Chulakote, 16, wins state amateur golf title
By Bill Kwon
Special to the Advertiser
In the end, they were all chasing a guy named Chase, and they couldn't catch him.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Chase Chulakote (pronounced: chew lah KOT), a 16-year-old Kailua High School senior, won the Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship with a clutch par on the 72nd hole to win by one stroke over Mark West yesterday at the Pearl Country Club.
Kailua High's Chase Chulakote is the 2003 Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play champion.
Chulakote, whose previous titles have been in the junior golf tournaments, shot a 3-under-par 69 for a 72-hole score of 282.
"I'm very happy for Chase. He kept his composure under pressure. He handled it very well with that up and down on the final hole," said West, whose finishing 71 gave him a 283 total.
Travis Toyama, who shared the third-round lead with West, finished third at 284 while 13-year-old Michelle Wie tied for fourth with Jonathan Ota at 286.
Chulakote led West by one shot going into the par-4 18th, but sent his tee shot behind a tree. Stymied, Chulakote chipped out to the fairway and pitched to 3 1/2 feet to save par.
West was on in two but couldn't drop his long, downhill putt for a birdie that would have forced a playoff in an already long and rainy afternoon.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I told myself not to try anything stupid. Just chip it out and make par that way," said Chulakote, who's the No. 1 player on the Kailua team.
"(Chase Chulakote) made a great up and down. He knew what he had to do and he did it," Mark West said.
He did, to record a victory in one of the two major men's amateur championships locally. The other is the Manoa Cup, emblematic of the Hawai'i Amateur Match Play Championship.
Chulakote missed the cut in the Manoa Cup qualifying last year. If he can win it this year, he would become the first player to win both amateur championships in the same year.
"He has made great progress the past year," said Kevin Ralbovsky, Chulakote's golf instructor. "His commitment level has gone up, as well as his work ethic."
Toyama, who became the youngest champion to win the Manoa Cup at the age of 15 last year, closed with an even-par 72 yesterday.
"I played pretty solid the four days," said Toyama, "but it was a little bit of a grind."
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
He and West led Chulakote by one stroke entering the final round.
"I think I did pretty good," said Michelle Wie, who leaves Friday to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first of the LPGA Tour majors.
But Chulakote birdied the first, third and fifth holes to take the lead. He gave one back by three-putting the par-3 sixth. He opened up a two-stroke lead before bogeying the par-3 16th, failing to go up and down after missing the green.
That cut Chulakote's lead to one but he matched West's birdie at the par-5 17th to remain ahead by one going into the final hole.
"He made a great up and down. He knew what he had to do and he did it," West said.
Wie, the Punahou School eighth-grader, fared well in her third State Amateur attempt. Playing from the championship tees measuring 6,787 yards and more than keeping up with the guys, she had rounds of 71-76-68-71.
"I think I did pretty good," said Wie, who leaves Friday to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first of the LPGA Tour majors.
Thanks to Wie's notoriety, even the Golf Channel posted the scores of the Hawai'i State Amateur leaderboard. It was a first for the event, according to tournament director Jay Hinazumi.
"All because of one person," he said.
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