AROUND THE GREENS
Wilson siblings aiming to bring Waiakea trophies

By Bill Kwon

Gabriel Wilson and sister Amanda hit the practice green at Pearl Country Club prior to the state amateur stroke play championship in March. It was the first time they played in a tournament together. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"You can see when he gets mad," Amanda, right, says of her brother Gabriel. "Yeah, she's calmer than me," Gabriel admits.

STATE SCORECARD GIRLS Individual Champions 1994—Anna Umemura (Punahou) 153 1995—Anna Umemura (Punahou) 153 1996—Elisha Au (Kamehameha) 155 1997—Anna Umemura (Punahou) 153 1998—Melanie Matsumura (Waiakea) 152 1999—Shayna Miyajima (Baldwin) 152 2000—Merynn Ito ('Aiea) 143 2001—Rachel Kyono (Kaua'i) 143 2002—Leah Whiting (Waiakea) 149

Now married to Kapalua Resort's Gary Planos, Lori was good enough to play with the boys and good thing, too, because there was no team competition for girls in high school then. Times have changed; girls now compete in separate league and state tournaments.

Amanda Wilson will try to help Waiakea High defend its team championship, besides improving on her runner-up finish as a freshman last year, in the David Ishii/HHSAA girls championship starting tomorrow at the Waikoloa Beach Course on the Big Island.

Gabriel Wilson, who played on two Waiakea boys' state championship teams before Kamehameha ended the Hilo school's four-year title run last year, will try to close his senior year with yet another team crown next week at the Waikoloa Kings' Course.

Both Wilsons finished second in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation individual championships last week with the family's bragging rights belonging to Amanda, who let her brother know it.

"I razzed him because I beat him scorewise," said Amanda, who finished second to Hilo High's Kira-Ann Murashige by one stroke with a 54-hole score of 220.

Gabriel's score was 221, four strokes behind David Kim, a Waiakea High freshman whose breakout victory shows he's ready to move up from the junior golf ranks and challenge the state's leading amateurs.

The Wilson siblings play a lot of practice rounds together and even represented Hawai'i in the American Junior Golf Association's annual Polo Junior Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida last summer. But they have never competed in the same golf tournament until last March when Amanda decided to test the gender barrier by playing in the Hawai'i State Amateur.

"That was pretty hard," said Amanda, fully realizing that her brother plays a far different game of golf than she does. His is power, hers, finesse.

"But I don't get mad. You can see when he gets mad," Amanda confides.

"Yeah, she's calmer than me," Gabriel admits.

Off the golf course, though, Gabriel is more laid back than Amanda, according to their parents, Daniel and Hanna Wilson.

"Gabriel wants to win, but Amanda wants to win more," says their father. "He has a strong will, but she has a stronger mental game. That's why she does so well on the Mainland."

Who can forget her stirring match with Michelle Wie in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship in Sunriver, Ore., last summer. Amanda, then 14, lost 1 up, after 19 holes.

"I didn't make a bogey," Amanda said in recalling the match. "Too bad we were in the same bracket. I wished we could have played at the end (for the title)."

Amanda and Michelle, who lost in the semifinals, earned exemptions to the national qualifying in Florida next month by finishing among the top eight.

Amanda had a remarkable run last year, finishing runner-up in the state tournament and the Jennie K. Invitational to Murashige, then going on to play in the women's publinx, the U.S. Junior Girls and the Callaway Junior World Championships for the sixth straight year.

It will be seven in a row this summer for Wilson, who has another demanding schedule that will see her spending most of the summer on the Mainland.

She doesn't remember how she fared in her first Junior World showing in San Diego, but you can't blame her. Not many 7-year-olds would.

"But I finished fifth last year," said Wilson, who's looking forward to finally playing Torrey Pines now that she's moved up to the 15-17 age bracket.

Gabriel, who will be 18 next month, will have a less hectic summer now that he's no longer eligible for the Junior World after five appearances. He's still not sure if he will play the Manoa Cup, but plans on working on his game and getting ready for collegiate golf at Idaho State this fall.

"Our grandmother started us in golf," said Gabriel, who was 7 when Mitsuko Wilson first took him to the Banyan Golf Course and driving range.

Amanda tagged along, and soon she and her brother began thriving in the Big Island junior golf program.

"Their personalities are total opposites. But they feed off each other. And, oh, yeah, they kid each other a lot," said Hanna, who grew up in Kane'ohe where she met her husband, who was stationed at Schofield Barracks.

Originally from Colorado, Daniel took his wife's maiden name, if you're confused that the grandmother also is named Wilson.

The Wilsons, who moved to Hilo in 1984, also have another son, Daniel, 12, who's playing junior golf.

Dad also is taking up the game, while Hanna enjoys just being a golf mom, accompanying Amanda to tournaments on the Mainland. Thanks, she says, to an understanding boss, George Kimura, an electrical contractor in Hilo.

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