Chun continues winning ways during recovery from stroke
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By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser
With his playoff victory in the Barbers Point Open on Monday, Mark Chun took yet another giant step in his inspiring and courageous comeback from a stroke that victimized him nearly five years ago.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
It was his third victory since recovering from a stroke he suffered Dec. 12, 1999. Considering he had never won an individual title before the stroke, Chun is as amazed as everyone else.
Mark Chun has won three individual titles since suffering a stroke in 1999. "How do you explain that?" he says. "I don't know."
He thought he would never golf again, let alone play in tournaments.
"Before the stroke, nothing, zero. No individual titles. How do you explain that? I don't know," said Chun, who turned 43 three weeks ago.
Chun remembers when he tried to resume golfing some 14 months after the stroke. He bounced the ball along so much that he thought he was playing croquet, not golf.
So it was a startling accomplishment when he won the Mayor's Cup at the Ala Wai Golf Course three years ago. Then he won the Hickam Invitational last year and now Barbers Point, another 54-hole championship involving the state's leading amateurs.
"It feels good to win more than one. It shows that the first one wasn't a fluke," said Chun, who says he is "about 90 to 95 percent" recovered from the effects of the stroke.
"It probably will be always that way. I still get dizzy when I'm tired. I've got to learn to live with that," added Chun, who has still numbness on his right side from the hip down.
His wife, Lori, doesn't have to be a chauffeur anymore. For more than a year now, Chun has been able to drive himself to work and tournaments, although he doesn't drive at night.
"Night time is a little different. The vision and judgment are not quite there. The judgment in distances throw me off. So I don't drive at night," he said.
Right now, Chun works as a starter two days a week at the Navy-Marine Golf Course and three times a week at 'Ewa Villages, which he hopes will only be temporary because its a 40-mile commute from his home in Makiki.
He's working at the Leeward O'ahu municipal course instead of his usual schedule at Ala Wai because 'Ewa Villages starter Rick Mendez, an Army reserve, was deployed to Iraq.
Even though life will never be, in his own words, "clear and crisp," anymore, Chun remains focused on improving his golf game.
Why has he gotten better after his stroke?
"Maybe it's because I have a different outlook now. I used to have too much stress, put too much pressure on myself when I played in tournaments," he said. "Now, I'm more relaxed because if I get frustrated, I get dizzy. So I try to keep myself calm. When I take that approach, somehow I hit the ball better."
Never long off the tee, Chun surprisingly is hitting his drives a little longer these days.
"Maybe, because of the stroke, I've had to exercise." he said.
He works out three times a week and takes Samson, the family's 3-year-old golden retriever, for a long walk daily.
Putting and the short game remain his forte, according to Chun, because that's what he always had relied on because guys usually outdrove him.
At Barbers Point. He needed only 10 putts on the front nine, he had two chip-ins, in shooting a 5-under-par 67 in the first round. His only birdie in the final round came at the par-5 ninth hole when he chipped in from 20 yards.
Despite finishing with a 75, Chun hung on to beat Mike Trevino, a Navy serviceman, in a playoff when they tied with a 54-hole score of 212.
The victory was a particularly satisfying one for Chun because it enabled him to gain a berth on the Governor's Cup amateur team.
"I was on the bubble in 10th place. I shot up to the middle of the pack, about fifth or sixth place with the win," said Chun, who now has the luxury of skipping the Waikoloa Open, the last event with points counting toward making the Governor's Cup matches on Nov. 22 to 23.
Chun will play in the Mayor's Cup at Ala Wai on Sept. 18 to 19 and the final two Amatour events at Kapolei and Honolulu Country Club, along with some "recreational" golf.
"My frame of mind is good and so is my confidence," said Chun, who even shot a personal career-low round — a 10-under-par 60 at Ala Wai — following his stroke in a "recreational" outing.
Making this year's Governor's Cup team holds a special significance for Chun. Those making the 12-man team all get to play for the one exemption given to an amateur in the 2005 Sony Open in Hawai'i.
He made the Governor's Cup team in 1999 and was looking forward to the Sony Open qualifying at the Waialae Country Club the day before suffering his stroke.
Imagine what a mother of comeback stories it would be if Chun qualifies this time for the PGA Tour event.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
