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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 16, 2006

GOLF REPORT
Hawai'i's best to tee off in state open

 •  Hamamoto, Hayashi fueled by 'pride thing'

Advertiser Staff

2006 HAWAI'I STATE OPEN

WHAT: 2006 Prince Resorts Hawai'i/TaylorMade Hawai'i State Open golf tournament

WHERE: Hawai'i Prince Golf Club (B and C nines)

WHEN: Pro-Am from 11:30 a.m. today, first and second rounds from 7 a.m. tomorrow and Saturday, final round from 8 a.m. Sunday.

PURSE: $60,000 ($7,500 winner)

ADMISSION: Free

FIELD: Includes defending champions Jarett Hamamoto, Chad Saladin (low pro) and Dean Prince (seniors), and David Ishii, Chan Kim, Regan Lee, Casey Nakama, Tom Eubank, Matt Kodama, Kevin Hayashi, John Hearn and Brandan Kop.

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The $60,000 Prince Resorts Hawai'i/TaylorMade Hawai'i State Open tees off tomorrow at Hawai'i Prince Golf Club. The tournament, which will be played on the B and C nines of the 27-hole course, will return to Prince next year.

Two-time state high school champion Jarett Hamamoto is defending champion. He sank a 15-foot putt on the final hole last year to hold off 2004 champion Chad Saladin.

Hamamoto was the first amateur since Wendell Tom, in 1982, to win the overall title. He turned pro in May.

The field includes four-time champion Lance Suzuki and three-time champions David Ishii and Kevin Hayashi. Ishii is in a threesome with state high school champion Chan Kim and 1997 Open champion Brian Sasada. If Hayashi makes the cut Saturday, he will clinch his fifth Aloha Section PGA Player of Year award.

Most of the pros and amateurs go out in the afternoon tomorrow and Saturday morning. The senior and women's flights, and rest of the pros and amateurs, including Saladin, Troy Higashiyama and Kevin Shimomura, start tomorrow morning and tee off in the afternoon wave Saturday.

There are only six in the women's flight. That includes 2005 state match play champion Cyd Okino, 13, reigning Jennie K. champion Kristina Merkle, 15, and 12-year-old Kyung Kim, who was second to Merkle in Jennie K.

Christine Kim, who won the women's title last year, is now a freshman at Colorado. Dean Prince will defend his senior title, which he won by 11 shots last year. It was his seventh overall, but first since 2001.

Michelle Wie won the women's title in 2002, at age 13, by 13 shots over pros Cindy Rarick and Christel Tomori. Wie was the only player in the field to break par all three days and her total of 8-under 208 was a shot better than overall champion Tom Eubank.

Wie was required to play from the forward tees in that tournament. The distance was 850 yards shorter than what the men were playing.

Today's Pro-Am is being run by the new Aloha Section PGA Foundation. It will benefit the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association and the foundation.

A Demo Day will be held in conjunction with Saturday's second round, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Along with equipment demos, there will be an instruction station with free 10-minute lessons from local pros, and a merchandise sale in the Prince pro shop.