Kop's short game leads to sixth Army Invitational championship
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
WAHIAWA — Just when 20 was beginning to look over the hill in Hawai'i golf, the 2003 Army Invitational came along.
It was won yesterday by Brandan Kop, a 42-year-old golf equipment distributor with a legendary local golf name and short game. Squeezing in second were seniors Michael Foster and Merv Ma-tsumoto, both closer to 60 than 50.
It was Kop's sixth Army victory, but first of any kind since he won here in 1999. He closed with a 73 to transform a one-shot edge going into the final round into a six-shot runaway. Kop was the only player to finish under par, playing Leilehua (par 72) and Kalakaua (par 70) in 4-under-par 210.
Matsumoto, 58, won the Oahu Country Club Invitational earlier this summer. He trailed Kop by just a stroke going into the final round, but fatigue and Foster caught him.
Matsumoto, a part-time real estate agent, shot 78 yesterday to fall into a tie with Foster (73) at 216. An eight-foot downhill birdie putt on the third playoff hole gave Foster the senior title.
Foster, 57, is retired and calls Leilehua his home course. He gave credit for the senior surge to "Technology —Êthe new drivers and golf balls allow you to play at a somewhat advanced age."
"The game is a little easier," Foster added. "I'm playing better than I ever have in my life. I hit the ball 40 yards farther than when I was 30."
Foster said he felt Matsumoto was the player with the best shot at catching Kop, but that came with an asterisk.
"The whole Kop family, they are legends of Hawai'i golf," Foster said. "You don't expect them to have a bad day. They're too darn good."
Brandan's late grandfather, Guinea Kop, and uncle Wendell Kop, third in senior flight, are in the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame. Brandan, with an assortment of Manoa Cups and other major titles to go with his Army success, is on his way thanks to the family's remarkable short game.
Kop hit about half the greens in regulation over the three-day tournament, but a new wedge and putter felt so good it didn't matter. He one-putted 10 times in shooting his 5-under 65 Saturday at Kalakaua. At Leilehua, he needed just 29 putts each day.
"When your putter and your wedge is good, you don't care where you hit it," Kop said. "You can punch it out to 70 or 100 yards and you still feel you can make par. Sometimes it's ridiculous. You're looking at six and you make par.
"You feel like if you get it within 10 feet you can make par. If you hit the green, you get birdie."
It wasn't that easy for those chasing, particularly when gusty winds tamed Leilehua in the final round.
Del-Marc Fujita, 37, and Ryan Masuda, the 2000 state high school champion for Waiakea, trailed by three going in.
Fujita missed a short birdie putt on the second hole, hit a tree on the next and never sank a meaningful putt to prevent any charge. "It was a nerve-wracking day," he said.
Fujita (79) finished a shot behind Masuda, whose triple bogey on the 13th cost him second place. Iolani sophomore Spencer Shishido (75), playing in the championship flight for the first time, pulled into a tie with Fujita at 219
John Manumaleuna won A flight, shooting the day's low round — 4-under 68 — and also finished at 219.
But there was no catching Kop, whose legendary touch returned. It made him recall a previous Army victory when he never missed a putt inside eight feet over four rounds.
The good old days — before teenage golf terrors and doubts about his short game — are back, thanks in part to relatively short Kalakaua.
"That's the great equalizer in this tournament," Kop said. "The kids can't hit their driver there. You have to hit it in the fairway and play a lot of position shots. And you've got to hit the wedge. A lot of the young players are just full swing and driver. That's why the older players have a chance."
