Odds are that some young golfer, perhaps in his teens, will win this week's 100th Manoa Cup.

But nostalgia buffs won't soon forget a memorable moment in this year's centennial event when four past champions — Jack Omuro, Art Fujita, Paul Spengler and Guy Yamamoto — played together in Monday's qualifying round at the Oahu Country Club.

"Four champions playing together. It's just great," said Fujita, the 1964 Manoa Cup champion. "Where are you going to find this kind of camaraderie? You're going to find it on a golf course, no place else. I made a bet with somebody that Paul's not going to show up. It's great that he came all the way from California to play in this."

Spengler, the 1969 champion, was the only one of the four to qualify but he lost his opening match, 4 and 3, to Lorens Chan, who reached the semifinals as a 13-year-old last year.

"The invitation came to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Manoa Cup, and being a past champion, I felt it was not only an obligation but a privilege to come and celebrate this great championship," said Spengler, who will be 69 next Monday.

Omuro, the 1960 Manoa Cup champion and the oldest of Monday's Fab Four at 79, said he gave it the last hurrah even though his chances of qualifying were slim because the centennial event is something special. Still, he shot a respectable round of 84.

At 46, Yamamoto, who won in 1985 and '92, never thought he'd be the youngest guy in any foursome. He posted the worst score of the bunch (88) but didn't blame it on baby-sitting duties. In fact, it was the other way around. The old guys were watching out for him.

"I hit some wayward shots and Art found my ball three times. So Art's vision is really good yet," said Yamamoto, who knew Fujita back in Kaua'i when the 1994 USGA Men's Amateur Public Links champion first took up golf as a youngster.

"I was watching Yamamoto. He was driving me crazy," Fujita said, laughing. "All kidding aside, I know he had a tough day but we all had a tough day. The putting was something."

Fujita just missed qualifying for match play by one stroke when he shot an 80, a disappointing round for someone who regularly shoots his age (74). He did qualify in his last appearance six years ago and won his opening match before bowing out.

Fujita made up his mind a year ago to play one last time because of the 100th anniversary of the tournament. "Hundred years. It's got a lot of history. I told myself, I've gotta be there," said Fujita, who thought he could walk the course had he qualified.

Golf carts are allowed only during the qualifying round, making it possible for Omuro to give it a try. What if he qualified, Omuro was asked. "I think maybe I could walk at least nine holes," he replied, chuckling.

"It was a fun day, playing with them. They are legendary golfers who had already won the Manoa Cup before I first played in it (in 1979)," Yamamoto said. "But I didn't play well, That part was a little disappointing."

Yamamoto hasn't been playing competitive golf the past three years because his two young sons, Marcus and Micah, are into youth baseball in Mililani.

"Golf is what it is. You've got to invest time," said Yamamoto, who knows what a long week it can be in the Manoa Cup. He played 160 of a possible 162 holes when he won in 1992. The semifinals were 36 holes then.

Playing with fellow Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame members Omuro and Fujita was wonderful, according to Spengler, who was inducted the same year as Fujita in 1997. Omuro was honored the following year.

"We had such a great time. We reminisced. We talked about who we'd beaten and we hadn't beaten," Spengler said. "It was great to see some of the oldtimers again. And it was a real pleasure to see Ken Miyaoka especially. He is such a legend."

Omuro remembers playing with Miyaoka in his first Manoa Cup. It was in 1946 and both played barefooted. "We couldn't afford golf shoes," Omuro said.

Spengler beat Larry Stubblefield in the 1969 36-hole final, 7 and 5. "It was a great day for me. After losing to Owen Douglass in '63, I always wanted to win the state amateur (match play championship), the Manoa Cup," Spengler said. "That was the year I got it done."

He last played in the Manoa Cup in the early '80s before moving to Carmel, Calif. After working on the Los Angeles Olympic Committee and with Don Ohlmeyer for the Skins Game, Spengler served for 15 years as senior vice president for golf operations at Pebble Beach, chairing both U.S. Open championships there in 1992 and 2000.

"I don't have a day-to-day responsibility anymore so I can play more golf," said Spengler, who's still involved as a golf consultant for the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, the Outback senior event in Tampa and as a managing partner of a private Jack Nicklaus country club in Monterey.

But he and his wife, Cyndy, return frequently to see their son, Michael, and daughter, Kristen Kenney, and four of their nine grandchildren.

Reminisces aside, the hilly Nu'uanu Valley course is no country for old men, especially with a week of walking the slopes. Spengler's group followed four young guns in Monday's qualifying and saw them bomb the 341-yard, par-4 17th hole up ahead of them.

"The group in front of us all drove the ball over the green at the 17," Spengler said. "We tried to think who could do that in our era and Al Souza was the only one we could come up (with)."

(Souza, who won in 1980, can still claim the honor of hitting the greatest single shot in Manoa Cup history, scoring double-eagle 2 at the uphill par-5 13th in beating Miyaoka, 2 and 1, that year.)

"It was wonderful to see the young players. They just had wonderful golf swings," Spengler said. "I'm just impressed with the quality of golf here."

Who knows? Years from now, these very youngsters may reminisce about the time they played in the 100th Manoa Cup.

Bill Kwon can be reached at bill kwonrhs@aol.com.