Navy-Marine's Katz still rolls with changes at 82

By Bill Kwon

David Katz has seen a lot of changes at the Navy-Marine Golf Course since he began working there as a starter 25 years ago. At 82, he's grateful that he is still around to see a few more of them on the way.

Following treatment for prostate cancer, David Katz, 82, went back to working as a starter twice a week at Navy-Marine Golf Course. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

And he's excited about some of the upcoming changes.

The front nine will close Monday to begin work on a new irrigation system and a lake fronting the seventh tee. After that, work will begin on the back nine. Plans also call for redoing all of the greens with Tif-Eagle grass, the same variety that the Kapalua Plantation Course is converting to in time for next year's Mercedes Championships.

It's expected to be at least a year before Navy-Marine, near Honolulu Airport, plays as an 18-hole course again.

Katz isn't just a familiar face around the place. He's a legend at Navy-Marine for getting two holes-in-one in one round on Jan. 21, 1997, two days before his 75th birthday.

Both aces came on the back nine, which was the front nine before it was reversed several years ago.

He aced the 180-yard 14th hole and the 140-yard 17th. Don't ask what happened in between. Katz would rather forget it.

According to local television cameraman Wade Couvillon, who played in the same foursome that day, it had to be one of the most bizarre rounds ever played.

Katz agrees, adding, "God gives and God takes away."

He remembers shooting a decent front nine, around 39 or 40. Then disaster struck at the 13th hole.

"I never shanked in my life. I was around 20 yards in front of the green. Then I shanked my way around the green and took a 7. I was really disgusted."

Then he aced the next hole.

Katz double-bogeyed 15 and shanked again after overshooting the 16th green for another double-bogey 6.

Then he aced the next hole.

By then the other two players in his group, former assistant police chief Fred Paoa and Carl Shoff, both now deceased, began needling Katz, "Why don't you shank every other hole?"

Katz celebrated by leaving his credit card for drinks on him at the Navy-Marine's quaint 19th hole bar, which is since long gone. "Cost me around $300," he said.

Those weren't Katz's only two aces. He has five of them, the first at the 17th hole at Olomana in 1975 and his second at Hawai'i Kai's 10th hole.

His final ace was five years ago, at the age of 77, again at Navy-Marine's 17th. "By then it was not a big deal anymore," Katz said.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Katz moved with his family to Cleveland when he was 16. He joined the Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1942. With the Sea Bees during World War II, he would fly from Hawai'i to the islands in the Pacific — Wake, Saipan, Guam — retaken from Japan.

"The Marines go in first and then we come in and build runways," recalled Katz, who handled the logistical details and supplies.

He left the service in 1949, and married a local girl, Nazimova LaFortune, the same year. They recently celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary.

But it was still "Go Navy" for Katz, who directed the Navy Supply Center warehouse department and then its inventory section until he retired in 1979. With more time on his hands, he got serious in golf, even though bowling had been his favorite sport.

Katz said he remembers playing in leagues around town against some of Hawai'i's best bowlers, including Taro Miyasato, Bill Space, Beans Robinson and Jesse Kelly, who was also a baseball umpire. And an up-and-comer named Bones Yamasaki.

Two of the bowling alleys Katz frequented are now only memories — the old Waikiki Lanes right on the beach next to the Moana Hotel and the Honolulu Bowling Center across the street from the Zebra Room where the gang went for drinks after.

Naturally, Katz had to be asked, which is harder, getting a hole-in-one or a 300 game?

"I think a hole-in-one is harder to get. You have to hit it good but you also have to have some luck," said Katz, who twice rolled 299 games.

"Left the 7-pin twice."

Besides, there's no shanks in bowling.

FEELING HIS AGE

It'll be years before he can get a senior rate, but Gary Kong said he felt a lot older than his 51 years during the third round of the Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship at the Pearl Country Club.

Last Saturday, the Oahu Country Club member played in a foursome that included Yosuke Tsukada, Jacob Low and Tadd Fujikawa.

"I'm older than all of them combined," Kong said.

Tsukada, who attends Nagoya University in Japan, is the oldest of the three youngsters at 19. Low, a Hilo High School senior, is 17, while Fujikawa, an eighth-grader at Moanalua Middle School, is 14.

That adds up to 50 years.

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