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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, February 7, 2005

California pro wins playoff at Pearl Open

By Bill Kwon
Special to The Advertiser

It figures.

Will Yanagisawa won $12,000 with this par putt on the first playoff hole (No. 18).

Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

The 27th Hawai'i Pearl Open had been running late all week. So why shouldn't it end with a playoff?

Still, it was the last thing on winner Will Yanagisawa's mind as he stood on the 17th tee, in great shape at 14-under par and playing in the final threesome, which included Don Berry who had been only one shot back before double-bogeying 16.

Yanagisawa asked how anyone else was doing and was told someone was 11-under. With the very birdieable par-5 ahead of him, you couldn't blame Yanagisawa for feeling a little confident.

But a funny thing happened to the 33-year-old California pro on his way to a playoff victory over Tetsuji Hiratsuka, an 11-year veteran on the Japan Golf Tour Organization, yesterday at the Pearl Country Club.

After his second shot hit some coconut trees right of the fairway and fell straight down, Yanagisawa found himself stymied, with no clear shot to the flagstick. Before his third shot, he was told that someone was already in at 14 under.

"It was 11, suddenly it was 14. Talk about surprise," said Yanagisawa, who tried to run the next shot under the palms and through the bunker. It caught the sand trap and now he had to go up and down for par just to stay tied for the lead. He came out to 10 feet and sank the putt for par.

"That was a clutch putt," said Yanagisawa, who had an eight-foot birdie putt at 18 lip out. It would have won the $12,000 top prize in regulation.

On the first playoff hole, again the par-4 18th, a two-putt par from 15 feet was good enough to beat Hiratsuka, who closed with a final-round 64 to also finish with a 54-hole 200.

Hiratsuka pulled his drive left of the cart path, came up short of the left bunker and then saw his third shot run to the back right fringe. He then missed the putt for par.

Yanagisawa took an 18-month break from golf to teach a golf class for students in Stanford's business school. But he said he has rededicated himself to his golf game.

Berry, 42, the head professional at the Edinburgh USA Golf Club in Minnesota, finished in a tie for third at 203 along with Chad Saladin, the reigning Hawai'i State Open champion who now plays out of Phoenix, and Japanese pro Tatsuya Tanioka.

You don't have to tell Parker McLachlin that the seventh hole, which played to a par-3 the first two rounds because of its flooded fairway, was restored back to a par-4.

Playing in the final group with Yanagisawa and Berry, McLachlin hit two drives out of bounds from the final round's elevated teeing area and took a triple-bogey 7, chilling any hopes of catching the leaders.

"That's one of those holes where there's no side to miss it," said McLachlin, who finished with a 74 for a 206 and a tie for seventh.

Sakura Yokomine, the 19-year-old sensation who was the 2004 Japan LPGA rookie of the year, shot a 71 for a 54-hole total of 208 to finish in a six-way tie for 17th place.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.