Posted on: Thursday, May 12, 2005

AROUND THE GREENS
Seki hopes to build on breakthrough victory

By Bill Kwon

Nobody was more surprised than Punahou alum Jim Seki when he won his first professional golf championship last month in Stockton, Calif., in the Canadian Tour's third event of the season, the Northern California Classic.

A Canadian Tour event in California?

That's nothing. The tour holds its winter qualifying schools in California and Florida. It was at the latter Q-School where Seki earned his playing card for the 2005 season by finishing tied for eighth. And where did the Canadian Tour open its season? With two events in Texas.

If that isn't enough to make you flunk geography, the Canadian Professional Golf Tour will be finishing a two-week swing through Mexico Saturday with the Michelin Morelia Classic at a Robert Trent Jones Jr. course.

Seki, a 2003 Stanford graduate who won the Pac-10 championship in his junior year, missed the cut in the Corona Mazatlan Classic but hopes to bounce back this week before heading back to California for the U.S. Open local qualifying next Monday at the CordeValle Golf Course near San Jose.

The 15-under-par 273 and two-stroke victory at the Brookside Country Club in Stockton not only rewarded Seki with a $16,000 prize, it gave him a two-year exemption on the Canadian Tour. One of the players he beat was Blaine McCallister, a five-time PGA Tour winner.

"It was exciting and unexpected at the same time," Seki said in an e-mail from Mexico.

"I was very surprised since I've been struggling for the past 12 months on my game. It's opened a few doors here and I have a good opportunity to take advantage of my position on the Order of Merit to receive exemptions into PGA and Nationwide events."

Seki, who shot a final-round 68 to win, said he never took anything for granted until he tapped in his last putt of the tournament.

Then the realization that he won finally struck home.

It's by far his biggest win, according to Seki.

"It has opened a few doors. People on the tour now recognize my name and come up to talk to me. I used to be a nobody — and maybe still might be — but at the events we go to, people know who I am.

"It's nice to be recognized for past accomplishments, but that's history already and I've moved on," Seki said.

Seki once had a unique distinction of being the defending champion of two Hawai'i tournaments in the same week.

During his junior year at Punahou, Seki won the boys state high school championship and the Navy-Marine Invitational in consecutive weeks. The following year, both events were scheduled during the same week, so Seki gave up defending the adult event to play for the Buffanblu. He couldn't pull off a repeat victory in the state championship, but even winning it once was an honor, according to Seki, because the event is sponsored by his one-time golf mentor, David Ishii.

In 1998, Seki represented Hawai'i in the Junior World Championships in San Diego, the U.S. Amateur Men's Public Links Championship, the U.S. Junior Amateur, the Junior America's Cup and the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship.

That resume helped to get him into Stanford, where he graduated with a degree in economics.

Seki's Canadian Tour victory also has opened more opportunities.

"I didn't even know that I was (Canadian Tour) exempt through 2007 until one of my roommates told me," said Seki, 24, who resides in Palo Alto, Calif.

"That really takes a huge burden off of me since I do have a legitimate tour to play on. It can do nothing but give me confidence. I didn't play well the following week in Modesto, but everything is still a learning process. (The win) took a lot out of me mentally and physically."

Seki was born in Spokane, Wash., when his father, Jim Seki Sr., was attending law school at Gonzaga. Seki Sr. and his wife, Audrey, moved back to Hawai'i a year later. He is now a Hono-lulu attorney.

"The neat thing about it (his son's breakthrough victory) is that it was on the Golf Channel," said the proud dad, who captured the moment on videotape.

Seki plans on trying to qualify for several Nationwide Tour events when they are held in the Western United States and also in Calgary and upper Michigan. And he'd like nothing better than to get into the Canadian Bell Open when the PGA Tour makes its stop in Vancouver, B.C., in September.

He hopes to be back for a Hawai'i visit when his sister, Jenna, a sophomore on the Stanford golf team, returns for the summer break. They should have no problem lining up a game with younger brother, Scott, a Punahou junior, who is on the Buffanblu golf team.

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