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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, July 24, 2008

GOLF REPORT
Suyetsugu will try to defend stroke play title

 •  Forgettable moment for Wie

Advertiser Staff

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Xyra Suyetsugu will try to win her third straight Hawai'i major when the 2008 State Women's Stroke Play Championship starts Tuesday at Mid-Pacific Country Club. The 54-hole tournament ends next Thursday, with players teeing off from 8:30 a.m. each day.

Suyetsugu won the year's first women's major, the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, in May at Mid-Pacific. She overtook Kristina Merkle on the back nine on the final day. Merkle was trying to win her third straight Jennie K.

Suyetsugu, scheduled to graduate next May from the University of Hawai'i, won her first Hawai'i women's major a year ago at Mid-Pacific, capturing the stroke play title by five shots over Nicole Sakamoto and Hayley Young.

Sakamoto, a Kalani graduate, is also entered this week after finishing third last year. Moanalua graduate Jaclyn Hilea, who plays for Furman, will attempt to replicate her 2006 stroke play championship.

Others in the field include Miki Ueoka, Erin Matsuoka and Lisa Okazaki. Entries are still being accepted. Players must have a handicap of 14 or less. There are no age restrictions and caddies can be used. Contact Kathy Ordway (262-2428 or ordwayk001@hawaii.rr.com) to enter or for information.

The final major this year is the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championship, Aug. 13 to 15, at Oahu Country Club.

NOTES

PRO-PRO CHAMPIONSHIP: TJ Figueroa and Garrett Okamura's victory Monday in the ProLink Solutions/Srixon Pro-Pro Championship was harder than it looked on paper. After opening the two-day Aloha Section PGA tournament with a better-ball team score of 1-under-par 71 at the Royal Ka'anapali Course, the Maui pros had to survive a bogey on the final hole of regulation and three holes of sudden death to beat Pearl Country Club's Regan Lee and Beau Yokomoto.

Figueroa, training for the PGA Tour Qualifying School in September, missed a 20-foot eagle putt on the first extra hole and Yokomoto's birdie putt extended the playoff. Both teams bogeyed the par-3 second and moved on to No. 16 for the third playoff hole. After pushing his drive into a hazard area by the 17th tee box, Figueroa's second shot kicked off a coconut tree and stopped on the fringe. His two-putt for par was good for the victory and $2,800.

ALOHA SECTION SENIOR: Larry Stubblefield will try to defend his title at the $7,600 Classic Resorts/Mauna Lani Resort Aloha Section PGA Senior Championship, Sunday and Monday at the Mauna Lani North Course. The tournament determines the section's Senior Champion as well as the qualifiers for five spots in the 2008 Senior PGA Professional National Championship, Oct. 2 to 5 in California.

EVIAN MASTERS JUNIOR CUP: Former Maui resident Kyung Kim and Trey Ka'ahanui, whose mother is a Kahuku High School graduate, played an integral part in the United States' second-place finish at last week's Evian Masters Junior Cup 2008.

Ka'ahanui and Kim, who both live in Arizona, made up half of the U.S. team. Kim won the girls division by shooting even-par 144. Ka'ahanui was seventh among the boys at 1-over 145.