S. Women's Public Links, will play in today's Pro-Am. She received an invitation from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. ... Jarett Hamamoto will caddy for his cousin, Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year Kevin Hayashi, at the Sony Open.
