Amateurs will have tour to call their own

By Bill Kwon

The spotlight is on amateur golf with the 72-hole State Amateur stroke-play championship beginning today at the Pearl Country Club and, more significantly, the start of a new amateur tour that will add seven tournaments to the 2002 Hawai'i golf calendar.

From left: Paul Kimura, Garret Omuro and Shawn Tanoue are the driving force behind Amatour Hawai'i for amateur golfers in the state. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

They are amateurs in the truest sense of the original Latin word amator, meaning someone who engages in a pursuit, study, science or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession. It is strictly non-profit. There is no money in it for the three, who are hardly amateurs when it comes to golfing ability. They all play to a single-digit handicap.

Plans call for the qualifying tournament to be played March 23-24 at the Makaha Resort Golf Club, with the top 60 players gaining exemptions for the six 36-hole tournaments at different golf courses. Alternates will be based in the order of finish in the qualifying tournament.

Thanks to title sponsors, each tournament will offer $1,800 in merchandise prizes and will include other features such as an Amatour Hawai'i money clip/ID tour badge and a golf cap. Features for the tournament will include a professional scoreboard, updated on-course leaderboards and televised accounts provided by K-5. Also, the tour's player of the year will be honored at the season-ending awards banquet.

"We want to give it a feel of a professional tournament," Omuro said.

"It's basically a tour for amateurs, something like a developmental, mini-tour for them. And it won't conflict with the already established tournaments," added Kimura, who along with Omuro and Tanoue, noted the decline in the number of local men's amateur events in recent years.

Navy-Marine, for example, canceled its tournament this year because of work on its golf course. Barbers Point dropped its amateur event in 1999 for the same reason. And the Hickam Amateur will return this September after a two-year absence. It was canceled last year because of 9/11.

The new tour concept figures to provide many of Hawai'i's fine amateur golfers, who otherwise don't play much tournament golf, a more convenient opportunity because the tournaments will be held on weekends only.

"It's hard for them to get off work. So this is a chance for them to play in tournaments. They get to play two rounds, there's no cut," Kimura said.

"This idea has been talked about for a long time," Omuro said, "but we finally got together and decided to do something about it, right after the State Amateur exactly a year ago."

"It's something new that we ought to try," added Tanoue. "I like it, otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it."

At last count, 55 players have signed up to play in the qualifying tournament, a good sign considering it is more than two weeks away. The entry fee is $135 for the qualifying event, $115 for the six other tournaments.

"We have to be conservative the first year, nothing grandiose," said Kimura, who hopes the Amatour will eventually draw 100 participants from every island. For now, it is limited to male golfers 15 years of age and older. Kimura hopes that the Amatour might eventually include tournaments for women and seniors.

"But, right now, we just want to get it started," said Omuro, son of Hawai'i golf hall of famer, Jack Omuro.

"The reception has been good so far," said Kimura, who can be reached at pkimura@amatourhawaii.com or by telephone at 351-2499 for more information.

"It's a neat concept," said Brandan Kop, one of the state's top amateur golfers. "It's on a weekend so more people can play. And it gives more amateurs a chance to feel what it's like playing in tournaments."

What Kop likes best about the new tour is that it can only improve the quality of golf in Hawai'i, especially those golfers who play strictly for the love of the game — the amateurs.

It is definitely an idea long overdue in local golf and worth supporting.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.