Aces elusive for most, abundant for some
| • | Warrior golfers must keep drive |
| • | Holes in one |
| • | Golf notices |
By Bill Kwon
Bev Kim is a Hawai'i Hall of Fame golfer. Stan Zukeran is a 72-year-old retiree who tries to walk and play nine holes a day whenever he's not golfing with his dentist gang.
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Yet Kim had to wait 46 years before getting her first hole-in-one, acing the par-3 14th hole at the Barbers Point Golf Course on Election Day.
Hall of Fame member Bev Kim waited 46 years before she finally achieved her first hole-in-one.
Zukeran? He had just been golfing for only two months before recording his first ace at the Kasumigaseki Country Club when he was stationed 42 years ago at Yokota Air Base in Japan.
Such are the vagaries and luck involved in accomplishing golf's most ideal one-shot score.
Finally getting her first ace was "a monkey off my back," said Kim, who was playing with her constant golf partner, Lily Yao, and Darryl and Linda Johnston.
A 58-year-old grandmother, Kim went through a lot of ribbing over the years:
"You won the Jennie K. in 1981, right? Also, the Hawaii State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship twice, yah? The Waialae Women's Invitational in each of the past five decades?"
They would ask, "So, how come you no mo' one hole-in-one?"
How come, indeed. But there's a number of outstanding golfers who would belong to a "No-Hole-in-One Club" if there were one, including Casey Nakama, Guy Yamamoto, Jay Hinazumi, Norman Inouye and University of Hawai'i men's golf coach, Ronn Miyashiro.
Kim joins another leading amateur golfer, Del-Marc Fujita, in finally leaving their ranks this year.
She has come close twice before. The closest in the late 1970s when she resided on Kaua'i. Kim missed an ace at Wailua's scenic 17th hole by two inches. Six or seven years ago, it was by four inches during a round with her sister, Candy, at a nine-hole golf course in rural Oregon.
Still, Kim had mixed feelings about her ace.
"I was playing so junk all day. It's hard to be excited when you shoot an 87," said Kim, who didn't see her ball go in. The others did, though, and were excited for her.
Having to use a 4-iron to ace the 130-yard hole also dampened her elation a bit. But Kim put a positive spin on it.
"Now that I'm taking more club these days, you never know when I'll get another," she said.
She hopes it won't take as long as it did for Zukeran, who waited 20 years before getting his second hole-in-one at the Pearl Country Club's 13th hole in 1982. But once it did, it hasn't stopped for him.
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Two months ago, Zukeran scored his 10th ace, using a 3-iron at the 172-yard 11th hole at the Oahu Country Club. Six of Zukeran's aces have been at OCC where he has been a member since 1976. He also has aced the seventh hole and the fourth and 16th holes twice.
Stan Zukeran got his first ace after just two months of playing the game and now has 10 career holes-in-one.
He can't remember their exact dates. But he knows the remaining two were at Turtle Bay's Palmer Course and at Hawai'i Kai, some time last year.
Some of his golfing buddies, including fellow dentists Harry Morikawa and George Uesato, kid him about his luck.
Treating the gang afterwards hasn't been too expensive, says Zukeran, grateful for the country club's $3 monthly hole-in-one insurance. His 55-member Dental Golf Club of Honolulu also has a $20 jackpot to cover expenses for the customary celebration following a hole-in-one.
Like all golfers, though, Zukeran will never forget his first one.
A 9-handicapper who once played to a 3, Zukeran did not take up golf until he was in the Air Force and stationed in Japan.
Studying consumed most of his time in college, first at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and later in dental school at Georgetown and specialized studies at the University of Iowa.
Football was his sport in high school. He quarterbacked the 1950 Iolani team which won the Interscholastic League of Ho-nolulu championship.
Among his teammates were Merv Lopes, Joe Kahahawai, Charley Kaaihue, Gordon Chang, Walter Nobuhara, Noburo Yonamine and Bob Andrade — who all made the all-star first team.
Zukeran, who called the signals in Iolani's single-wing formation, and three other Red Raider starters, were named to the second team.
Until this day, he remembers his influential coach, Father Kenneth Bray, and says that one lesson Bray taught applies in golf: "Don't blame anybody else when anything went wrong."
Golf is really a my-fault-only game, according to Zukeran.
He liked the sport's self-discipline and admired Ben Hogan after reading about him. Armed with instruction books by Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Sammy Snead, Zukeran taught himself the game.
"That didn't help," he said.
He then sought the help of a young Japanese pro when he decided to take the game seriously. At the age of 30 in 1962, two months after he first started to golf, he made his first hole-in-one.
Some people just can't wait.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
