When Parker McLachlin rolled in a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the PGA's Legends Reno-Tahoe Open three weeks ago he punctuated it with a triumphant fist pump.

Who knew back then, on Aug. 3, it would become a symbol for an incomparable month?

Over the span of 22 beyond-remarkable days in Hawai'i sports history, we've celebrated a string of athletic success for the state from Olympic gold in Beijing to Little League World Series bold in Williamsport, Pa. where Waipi'o won it all yesterday by beating Mexico, 12-3.

There has never been a month like it here. Never a more august August.

And, with seven days still to go, dare we dream of more? Might we be granted some additional gluttony?

I mean, the University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine open the season with the No. 1-ranked women's volleyball team, Penn State, Friday, a day before the football team begins at fifth-ranked Florida.

But even if August had only 24 days this has already been a memory-filled, thrill-packed month for the scrapbooks. Let us count the ways:

McLachlin was only the fourth Hawai'i pro to win a PGA event and just the second to do it offshore.

It has been a half century since Hawai'i athletes and those who have represented it have brought home more Olympic medals (four golds and a silver). With decathlete Bryan Clay, by tradition, the "world's greatest athlete," leading the way, never have they done it in such a wide range of disciplines — decathlon, water polo, soccer and volleyball.

It was the second time in the 61-year history of the Little League World Series a Hawai'i team won it all. Though it seems almost like a routine event with both coming in the space of four seasons.

Oh, and lest we forget, a former reserve basketball player from Punahou School will be the Democratic Party's nominee for President.

Last month, colleague Wes Nakama wrote about the dawning of a "golden age" in Hawai'i sports in which local athletes are, in greater number and feats, making breakthroughs on the national and international scene. Signs pointed to how they are poised to make more. This month was a fast-arriving, eye-opening example of just that.

So much so that it is doubly hard to imagine now that the Board of Education was really considering slicing junior varsity athletics in our public schools. Until John Penebacker, Greg McMackin and other like-minded folks rode to the rescue, it was on the chopping block. If there was a reminder of what athletics can bring to not only the participants but the state as a whole, this surely was it.

Waipi'o manager Timo Donahue, in talking about his team yesterday, could have well been summing up the whole month to date. He could have been speaking for the sports fans of the state. "I honestly feel at this point and time they don't realize what they did today. I think that once they step on the island then I think that's when it's going to hit them. I'm sure they're all getting phone calls and these guys are into text messaging ... I think it's going to hit them later. Even for myself, it seems surreal."

Indeed, it has been that kind of a pinch-me month for us all.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.