California golf teacher claims Hawai'i Open

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

KAMUELA, Hawai'i — Look what the wind blew in.

New champions from every tee rose above the great gusts that rocked the Prince Resorts Hawai'i State Open over the weekend. The survivors yesterday turned out to be a 42-year-old golf teacher from California, a Punahou eighth-grader and a former Hawai'i resident.

Kris Moe, who has expanded his Golf Schools from Sonoma, Calif., to Kaua'i in the past three years, became the second straight State Open champion from outside the state. Moe closed with a 2-under-par 70 at Hapuna Golf Course yesterday to beat Hilo Muni's Lance Taketa (69) by three and three-time champion Kevin Hayashi (75) by four.

Moe's three-day total was a record-high 6-over 222.

Stephanie Kono, 13, continued her major title march by sinking a 6-foot par putt on the 54th hole to win the women's title by a shot over Hilo teenager Christine Kim. Kono closed at 82—238 — 30 shots higher than Michelle Wie's winning total last year.

George Newbeck, who now lives in Tennessee, tied Moe at 72—222 — off tees 340 yards shorter — to win the senior title by two shots over Larry Stubblefield. Newbeck's total is the highest since Dean Prince won the inaugural senior division in 1996. Prince had won that title every year since, sharing it with Dan Nishimoto last year.

Beom Hee Kim (74) rallied to capture low amateur honors by a shot over reigning state high school champion Troy Higashiyama (80). Kim's 229 was nine off Ryan Koshi's winning total a year ago.

The trend toward rising scores was easy to trace. During Friday's first round, the wind blew an estimated 35 to 40 mph, with 50-mph gusts. Higashiyama's 71 — the only sub-par round the first two days — was regarded as a miracle.

"One of my top 10 rounds considering the conditions," said Higashiyama, now a redshirt freshman at University of Hawai'i-Hilo.

Saturday it got worse. At the airport, gusts of 70 mph were measured. Up in the altitude of Hapuna, everything that wasn't secured scattered.

That included the petite Kono, who had to walk up No. 14 bending backward at a 20-degree angle. "I had a one-foot putt," Kono recalled, rolling her eyes, "and had to aim outside the hole to make it."

Hayashi usually hits a 9-iron to most of the par-3s at Hapuna. Saturday he hit 3-iron.

The wind did not let up until the final hour yesterday. That allowed four players to break par — Moe, Taketa, Nishimoto and defending champion Tom Eubank, who became the first "outsider" to win this event last year.

Moe joined Eubank's exclusive club by hitting nearly every green in regulation yesterday. Once there, he grabbed his belly putter with a "paintbrush grip" and put every putt in the hole or on the edge.

It was an unusually comfortable feeling for a former PGA Tour player and California Amateur champion who had to start teaching because he "putted poorly from 1986 to 2003."

While Taketa carved out his brilliant round four groups ahead of the leaders, Moe had to deal with Hayashi on his home course. Hayashi birdied the 11th and 12th to cut his deficit to two. Moe finally shook him with a startling par on the par-5 14th, after hitting his drive into the rubbish on the right.

"If I don't find my ball or I miss my 8-footer for par and you make yours, then you're within one," Moe said to Hayashi. "It went from a one-stroke lead to three right there. That was the turning point. Thankfully, I was hitting it well so I didn't let him back in."

When Moe drained a 20-foot birdie putt on the next hole to go up four, Hayashi began to concentrate on holding his edge over Aloha Section PGA colleagues. His third-place finish was good enough to give him Player of the Year honors, and the Sony Open in Hawai'i slot that goes with it.

Kono, who won two of the three Hawai'i women's majors this year, went into the final round with a five-shot advantage over Kim. At the turn, Kono was one back. She caught Kim with a 2-foot birdie putt on the next-to-last hole, and passed her with a gritty two-putt for par from 20 feet on the next. Kim bogeyed out of the bunker.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.