By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Let's tell a story about Our Honolulu that makes you feel good. Maybe it's not all that important a story, but to Young Kang it's a miracle.

The story is about a diamond ring. "There sure are a lot of diamonds in it," commented Kerry Moyer, a starter at the Ewa Village Golf Course. What we're talking about here is a valuable ring.

Not only that, but it's Young's wedding ring. She married Pyong Kang in South Korea before they immigrated to the United States. Now they live in Los Gatos, Calif., south of San Francisco.

The Kangs play golf. No, they LIVE golf. Religiously, three times a week, they are out on the course by 7 a.m. And they're both in their seventies.

They like Hawai'i and have friends in Honolulu, the Simon Chos. The Chos also play golf, at Ewa Village Golf Course.

So they made up a foursome on May 12 before flying home on a red-eye special.

Usually, Young takes off her wedding ring before she leaves home to make sure she won't lose it. "This time I forgot," she said. Young didn't want to wear her ring while playing golf, so she tucked it into a deep pocket of her slacks.

After the game, they all went to dinner before taking off for the airport. Suddenly, Young discovered that she didn't have her ring. She must have lost it on the golf course.

"My heart was pounding hard as I became frantic," she said. "As remote of a chance as it was, I had to try to find my ring, even if it meant searching the grounds of the golf course myself."

It was getting dark by the time they got back to 'Ewa at 7 p.m. Roy, the security guard, was locking up. He explained that nobody was allowed on the course after hours.

"I think I lost my ring at No. 12 hole," said Young. "How can we get permission to look?"

Roy started calling around. After many attempts he got hold of Kerry Moyer, a starter. He lives in 'Aiea. Kerry remembered that Carol Matsuzaki had turned in a ring she found in the women's restroom. She'd turned it in to John, who was changing the water in the cooler at the No. 7 hole.

John gave the ring to Kerry, who put in the safe. He said he'd be glad to open the safe in the morning.

"Our plane leaves in two hours," said Young. "We can't wait that long. Won't you please come and open the safe tonight?"

It took Kerry about half an hour to drive over from 'Aiea. He asked Young to describe the ring. "It sounded about right," he said. "The ring had an awful lot of diamonds on it. When I showed it to her, she was speechless."

That's about it, except the Kangs want to thank Carol Matsuzaki, who Kerry said plays at Ewa Village Golf Course a lot but isn't in the phone book. If the Kangs can find her, they want to invite her to play golf with them if she visits the Mainland.

They said, "We avoided a major catastrophe because of the kind trustfulness of your O'ahu residents."