Hawai'i has done its share to diversify the PGA Tour. In the past few years it has introduced "Uncle" Kevin Hayashi, Michelle Wie and Tadd Fujikawa — the state's best pro and two most precocious juniors — to the Sony Open in Hawai'i. The results have been riveting.

After yesterday's local Sony Open qualifier, Punahou senior and two-sport star Alex Ching will get his shot at turning the tour on its collective head.

Hayashi and Ching won playoffs to earn the pro and amateur slots available for those who survived Waialae Country Club yesterday. Pretty much every element attacked the 7,000-yard course on a day when 39 of the state's best pros and amateurs could manage just 16 scores in the 70's.

Rough at the course ranged from 4 to 6 inches, twice what it should be Jan. 10 to 13 for the 10th Sony Open. It has been so wet — 12 inches of rain the past month — the rough has only been mowed twice the past two weeks.

Just to make the misery complete, wind blew at 20 mph all day and gusted to 30 mph. It was so blustery, 13-year-old Lorens Chan backed off his 4-foot par putt five times after watching, with growing exasperation, as the ball shuddered. Finally, he missed, and Ching quickly drained the winning putt on the second playoff hole.

Now he is in the same position Fujikawa was a year ago, when the 16-year-old shocked the golf world by taking 20th at Sony.

"I was just blown away by that," said Ching, a two-time state high school tennis champion (doubles) who will play golf at the University of San Diego in the fall. "I think he represented Hawai'i pretty well. He just stuck to his guns and did such a sweet job. Without him, I don't think we could have kept the (amateur) spot. The PGA Tour definitely wanted to take it away."

Taeksoo Kim, 16, fell out of the playoff with bogey on the first extra hole. All three teens shot 3-over-par 75 to get into the playoff.

It was no fluke. Ching won this year's OCC Invitational. Chan, an 'Iolani eighth-grader, and Kim, a St. Anthony junior, took second and third. The younger two reached the Manoa Cup semifinals in the summer while Ching won the Optimist International Junior Championship in Florida.

Hayashi, a teaching pro at Mauna Kea, and John Lynch, of GolfTec Honolulu, were the only pros who beat the amateur tri-medalists. Both shot 73, Lynch birdieing the par-5 18th from 10 feet and Hayashi bogeying it after his tee shot rolled into a hole to force overtime.

Both parred the first playoff hole (No. 1) — Lynch miraculously — and both found the bunker off the tee on the second. But Lynch's ball buried in the sand. He couldn't get it out with his second shot and his third stopped 10 feet from the hole. Hayashi's bunker shot stopped in the fringe, but his chip nearly went in. His tap-in bogey became the winner when Lynch missed.

Hayashi is looking to make his first Open cut in his eighth try. The six-time Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year sacrificed a chance in 2004 to protect Wie from the mob that followed in her PGA Tour debut. He became known as "Uncle Kevin." It is time for another memory.

"I think I try too hard," Hayashi said. "It's not only for yourself but for everybody — your family and everybody is pulling for you. Hopefully Tadd broke the jinx and we can all do well now."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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