In a 100th anniversary celebration of the Manoa Cup that was fittingly filled with fascinating matches, shots and stories, Alex Ching put an exclamation point on the Decade of the Young and the Relentless.

Ching, a month after winning the state high school golf championship and days before his Punahou graduation party, transformed Jonathan Ota from a golfer aging gracefully to a beaten man — in every sense of the word — in yesterday's 8-and-7 final at Oahu Country Club.

"With his game you can't help but have confidence," Ota said of Ching. "But he's not only confident, he's very ... he has something special about his attitude that will really make him go far in the future in golf. A lot of the kids are good, but he's become No. 1 in the state because of that attitude."

Two of the most amiable guys in Hawai'i's amiable golf world were scheduled for 36 holes, but lasted just 29 when Ching simply overwhelmed Ota. The only good thing about it in Ota's eyes was that he did not have to drag his 46-year-old body back up the steep 12th hole one more time.

"I think he was tired," Ching understated. "I was tired, too, but I think I had a little bit of young advantage."

Ota rarely plays competitive golf these days, but trains faithfully for the Manoa Cup with cardio workouts and yoga. Nothing could prepare him for Ching, whose inexorable run to the 100th state amateur championship began with blowouts the first three rounds.

In stark contrast, Friday was excruciatingly long as he outlasted two-time Manoa Cup champion Travis Toyama and buddy TJ Kua in sudden death.

The quarterfinal with Toyama was one for the ages — even for Hawai'i's most revered tournament, played on a lush and eccentric course proud to be known as golf's theater of the absurd. When it was over, after 24 holes and 19 birdies, Ching's mother, Kori, allowed that it was harder to watch than to give birth to her son.

"I went in the hospital at 9:30 and, two pushes, we were out of there by 11," she said yesterday. "He was always an easy child until that match."

Friday was an aberration. Ota, general manager of Kaua'i's venerable Tip Top Cafe, had been just as dominant earlier in the week and was all square after four holes early yesterday morning. Then Ching went off, as he has much of the last year.

He captured the Optimist International Junior and Oahu Country Club Invitational last summer and earned the amateur slot in this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i. Ching, headed to San Diego on a golf scholarship, roared to the Hickam Invitational and state high school championships in May.

The Manoa Cup was about all that was left to conquer in the amateur world here and, on his home course, against the only man older than 25 to win it in the last 10 years, Ching was more than up to the challenge. He won seven straight holes (Nos. 5 through 11) — five with birdie — in a chilling display that rocked Ota's tired world.

With a compelling exhibit of mind over matter across OCC's toughest terrain, Ota cut his deficit by two before lunch.

"He's a great player," Ching said of Ota. "He may be 46 years old, but he swings like he's late 20s and he putts like an older guy — he knows what he's doing. He has that Wailua/Kaua'i touch. Like TJ ... it must be something in the grass over there. His short game is amazing. He misses a green and you know he's going to get up and down or at least have a real good chance at it."

Ching knows of what he speaks. Ota could have cut his halftime deficit more, but Ching converted outrageous pars on the 16th and 18th. Then, after "totally forgetting" about golf for an hour, he watched honorary starters and Hawai'i Golf Hall of Famers Ken Miyaoka and Jack Omuro open the afternoon round and crushed his first drive. Ching followed up with an approach shot to within a foot.

"Those were the kind of up and downs that will stop somebody from making a comeback and it basically did," Ota said of the close of the morning round. "Still, five down, still had a chance. But right after that, first hole, one foot to the pin already. I mean ... right there already he just kind of took control of the afternoon, too.

"But, he's the No. 1 amateur in the state of Hawai'i, at his home course, he's playing very good, clean golf. Even if I played my best game I probably still would have lost. He's very calm, just played his game. Plus, he's a good kid, you know?"

It was just a matter of time and it was all on the side of Ching, who convinced himself that the biggest day in his golf life was just another round with his family and he was going to "enjoy the moment."

After a while, the end could not come soon enough for the game Ota.

"Starting off I was OK, but as soon as I got past nine of the first round ... walking up 13 I was really tired," he admitted. "My swing got weak and shaky. I tried to hang in there, but Alex was so solid. ... He's making birdies and I'm making pars or bogeys. It's hard to turn it around when I'm not in position to make birdies and he is."

Ching won a $750 gift certificate and Ota $350.