AROUND THE GREENS
Hawai'i's proud Publinx history beginning to fade

By Bill Kwon

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PUBLINX AND HAWAI'I Champions 1974—Charles Barenaba, Brookside G.C., Pasadena, Calif. 1975—Randy Barenaba, Wailua G.C., Lihu'e, Kaua'i 1978—Dean Prince, Bangor Municipal, Bangor, Maine 1994—Guy Yamamoto, Eagle Bend G.C., Bigfork, Mont. Runners-up 1934—Arthur Armstrong, Allegheny Park, Pittsburgh 1962—Hung Soo Ahn, Sheridan Park G.C., Tonawanda, N.Y. 1969—Art Fujita, Downing G.C., Erie, Pa. 1975—Allan Yamamoto, Wailua G.C., Lihu'e, Kaua'i Honolulu won the Harding Cup (team championship) in 1957 at Hershey, Pa., in 1969 at Detroit, and in 1975 at Wailua, Kaua'i.

Over the years, however, Hawai'i has had its share of champions and runners-up in the national event for golfers who primarily play public courses.

The Punahou and UCLA graduate qualified this year with an asterisk.

McLachlin qualified to enter the national championship, not from one of the four local sections, but from Michigan where he's spending the summer working for former Isle golf pro Scott Head at the Tree Tops Resort.

Guy Yamamoto, whose 10-year exemption for winning the championship in 1994 ends next year, and sectional qualifiers Jonathan Ota (Kaua'i), Jay Kurisu (Maui), Troy Higashiyama (O'ahu) and Gabriel Wilson (Big Island) missed Tuesday's 36-hole cut which was 152. Ota missed by one stroke.

"Always a thrill"

Yamamoto said he will be trying again next year when the tournament will be in Minnesota because it's an unforgettable experience, especially after his victory which gave him the opportunity to play in the Masters the following year.

"It's always a thrill, absolutely," Yamamoto said.

It's not a cheap thrill, though. It is getting more expensive to enter the tournament each year, more so because the USGA stopped subsidizing travel expenses in 2000.

It cost Yamamoto $800 in airfare, $300 in car rental and $600 for hotel accommodations. But he said the opportunity to take advantage of the exemption is "priceless." Still, it's a costly one for those from Hawai'i.

"It's unfortunate. The popularity of the tournament has continued to grow, but it's fallen off dramatically in Hawai'i because a lot of guys can't afford to go," he said.

Hawai'i participants down

Art Fujita, who has played in 10 Publinx nationals, the last one seven years ago at the age of 61 , has seen the decline in the number of players trying to qualify locally.

"We used to send 12 players to the nationals, now we have only one player from each section," said Fujita, pointing out that the USGA requires at least 90 entries to get two spots for a section.

"Too bad," Fujita said, "because the Publinx is for down-to-earth golfers."

The matter of expenses has also impacted Hawai'i in another way, according to Fujita. He has been long involved with the USGA and was instrumental in bringing the men's Publinx championship three times (1975, 1985 and 1996) to the golf course he grew up playing — Wailua, on his native island of Kaua'i.

The Ala Wai Golf Course, when it still was a championship layout, was the site of the men's championship in 1960 and the women's Publinx in 1983.

Kapalua Bay also hosted the women in 1998.

However, with travel expenses a primary concern, the USGA is hardly in any hurry to consider Hawai'i as a future site for any of the 13 national championships it conducts.

Especially the Publinx, which is considered an "American blue-collar" tournament.

The first Publinx in 1975 made tournament history and provided one of the most emotional and stirring moments in local golf when Randy Barenaba beat Allan Yamamoto in 37 holes. It marked the first and only time that brothers have won back-to-back championships, with Charles Barenaba winning the year before in Pasadena, Calif.

Three years later, another Hawai'i native won the men's championship in Bangor, Maine, with very little fanfare locally. Few knew that Dean Prince, a Bay Area amateur, was born in Honolulu. He beat Tony Figueredo, 5 and 3, to win the 1978 crown.

Prince crowned

Prince beat Jodie Mudd, then 16, in the quarterfinals. Mudd, who went on to play on the PGA Tour, won back-to-back Publinx titles in 1980 and 1981.

"I was one of 16 guys playing for the last 12 spots to get in," said Prince, who moved to Maui in 1990 and hasn't been beaten since the Hawai'i State Open began a senior division seven years ago.

Guy Yamamoto became Hawai'i's fourth men's Publinx champion in 1994, beating Chris Riley, then a UNLV sophomore, in 37 holes at the Eagle Bend Golf Course in Bigfork, Mont.

As it turned out, Riley was one of three golfers now on the PGA Tour that Yamamoto defeated en route to his title. The other two were Notah Begay and Matt Gogel.

"Funny how life has its twists," said Yamamoto, like Fujita, a Kaua'i native with a deep affection for the tournament.

His first caddy job came at the 1975 Publinx at Wailua when he was 13.

He tried unsuccessfully 11 times to qualify out of the sectionals before hitting it big the 12th time, winning the national championship.

Coming close

Besides Allan Yamamoto, no relation, other runners-up in the men's Publinx from Hawai'i were Fujita in Erie, Pa., in 1969, Hung Soo Ahn in Tonawanda, N.Y., in 1962, and Arthur Armstrong in the 1934 championship in Pittsburgh.

"I lost to Hung Soo in the first round," said Yamamoto, who made the first of his five Publinx appearances that year. Ahn lost, 2 and 1, to defending champion Richard Sikes.

One of the best golfers of Hawaiian ancestry, Armstrong was 17 when he lost the 1934 final to David Mitchell, 5 and 3, in Pittsburgh. In 1939, he shared medalist honors before losing in the semifinals in Baltimore.

When it comes to the U.S. Amateur Public Links — and don't forget Michelle Wie, who won the women's event last month at the age of 13, and Lori Castillo, a back-to-back champion in 1979 and 1980 — Hawai'i can be proud of the accomplishments of its golfers in that championship over the years.

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