What started as an exhibition to kick off Sony Open in Hawai'i week boiled down to a Public vs. Private School Shootout from 100 paces yesterday. Private schools won, along with junior golf as the inaugural King Auto Group Pro-Junior Skills Challenge served as a punctuation mark to a remarkable year in Hawai'i golf.

The Pro-Junior Challenge was played Sony Open week from 2002 to 2005. That alternate-ball format was replaced by the skills format this year when Charlie King resurrected the event because of the impact it had on Hawai'i junior golf.

"What we saw," King said, "is that it sparked interest in the juniors wanting to play in the state tournaments."

The Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association received half the $20,000 purse as a donation, then cleaned up when all five pros donated their $10,000 share. The HSJGA, which helped kick-start Michelle Wie's career, uses the money to subsidize tournaments and travel for Hawai'i juniors, who captured two national championships last year.

Yesterday, Punahou schoolmates Wie (Class of 2007) and Alex Ching (2008) shot down PGA Tour pro Dean Wilson (Castle High 1988) and Miki Ueoka (Kaua'i High 2007) from the fairway to win the Skills Challenge along Waialae Country Club's 18th hole.

The teams were tied at 28 points after the four skills challenges. The tiebreaker was a 100-yard approach shot. Ching, who wins state tennis championships for stress-relief, poached the title when he got his ball to stop 9 feet, 2 inches from the pin.

Closest-to-the-hole claimed first prize for Ching and Wie, whose only advice to each other all day was "don't choke."

They didn't, as Wie more than held her own against tour pros Wilson, Parker McLachlin (Punahou 1997), Davis Love III and 2002 Sony Open champ Jerry Kelly.

"How come two Punahou kids ended up winning and I'm not one of them?" joked McLachlin, who will tee off for the first time as a tour member tomorrow.

Because the kids, particularly Ching, were universally not intimidated. In front of 500 spectators, including 300 screaming kids bused in from four YMCAs and a Wai'anae charter school, Ching nearly re-created Isao Aoki's miracle chip shot that won the 1983 Hawaiian Open in the first skills challenge.

From 128 yards out in the left rough, he lofted the ball dead at the pin. It stopped 2 feet, 8 inches short. He high-fived Wie, who hit three shots relatively close herself, but they came in second when Wilson put it 2 feet, 5 inches away.

"I'm in the rough a lot," Wilson explained with a shrug.

The second challenge was a trouble shot from the right rough, behind three palm trees. Honoka'a senior Sean Maekawa won that for himself and Love, punching the ball to within 22 feet. Ueoka gave her team second.

"The kids are young and this is a pretty awesome thing for them," said McLachlin. "They were really focused and excited to do well. We are trying to gear up for Thursday to Sunday. Maybe we're not quite at that same focus level they are."

McLachlin and Maui High junior Elyse Okada won the long bunker shot challenge when he blasted to 4 feet, 5 inches — a foot better than Wie. Kelly was the only golfer to sink the 60-foot putt in the final challenge. He was busy talking by the time the ball fell in, and got 10 points and a high-five from partner Chan Kim.

That still left them two points out of the playoff, with teams collecting points in descending order (10-8-6-4-2) based on their best shot. Love and Maekawa took fourth (24 points), with McLachlin and Okada last (16).

FOUR MORE QUALIFY

Las Vegas pro Scott Piercy shot an 8-under-par 64 yesterday to earn medalist honors at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawai'i Monday qualifier at Makaha Resort. Piercy beat out 71 other players to earn one of the four slots in tomorrow's Sony.

PGA Tour member Michael Allen and Nationwide Tour member Joe Daly, both 48, grabbed the next two slots with 66s. Brian Miller, a California pro, birdied the first playoff hole to beat tour member Jeff Brehaut for the final spot. Both shot 67.

Hawai'i's Greg Meyer finished a shot out of the playoff. Sacred Hearts junior Ayaka Kaneko, the only female in the field, shot 74.

The qualifier started Monday but was postponed by bad weather with only five groups finishing.

ODD COUPLING

Pairings for the first two days were announced and came with a couple quirks. Parker McLachlin and David Chin — two of the seven Hawai'i players in the field — are in the same group. Moanalua sophomore Tadd Fujikawa, the only amateur in the field, is in the following group, which will be the final threesome of the second round. Fujikawa's hometown is listed as Tokyo, for unknown reasons.

McLachlin is hosting next week's "Inside the PGA Tour" show on The Golf Channel and will take a camera crew to his favorite O'ahu spots today for the short segment. The 1996 Hawai'i high school champion is also being profiled on pgatour.com this week. For the second straight year, McLachlin's caddie will be 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson, who will open his second Champions Tour season next week in the MasterCard Championship at Hualalai.

ALTERNATES ON DECK

Alternates here include Jonathan Kaye, who was among the top 80 on the money list seven straight years until falling to 135th in 2006, and Bob May, who lost a memorable playoff with Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship.

SKINS LEAVING WAILEA

Taking a page from the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, the Wendy's Champions Skins Game will also be changing venues after this week's event on Maui. Tournament director Barry Helle confirmed it would be the final year the senior skins would be played at Wailea Resort.

The tournament, one of the rare opportunities to watch Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus play, has been at Wailea the last seven years after a long stretch at Mauna Lani.

This year's senior skins begins with Friday's Pro-Am at Wailea Gold. The first nine holes will be Saturday morning and the final nine Sunday. The purse is $770,000. Teams are defending champions Dana Quigley and Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer and Loren Roberts, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson and Gary Player and Jay Haas.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.