ISLE FILE
Kokx wins her second match play title in row
Advertiser Staff and News Services
A 39-year-old schoolteacher schooled one of Hawai'i's top young guns in winning the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championships yesterday at Oahu Country Club.
Maui's Bobbi Kokx, who teaches at Kihei Elementary, defeated 15-year-old Mari Chun, 4 and 3, to win for the second year in a row.
"I'm thrilled," said Kokx, a former University of Hawai'i player and coach. "At my age, I'm glad that some of this experience is paying off."
Kokx birdied four of the first seven holes (Nos. 1, 2, 7, 8) to go 4-up on the front nine.
Chun, an incoming Kamehameha Schools junior, won the 12th hole to close to 3-up. But Kokx won the 14th by pitching to within a foot en route to a birdie on the 355-yard, par 4 hole.
Kokx closed the match with a par on the par-5, 544-yard 15th hole.
Chun, playing in this tournament for the first time, reached the second round of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship last week in Florida.
"She's a very consistent player," Kokx said of Chun, "but I guess she didn't putt that well today."
The event is the second of the four majors in Hawai'i women's golf. Stephanie Kono, 13, won the Jennie K. in May.
The next is the women's stroke play in August, in which Kokx hopes to compete.
Kokx defeated three-time champion Bev Kim, 5 and 3, in Thursday's semifinal. Chun defeated Bobbie Arakawa, 5 and 4, in the other semifinal Thursday.
VOLLEYBALL
Wong-Metzger advance: Stein Metzger and Kevin Wong split two matches yesterday to advance to the round of 16s in the SWATCH-FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour tournament in Berlin.
Wong and Metzger, both Punahou and UCLA alums, finished second in their pool. The American teams of Dax Holdren and Eric Fonoimoana (Pool O), and Todd Rogers and Sean Scott (Pool K) finished second in their respective pools to advance.
Wong and Metzger will play Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego of Brazil in today's round of 16s with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals later in the day.
The semifinals and final will be played tomorrow.
WATER POLO
U.S. sinks Australia: Hawai'i's Brandon Brooks made 14 saves and Tony Azevedo scored three goals, leading Team USA to a 10-7 water polo shootout victory over Australia in the first game of the FINA World League tournament at Budapest, Hungary.
Brooks, a Punahou School and UCLA alum, blocked two shots in the shootout, while Azevedo, team captain Wolf Wigo and Jeff Powers scored for Team USA from the five-meter mark.
Team USA, which trailed 7-4 before rallying with three fourth-quarter goals to tie, will take on newly crowned European champion Serbia and Montenegro tomorrow.
Azevedo scored the tying goal with 13 seconds left to play in regulation.
