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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, January 16, 2003

AROUND THE GREENS
Weekend golfer from Maui making his mark

By Bill Kwon

Royden Heirakuji hopes the putting touch that helped him string together six birdies in seven holes Monday will be with him at Waialae.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Wow, Makawao. The latest Maui wowie is Royden Heirakuji, a 37-year-old, once-a-week golfer who qualified on Monday to play in the Sony Open in Hawai'i, the PGA Tour's first full-field event that begins today at the Waialae Country Club.

Move over, Rich Beem. You only used to sell car stereos while trying to keep your day job as a professional golfer before finally hitting the jackpot in the PGA Championship.

Heirakuji is a veteran amateur golfer who hasn't played competitive golf in more than two years. The only golf outing these days for the Valley Island native is on Sundays with his gang at the Pukalani Country Club on the slopes of Haleakala.

Except for some practice on Wednesdays, He-irakuji is too busy as an air-conditioning installer for a Maui contractor.

So he stuns the local golf world, not to mention his golfing buddies, by shooting a 6-under-par 66 and then surviving a playoff with three others to gain one of the four qualifying spots for the Sony Open at the Pearl Country Club on Monday.

He's joined by Regan Lee, who shared medalist honors with a 65 with Andy Miller, son of Johnny Miller, winner of 25 PGA tournaments, including the 1973 U.S. Open.

That Lee qualified isn't that much of a surprise. He's perhaps the leading professional golfer locally.

But Heirakuji? Wow!

The two local Monday qualifiers join five other golfers with Hawai'i ties in the 72-hole Sony Open, which has arguably its best field in history, dating to 1965 when it was called the Hawaiian Open.

The other local golfers are Dean Wilson, a 2002 qualifying school graduate; two-time state amateur champion Joe Phengsavath, and three Aloha Section PGA pros — Ron Castillo Jr., the section's player of the year, Kirk Nelson and Doug Bohn. The latter two, both Maui pros, earned their spots in the sectional qualifying last month.

Heirakuji and Phengsavath are the only amateurs in the 144-man field in the $4.5 million event that pays $810,000 to the winner. They can't make any money, but they can sure make names for themselves.

Heirakuji didn't even think about the money when he signed up for the Monday qualifying.

"You had to declare before you enter the qualifying," said Heirakuji, who decided to give qualifying a try at least once at the urging of his golfing buddies.

"They kind of just egged me on. 'Come on, you can do it. You're playing pretty good. Go out there and get at it again,' " said Heirakuji, whose last competitive tournament locally was the 1999 State Amateur, which Lee won before turning pro.

"Then I just got too busy working," said the 1983 Maui High School graduate, who represented Hawai'i in several national public links tournaments, the last one two years ago. Heirakuji and his wife, Bridget, reside in the upcountry town of Makawao.

Those in his group who saw him go on a birdie binge — at holes 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 18 — told Heirakuji they couldn't believe he's a once-a-week golfer. He didn't fold under pressure, sinking a 20-foot birdie putt at Pearl's No. 1-handicap fourth hole to be the first of the four in the playoff for two spots to qualify.

"We all parred the first three (playoff) holes and I birdied four. That birdie putt got me to here," said Heirakuji, who was at Waialae's practice range with the big names of professional golf.

He's looking forward to playing with them.

"Like the qualifying, basically I just want to go out and play as well as I can. If it's good enough, it's good enough. If not, well, it's a good experience," Heirakuji said.

Lee has loftier goals in his first PGA Tour event.

"It's something I worked hard for. It's been a goal of mine for a long time, even before I turned professional," said the 27-year-old Lee, who played on the Gateway Tour in Arizona last summer. "As a professional, it's an ultimate thing to play on the PGA Tour."

Playing the back nine first, Lee was 6-under after 11 holes in Monday's qualifying and had a shot at a 9-under 63. But he three-putted a downhill, 7-foot birdie putt on the final hole.

"I was kind of nervous. I knew it was a fast putt. I went 5 feet past the hole and lipped the putt coming back. Lucky I had a tap-in for bogey. Otherwise, who knows?" he said.

"Being able to shoot a good round gets your hopes up and your confidence," added Lee, who feels playing on the Arizona mini tour and the Canada Tour the year before will help him this week.

"A lot of people have been telling me to have fun, enjoy the experience," Lee said.

Experience aside, he'd like some money, too, to defray expenses for another shot at the Gateway Tour and Q-School. Besides, he has another mouth to feed, as his wife, Wynne, is expecting in August.

"I'm still going to try to go in with the same mindset that I had in Gateway tournaments. What I've learned last summer was how to focus on individual shots. That's what I'll have to do, that's the only way I'll be able to shoot a good score, hopefully, and earn a good paycheck."

Cousin Brandan Kop, one of the state's leading amateur players, is more optimistic about Lee's chances:

"I'll be surprised if he doesn't make the cut. He should win some money. He's playing."

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