GOLF BRIEFS
Barbers Point Invitational opens with strong field

Advertiser Staff

The 2003 Barbers Point Invitational tees off tomorrow without Mark West, who won the past two championships.

The field is still strong, with Norman-Ganin Asao, Mark Chun, Matthew Ma and Kurt Nino entered. More than half of last year's top 10 are also playing, with 2002 runner-up John Bascuk in the field, along with Blaine Kimura, Joe Phengsavath, Randy Shibuya, Brandan Kop and Paul Kimura.

Michelle Wie, who tied for fourth last year, is not playing.

First tee times are 7 a.m. tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. There are Championship, A, B and Senior flights.

Local pros honored by Golf magazine

Jerry King, Casey Nakama, Ben Hongo and Jackie Pung are recognized as Hawai'i's best instructors in the September issue of Golf Digest. The magazine asks 1,500 teaching professionals from across the country to rank their peers.

King, the head teaching professional at the Kapalua Golf Academy, is ranked first in Hawai'i. Hongo, also an instructor at the Academy, is third.

Nakama, who helped mold Michelle Wie's game at his Olomana Golf Development Center, is second.

Pung, who works out of her Jackie Pung Golf Academy on the Big Island, is fourth. Pung, 81, won the 1952 U.S. Amateur.

The magazine names America's 50 Greatest Teachers, headed by Butch Harmon and David Leadbetter, and the best in each state. The state honors are in proportion to that state's percentage of the "total teaching-professional population — about 20,000 PGA, LPGA and unaffiliated teachers." More than 40 are named in Florida, compared to Hawai'i's four.

Of the teachers on the "50 Greatest" and "Best in State" lists, lesson rates range from $35 to $5,000 (for a morning with Leadbetter).