You don't have to tell two Interscholastic League of Honolulu seniors — Kamehameha's Mari Chun and Kayla Morinaga of Sacred Hearts — that Kono's already got game.

Yesterday both finished second to Kono, who successfully defended her Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Stroke Play Championship with a two-shot victory at the Mid-Pacific Country Club. All three shot even-par 72 in the final round.

Kono had a 146 total over two days. The event was shortened to 36 holes when heavy rains washed out Wednesday's second round.

Kono, who won with a record 4-under-par 212 last year, was glad they only played 18 holes instead of 36 the final day. Not Chun.

"It would have been nice to play 54 holes (for the tournament)," she said.

She and Morinaga will get to see a lot more of Kono soon enough, as an ILH rival.

"It'll make it a lot more competitive," said Chun, who won the ILH girls title twice in her first three years. "She's a great player and a good friend."

"She's good," Morinaga agreed.

And Kono, a co-medalist in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship qualifying, hopes to get even better. Especially with her new putting stroke — a more pronounced pendulum-like follow through.

"I started really good," said Kono, who birdied the third and fourth holes and had a good par-save at the sixth, sinking a 10-footer after a poor chip.

When she missed a 5-footer for bogey at eight and a 3-foot birdie attempt at nine, Kono had some second thoughts about her putting. It wasn't a problem at the downwind 10th, a 315-yard par-4. Her drive left her only 20 yards from the green for an easy birdie.

However, when she three-putted from 18 feet at the par-3 14th, blowing her first putt 6 feet by the hole, doubts crept in again, according to Kono. It didn't help when she missed a birdie putt after going over the green in two at the par-5 16th

Still, a par at 16 enabled Kono to maintain a one-stroke lead over Chun, who missed a 20-footer for eagle, then watched as her second putt for birdie from 3 feet rimmed out.

"That was the crucial putt. We would have been tied," said Chun, who was trying to add the stroke-play title to the HSWGA Match Play Championship she won in June.

"Her putt was in. It circled the hole and lipped out," said Kono, playing in the last twosome with Chun, who bogeyed the final hole.

Telling herself not to three-putt again, Kono got on safely in two shots on the difficult 17th and 18th holes. She faced downhill 30-footers but wound up with easy tap-in pars.

"That was pretty good for me," said Kono, who decided to go back to her old putter and a new putting style after losing her first-round match in the U.S. Girls Junior Championship two weeks ago.

"I had four three-putts to lose 1-down," said Kono, who is done traveling after a summer that included three trips to the Mainland.