Young Jamila was talk of town 24 years ago
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By Bill Kwon
"An 11-year-old tears up the links."
Advertiser library photos
"Youngest golfer to win an adult tournament."
TOP: Before there was Michelle Wie, Damien Jamila was a Hawai'i golf phenom, winning the Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship a record-tying four times and a number of other local tournaments. ABOVE: At age 11, Jamila already was a winner, beating adults for the A-flight honors at the Maui Open, and a year later the 11-12 title at the Junior World Championships in San Diego.
Talking about Michelle Wie?
No. Those were headlines 24 years ago describing another golf prodigy.
In 1981, local golf was all about Damien Jamila, a young phenom from Waimanalo, who beat the adults for A-flight honors in the Maui Open. The following year, he won the boys' 11-12 title in the Junior World Championships in San Diego.
Jamila's name comes to mind because the Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship begins today at the Pearl Country Club. And he's the first player one associates with the event, having won it a record three consecutive years from 1990 to 1992.
In 1998, Jamila won again, this time by eight strokes in wire-to-wire fashion, to join Allan Yamamoto as the only four-time winners of an event that's regarded with the Manoa Cup and its match-play format as the two majors in Hawai'i for amateur players.
The Damien Jamila Story continued through high school at Saint Louis, where he was twice the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion, and at the University of Hawai'i, where he played No. 1 on the golf team the three years he won the State Amateur.
Jamila also won the O'ahu Country Club Invitational twice (1995 and 1997), the 1989 Army Amateur, the 1991 Navy-Marine Invitational, the 1991 Barbers Point Invitational and the 1998 Hickam Invitational besides competing in two NCAA West Regionals. He also represented Hawai'i twice in the National Amateur Public Links Championships and played in the 1990 U.S. Amateur in Denver.
Besides his State Amateur three-peat, Jamila's biggest accomplishment was winning the 1992 Hawai'i Pearl Open. He is the only amateur winner in the 29-year history of the event.
Jamila turned pro briefly in 2000 but played in only three local events, the Pearl Open twice and the 2002 Mid-Pacific Open, which was his last competitive event. He found out soon enough, there's not much money in being a professional golfer locally.
"I don't miss it (golf)," says Jamila, adding that he hasn't stopped golfing because he's burned out.
Family comes first, according to Jamila, who said he only thought about the PGA Tour "when I was growing up." He and his wife, Christina, whom he has known since grade school at St. Anthony's in Kailua, have two children, a 5-year-old son, Cole, and 3-year-old daughter, Camryn.
Andrew M. Jamila photo
"You don't have time when they're that young. And I don't want to miss seeing them growing up," said Jamila, who hopes one day he can get them involved in golf as his father, Andrew, had been there for him.
Damien Jamila and his wife, Christina, have put their energy in to raising Cole, left, and Camryn. "I don't miss it (golf)," says Jamila, who teaches at his alma mater, Saint Louis School.
There's still some golf in him yet, adds Jamila.
"Golf isn't like some of the other sports. You can still get better as you get older," said Jamila, who may begin playing competitively again when his kids get a little older.
For now he's involved in the sport as a coach of the Crusaders' golf team for the past six years. A 1993 UH graduate, Jamila is on the Saint Louis faculty, teaching personal finance, economics, computer and applied sciences.
He also is watching Wie, Hawai'i's latest and most famous golf prodigy, with interest.
"What she is doing is phenomenal, and she should keep on doing what she feels is right for her," said Jamila, speaking as one prodigy to another.
The USGA's Guy
It was good to see Hawai'i's Guy Yamamoto featured on the United States Golf Association Web site last week.
"They called me for a where-are-they-now article," said Yamamoto, who won the 1994 Men's Public Links championship. "I asked them, 'Does that put me in the has-been category?' "
Yamamoto won the 1995 State Amateur Championship the only time it was played at the Kapolei Golf Course, which was getting ready to host the LPGA Hawaiian Ladies Open the following year.
He remembers the victory well. "It was the month before I went to the Masters. That was 10 years ago. Now, that's scary."
The inaugural State Amateur Championship was played in 1964 at the Waialae Country Club, which hosted the event until 1986. It moved to the Pearl Country Club in 1987 with Philip Chun being the first to win there.
Except for that one year at Kapolei — when plans were being considered to rotate the State Amateur site, even to possibly a Neighbor Island — Pearl Country Club has been a welcome host.
"Pearl has been very accommodating and supportive," said tournament director Jay Hinazumi. "They show it by giving up the revenue they can make, and this is a four-day tournament."
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
