Suddenly clinging to what had been a comfortable advantage, defending champion Bobbi Kokx smacked in a 25-foot uphill birdie putt at the top of the Nu'uanu Valley course to re-seize control of her match with three-time champion Bev Kim. Two holes later, Kokx would close out a 5-and-3 victory.

"Bev was making a run and I stopped it," Kokx said. "That was pivotal for me."

The 13th green is so large and precarious, Kim actually chipped from the green to avoid the monstrous uphill roll.

Kokx's putt was half as long as Kim's. She hesitated, then bombed hers in. "I was scared after she hit wedge," Kokx said. "I didn't know if putter was enough club."

Kamehameha Schools junior Mari Chun won four consecutive holes to go 3-up on former Rainbow Wahine Bobbie Arakawa after 11. But Chun called the four-foot par putt to tie that she finessed in on the 12th — halfway up the valley — the crucial shot in her 5-and-4 victory.

"If I don't make that, I lose the hole," said Chun, 15. "I made it and it kept me going."

BOBBI KOKX

While Chun got hot, Arakawa, 22, did not. After Chun squared the match with par at No. 8, Arakawa "lost it" on a nightmarish tour of the ninth green with her wedge to fall behind. There was little she could do to catch Chun on the back.

It was the first time either has played this tournament, but Chun had experience in her favor. She reached the second round of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship last week in Florida, while Arakawa has been tournament-free since the WAC Championship in April.

She will graduate from UH in a year with a degree in Travel Industry Management.

Chun is trying to graduate at the top of Kamehameha's Class of 2005. "It's getting harder," she said. "People are taking four and five honors classes and I'm only taking three."

Chun has yet to see the 15th hole in match play, winning her first two rounds 9 and 8, and 6 and 4. She is solid to the green and can be spectacular on it. She is a fearless putter, gutsy and talented enough to tame OCC's slippery greens.

This morning (7 a.m. start), she will have to tame Kokx, the former Rainbow Wahine golfer and coach who now teaches at Kihei Elementary. Kim, inducted into the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame this year, couldn't cope yesterday.

Kim nearly had a hole-in-one on the 11th hole. The ensuing birdie gave her honors on the tee for the first time and cut her deficit to 3-down. A one-putt par on the 12th cut it further. Those would be the highlights of her day.

Kokx's slam dunk birdie a few hundred feet up the valley ended the charge and, ultimately, the match. She played her 15 holes in 4-under, birdieing six of the last eight.

Kokx hit her drive so far on the 355-yard 14th that all she needed for her approach shot was a 60-degree wedge. Kim conceded the birdie when she had trouble in the bunker to fall three back again.

On the next hole (544-yard par-5), Kim hit her fourth shot — a putt — before Kokx hit her third; she was pin-high in two.

"Everything she hit looked big to me, I was intimidated," Kim said. "I was 120 yards behind her on the last hole."

Kim struggled with her swing but said that, even on a good day, "I'd still be 40 yards behind Bobbi, instead of 80 or a 100."

Their match featured two long-time friends who had never competed in match play. The sum of their ages is 96 years, which speaks volumes for their golf wisdom. It was an uncommonly sophisticated show in a Hawai'i golf world that is suddenly titled toward precociousness.

Kim would rather face the phenoms. "It's easier to play the kids," she said, "because maybe at the end a little experience will help. But Bobbi has just as much as I do."