Winning the Hawai'i State Open championship is one thing. Family bragging rights also go along with it for four-time winner Kevin Hayashi and defending champion Jarett Hamamoto

The second cousins have been going at each other for years whether it's golf or a fishing tournament that their families hold every December in Hilo.

"It's a pride thing," Hamamoto said. "We don't bet or anything, but you don't want to lose."

"We're always harassing each other," said Hayashi, who at age 44 is more like an "Uncle Kevin" to the 22-year-old former University of Hawai'i golfer.

Lately, the student is getting the better of the mentor.

It was Hayashi, a teaching professional at the Mauna Kea Resort, who gave Hamamoto and his older brother, Layne, their first golf lessons 14 years ago at the Hilo Municipal Golf Course.

"He was very competitive and coordinated. But he wasn't into practicing," Hayashi said of when Hamamoto first took up the game. "Sometime in high school he really matured. That's when his game really took off. Once he did that, I knew he was going to be special."

Hamamoto, who goes by the nickname, "JT," went on to become a four-year letter winner at Waiakea High School, winning the state boys' individual championship in his junior and senior years (2001-2002).

After two years at the Air Force Academy, Hamamoto transferred to UH-Manoa and completed his collegiate eligibility last spring, sharing the Western Athletic Conference individual honors only to lose in a playoff.

Hamamoto's victory in last year's Hawai'i State Open at Mauna Kea might have been the biggest win of his young career. But a one-stroke victory over Hayashi in the Hilo Invitational in May was just as big to Hamamoto, who now owns the latest bragging rights going into this year's Hawai'i State Open that starts tomorrow at the Hawai'i Prince Golf Club.

Hayashi isn't conceding a thing this week. But he admits that Hamamoto, who turned pro in May just before the Kona Open, is at the top of his game right now.

Hamamoto gave his game a test last month by pre-qualifying for the PGA Tour, but missed in the first stage of the qualifying school event, finishing in a tie for 47th with a 72-hole score of 287. Only 27 players advanced to the second stage from the qualifying at Hollister, Calif.

"I felt ready. I was putting good and hitting the ball. But I felt like I was grinding it out when I should have been making birdies," Hamamoto said.

He's looking forward to trying the PGA Q-School again next year. But his more immediate goals are successfully defending the State Open title, trying to qualify for the Sony Open in Hawai'i next month, playing in the Hawai'i Pearl Open and then trying for the Nationwide or Canadian tour after that.

Hamamoto is motivated by a career as a professional golfer. Winning the Hawai'i State Open last year as the first amateur champion in 23 years whetted his appetite. But it wasn't the reason why he turned pro, he said. It was because he completed his collegiate eligibility.

"If anybody from Hawai'i can make it, he can," Hayashi said. It's not just kin talking, but a golf instructor as well.

"His game is really solid right now from tee to green. He hits the ball a lot longer than me. I only wish I could be like him when I was his age."

"I told him that if a golfer in our family each generation keeps getting better, maybe one of these days we'll have somebody on the PGA Tour. Right now, he's way better than me. So maybe I'm a better teacher than a golfer," Hayashi said.

Not.

Hayashi was the 2006 Aloha Section PGA Player of the Year, the fourth time he has won the award since 1998.

All that friendly kidding aside, Hayashi is the first person Hamamoto seeks out when his game needs help.

"If I need help, I can just call him up any time," Hamamoto said.

It has always been that way since Hayashi gave him his first lesson, according to Hamamoto's mother, Karlyn.

"Kevin is just so giving. We're lucky to have a relative who's so willing to help like he does," she said.

Except this weekend when they try to outdo each other.

For bragging rights, of course. But this time Hamamoto has an added incentive.

As an amateur champion last year, he got a trophy, a gift certificate and handshakes all around. This time, as a pro, he can pick up a $7,500 paycheck with a victory.