Kokx beats Tsukada for match play crown

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Maui's Bobbi Kokx, playing in her first Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship, defeated Kathy Tsukada 2-up in yesterday's final. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Kokx won the 27th Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship 2-up over Tsukada yesterday at O'ahu Country Club. Kokx, 38, captured the first three holes, then spent the next 2 1/2 hours desperately holding the 45-year-old Tsukada off.

"Match play really brings out the competitive nature in people, and Kathy rises to that," Kokx said. "She plays well in stroke play but in match play she rises. She seems to make all the putts."

In a golf era where "how low can you go" refers to score and age, this final was a match made in middle-aged heaven. With the teeny boppers committed to U.S. Junior Girls qualifying this week, and the "Big Wiesy" — Michelle Wie, who has won the past two women's majors she's played — away for the summer, grip-and-rip was replaced by wisdom and wiles.

Fortunately, those traits are invaluable in match play, as finals often prove. While students have dominated the Jennie K. and State Stroke Play the last decade, seasoned players such as Mahina Ah Yuen (1999), Bev Kim ('96), Kalaya Bhaedhayajibh ('94), Lesly Ann Komoda ('92) and Keiki-Dawn Izumi ('91) have won match play.

This was the first time Kokx was in the HSWGA Match Play Championship, but her resume includes two Jennie K. titles, four years on the Rainbow Wahine team, three more as coach, and a seven-year professional career here and in Japan.

She is now a third-grade teacher at Kihei Elementary. "The kids will be excited to see something good in the paper," Kokx said, "instead of all the bad stuff."

Tsukada grew up in South Korea, took up golf after she moved here 16 years ago, and played her first tournament last year. She and her husband, Dennis, own three Baskin-Robbins stores. Something in those 31 flavors must fuel tenacity.

She was 3-down in her semifinal and beat Kim in extra holes. Yesterday, Kokx woke Tsukada moments after the 7 a.m. start by launching consecutive birdies on the opening par-5's. Kokx putted for eagle on the first hole, then eased in a 12-footer on the second.

Tsukada's nerves betrayed her for bogey on the next hole. She got one back when Kokx hit a tree and bogeyed the seventh, but Tsukada's only three-putt left Kokx 3-up making the turn.

It would be the last hole Kokx would win for awhile. Tsukada "kept telling myself don't give up" and one-putted to take 11 and 12. She saved par — and a halve — by sinking slick putts from 10 feet on 13, four on 15 and seven on 16.

"She's got a good, strong mind," Kokx said of Tsukada. "When she sets her mind to making a putt, she makes it. That's just no fear. That's like playing a $100 bet with nothing in your pocket."

After watching her fortunes soar and sink at a moment's notice all over OCC's brutal back nine, Kokx's victory almost snuck up on her on the 18th green.

Tsukada went into the hole knowing she had to win it. As usual, she drilled her drive into the middle of the fairway, several yards behind Kokx. But this time Tsukada pulled her approach shot.

"I moved my body too much," Tsukada said. "Tried to put it too close. Then I thought the chip was in. Chip-in is my favorite."

When Kokx hit the green in two, Tsukada had no choice but to charge the downhill chip for birdie. The ball slipped over the edge of the cup and sped away. Kokx left her birdie putt a foot short and Tsukada conceded for the first time all week.

Her low-maintenance game and stubborn resistance ultimately was not enough. It did, however, provide a week's worth of wild rides that only Kokx could stop.

"She's got more experience," Tsukada said of Kokx. "And she hits good drives ...Êeverything she does well. I'm still new, kinda learning."

That's a scary thought, even for the kids.