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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, July 7, 2005

Sub-teens capture titles

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

OKINO
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'EWA BEACH — Oh, to be a fly on the fairway at the King Auto Hawai'i State Junior Golf Championships.

Ever wonder what those sub-teen golf superstars-in-training talk about when they tire of terrorizing older players and take on somebody their own age?

"We talk about everything and nothing," Hee Sue Condry, 12, revealed yesterday after the final round. "Sometimes we talk about why we're not talking."

Out of the Hawai'i Prince wind came four 12-under champions — Cyd Okino, Kacie Komoto, Lorens Chan and Skye Inakoshi — and a new set of possible prodigies.

Okino, 11, recently became the youngest Hawai'i State Women's Match Play champion. Her 8-over-par 80 in "really, really, really windy conditions" gave her a total of 155 and a nine-shot victory in the oldest (11-12) girls' division.

Playing from the forward tees (5,200 yards), Chan won the boys 11-12 by shooting Tuesday's only sub-par round (69) and chasing it in with a tournament-low 67. He chipped in for eagle on the final hole to finish 12 ahead of everyone.

The highlight of the 85-pound Iolani sixth-grader's career might be playing with Michelle Wie. "I watched everything she did," Chan said. "She knows a lot of stuff."

The 10-and-unders played Prince's "C" and "B" nines at 4,400 yards. Inakoshi torched it yesterday with 71 to catch first-round leader John Oda (77) at 151. Inakoshi won the playoff with birdie on the first hole. His fast finish — he made up seven shots on the back nine — made up for signing for an 80 Tuesday, when he actually shot 78.

Komoto, barely 10, is six weeks older than Ikanoshi and an inch shorter at 4 feet 7. She still rips drives 175 yards. She felt her 164 total — she closed with 84 to win by six shots — "could have been better." But, like the flies on the fairway, she wasn't complaining.

"I like to play with kids my own age," Komoto said. "We get along better and it's not boring. They talk about things I'm interested in. Funny things."