15-year-old Toyama captures 94th Manoa Cup

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Travis Toyama, center, gets the traditional dunking after winning the 94th Manoa Cup at the O'ahu Country Club. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Toyama defeated Victorino, 5 and 3, to become the youngest state amateur match play champion in Hawai'i golf history. The previous youngest was Chipper Garriss, at 17, in 1967.

To put it into perspective, Toyama only needs to know this: Garriss and five of the players he beat to win that Manoa Cup — David "Bones" Bettencourt, Art Fujita, Paul Spengler, Larry Stubblefield and Hung Soo Ahn — are now in the Aloha Section PGA Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame.

"The boy is amazing," said six-time Manoa Cup champion — and Hall of Famer — Ken Miyaoka, who followed Toyama every hilly step yesterday.

"They're getting younger and they're getting better," four-time champion Brandan Kop, who was shown the door by 14-year-old Kurt Nino Thursday. "That's just the way it is."

Victorino won the Manoa Cup in 1996. He turns 33 today on Kaua'i knowing he played his best golf before yesterday's one-sided final. It might not have mattered.

Despite a lapse near the end of the morning round, when Toyama helped Victorino win three consecutive holes, the University High junior took a 2-up advantage to lunch by winning the 17th and 18th.

Toyama smoked his drive on the first tee of the final 18 holes, watched Victorino nearly whiff, then dropped the hammer in a hurry.

Toyama's second shot to that 19th hole — the 424-yard par-4 No. 1 — curled within 15 feet of the cup. Victorino eventually conceded the hole and birdie putt.

On the next hole (446-yard par-5), Toyama finessed a wedge shot within a foot and went 4-up when Victorino's four-foot downhill birdie putt slid by.

The advantage was five after Toyama lofted his second shot 150 yards downwind to a dead stop 10 feet from the 21st hole. Victorino could not get up and down from the bunker.

Toyama two-putted for par and a 6-up advantage on the next hole.

"That killed me," Victorino said. "You always keep trying, but after those first few holes it was tough. I tried to bring my game, but I just couldn't. It just wasn't there. I made a few mistakes and he just wouldn't let me in."

Victorino would win three of the next six holes (losing one), but his free-fall on the previous six proved fatal against the 5-foot-5, 125-pound Toyama, who hits his drives 290 yards.

Victorino grimly hung on, but could only halve Nos. 29-32. Toyama saved par from the sand, dealt with OCC's treacherous greens and demonic pin placements with wisdom far beyond his years and punched his way around any trees in his way.

"I was pretty confident," Toyama said. "I just told myself don't do anything that's going to leave the door open for him. You don't want to give him a chance to come back and beat you. Play smart. Play safe."

But his graceful game was not what awed the rapidly growing gallery most. Toyama, with every reason to be nervous and no experience to fall back on, never flinched under the pressure of a legendary tournament.

"The main thing is take a deep breath and hit when you're ready," Toyama said. "I was nervous with all these cameras and all these spectators. I didn't want to make a big mistake."

When it was over, Toyama shed the much-too-large green jacket given to the champion and sat on the pool deck for the traditional dunking. His "father/coach/everything" Masa grabbed his ankles to help throw him in, then jumped in behind him. Caddy Reyn Tanaka came next, surprised by a shove.

A star was born, and he's not even old enough to drive a golf cart.