AROUND THE GREENS
Kalakaua course faces cloudy future

By Bill Kwon

No official announcement has been made, but sources at Kalakaua Golf Course say the Army has plans to close the course to make room for military housing. Hawai'i's first military golf course was completed in 1922. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawai'i's first military golf course — 18 holes were completed in 1922 — Kalakaua is rich in local golf history. Named after King David Kalakaua, the golf course on the Leilehua Plain was where the Merrie Monarch once had his ranch house and royal hunting preserve.

The Army has plans to close a course to make room for more housing.

"I have heard the rumors," said Mike Iyoki, the director of golf for the U.S. Army's three courses — Kalakaua, Leilehua and Walter Nagorski at Fort Shafter. "But it's just that, rumors. Nothing official has been said that it will be closed."

If there is any decision, it would be made on the garrison level or even the Department of the Army, Iyoki said.

"Nothing is in writing," said a starter at Kalakaua, "but everybody thinks, yes, they will close the course. But when, nobody knows. Surveyors have been out here, figuring which trees to keep."

If indeed, Kalakaua is no more, it will mark an end of a golf course evoking a lot of memories. It once held the original Hawaiian Open in 1941 won by Jimmy Ukauka, then an amateur. It is one of two sites, along with Leilehua, used for the Army Invitational, an all-amateur event since 1980, but once a major tournament for local professionals beginning in 1957 when Paul Scodeller won the inaugural Army Open.

Over the years, other pros winning the Army Open — a 72-hole event from 1960 through 1991 — included Ted Makalena, Ukauka, Lance Suzuki and Masa Kaya.

Since becoming a tournament with the biggest amateur field, the Army Invitational has been won a record six times by Brandan Kop, who will be defending his title this August in what could be the last time Kalakaua will be a venue.

"It's one of the best tournaments for amateurs," said Kop. "You get to play two different courses."

By different, he meant distinctly different, not just in length.

"Leilehua is made for a draw, Kalakaua for a fader. If you win the tournament, it means you can play both shots," he said.

While Leilehua is considerably longer than Kalakaua, which went through another realignment recently that made the back nine a par 34 by shortening the 14th and 15th holes, the latter course called for more accurate shotmaking.

"It's a fun course but challenging. You feel like you're supposed to be making birdies. But my scoring average is actually lower at Leilehua," Kop added.

"You get the impression it should be an easy golf course, but it isn't," said Allan Yamamoto, who beat the pros in winning the 1976 Army Open with what he says was the best 72 holes of golf he has ever played — a 17-under-par 271. It is still the tournament record.

"It's kind of sporty with a lot of dog-legs. And small greens are a characteristic of the golf course," said Yamamoto, who calls Kalakaua's 183-yard eighth hole "a great par-3."

Kalakaua's also a favorite for the women golfers when the Army once hosted the 36-hole Army Women's Invitational, which also began in 1957 but ended in the early 1990s.

Among previous champions were six-time winner Edna Jackola, Bev Kong Kim, Lynne Winn, Marga Stubblefield and Lenore Muraoka Rittenhouse, who went on to play on the LPGA Tour.

"It'd be a shame if they close the course. I remember really liking it," said Stubblefield, the 1974 champion.

Her brother, Larry, won the Army Open in memorable fashion in 1968 when he was a freshman at Ohio State, beating Kaya, a veteran pro, in the event's first playoff.

Stubblefield shot a final-round 69 at Kalakaua to tie Kaya, who thought he had it won after taking a two-stroke lead into the clubhouse. He was celebrating with a few beers, he said.

Kaya lost the playoff when Stubblefield birdied the first hole.

Kaya, in particular, says he'll be sad if Kalakaua shuts down. He played the original Kalakaua since it reopened after World War II when the ninth hole was a par-3. It is now part of the practice range and No. 9, a straightaway 545-yard par-5, was formerly the eighth.

Former Kalakaua pro Barrett Melvin, once stationed at Schofield, recalled the war years when old P-40s landed on that long hole with golfers yielding the right of way.

He also would be saddened to see Kalakaua gone. Melvin, 86, was too ill to make any comments about it, said his wife, Vicki.

The golf course had several other realignments, the latest reducing the course from a par-72 playing 6,186 yards from the regular tees to the current par-70 and playing 307 yards shorter.

"I thought the original course was the best," Kaya said. "It's getting shorter and shorter. If they're going to keep realigning it, they might as well close it."

Which, apparently, they will some day.

Reach Bill Kwon at bkwon@aloha.net.