Nakama is a confirmed bachelor no more.

They were married in Las Vegas on Oct. 21 and celebrated their wedding reception at the Bellagio with more than 90 people, including a golfing A-list that would make a great state open tournament field — Del-Marc Fujita, Kevin Hayashi, Dan Nishimoto, brothers Shannon and Shawn Tanoue, Shannon Sibayan, Brian Sasada and Norman-Ganin Asao.

"I couldn't miss that," said Hayashi, Mauna Kea Resort's teaching pro.

"It was a blast," said Nakama, whose words were echoed by Fujita, his playing partner in the Bridgestone Sports Pro-Scratch Championship that ended yesterday at the Pearl Country Club.

Why Las Vegas?

"It gave everyone an excuse to go to Vegas," said Nakama, who planned the event for six months. "Only thing, we didn't make money at the tables."

But a good time was had by all, said those who were there.

So it's no longer just Casey's Kids at Nakama's highly successful junior golf developmental program at the Olomana Links. Now you can call them Jeri's Kids as well.

Nakama's claim to fame as a golf instructor is that he was Michelle Wie's first teacher. I still remember the time Nakama first told me about a young golfer he had enrolled in his program.

"She's a phenom," he said. "She's only 10 (but) there's no high school girl in Hawai'i who can hit the ball longer than her."

At the time, I thought, sure, Casey. She's one of your students, you have to be a bit prejudiced.

Well, he wasn't kidding. The kid's the real deal, as it has turned out. Now a Punahou sophomore, Wie can still outdrive any wahine locally. And some guys, too.

Nakama also caddied for Wie in her first LPGA event as a 12-year-old in the 2002 LPGA Takefuji Classic at the Waikoloa Beach Course on the Big Island.

I recall forst seeing Nakama, not on a golf course, but on a basketball court.

He earned honors as an O'ahu Interscholastic Association Western Division all-star guard playing for Moanalua High School in 1976. His hair was cut in the full-length pageboy style, which Pete Rose made fashionable during the heyday of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine.

He took up golf only after high school, mainly because of his cousin, Lloyd Nakama, Olomana's director of golf. Casey's personal highlight was winning the Oahu Country Club Men's Invitational three years in a row from 1983 to 1985 before he turned professional.

Besides the victories mentioned earlier, Nakama also won the 1990 Makaha Open, the 1993 Hilo Open and the 1999 Waikoloa Open.

Area professionals set out on tour trails

Three pros who competed in the Bridgestone event — Asao, University of Hawai'i senior Matt Kodama and recent Waikoloa Open winner Joe Phengsavath — will play in the Hawai'i State Open and then the Governor's Cup before testing the tour trail next year.

Asao will return for another crack at the Arizona Gateway Tour, and Kodama, who's helping UH men's golf coach Ronn Miyashiro while working toward a degree in finance next May, plans to compete in a new 15-week summer mini tour in Las Vegas.

"I didn't do as well as I would have liked," Asao said of his first year on the Gateway Tour. "But now I know what to expect. With one year under my belt, hopefully, I can improve."

Phengsavath will try for the Asian Tour, which has a two-stage qualifying school starting in January in Malaysia.

"The only bummer is that I won't be here for the Sony (Open) qualifying," said Phengsavath, a native Laotian who attended McKinley High School.

"On the Asian Tour you go from country to country —Malaysia, Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines. And if you do well, you can qualify for tournaments on the Japan PGA Tour and the European Tour," he said.

Regan Lee, who also played this week at Pearl Country Club, leaves tonight for the third stage of the Japan Q-School starting next week. If he survives, the final stage is set for Dec. 1 to 6.

The past year, Lee played without much success in four of Japan's Challenge Tournaments, a 36-hole competition with a cut after one round.

Because they weren't back-to-back, Lee flew back home three times during the two months he spent there.

In Japan, the travel expenses — one had to go by plane, bus or train — added up.

"It's expensive. It's not like you can just rent a car and go from tournament to tournament," Lee said.