KAHUKU — A couple pros searching for the golf mecca, a couple state high school championship teammates and Damien Jamila blew a step closer to the U.S. Open yesterday at Turtle Bay Resort's George Fazio Course.

Pierre-Henri Soero, last seen graduating from the University of Hawai'i after a celebrated Rainbow golf career, was the only golfer to break par in winds that gusted to 25 mph. His 2-under-par 70 was more than enough to earn medalist honors in the U.S. Open local qualifier, beating out 21 others.

Jamila, an honorable mention All-American for UH in 1992, won a four-man playoff for the second spot. His par on the second playoff hole beat out 'Iolani eighth-grader Lorens Chan, Turtle Bay pro Kevin Carll and Thomas Foley, a pro from Florida. All had 73 to share second.

Punahou freshman Cyd Okino shot 72 to win medalist honors in the U.S. Women's Open local qualifier, played from tees 360 yards shorter. Okino, the ILH champion, helped her team to its second straight state team title Wednesday.

So did Punahou junior Anna Jang, who followed up last year's individual state championship with a runner-up finish. She and Bridget Dwyer, a Punahou graduate and member of the Duramed Futures Tour, earned the two other women's slots by shooting 76.

Soero will play the sectional in Jupiter, Fla. He now lives in nearby Palm Beach Gardens and is playing the NGA Hooters Tour, where he finished 45th in his first start in March. A few days earlier, he got his first professional win, at the Woodmont Open on the Major League Tour.

Born in New Caledonia, Soero graduated from high school in Paris before recruiting himself to Manoa. He was second-team all-Western Athletic Conference as a junior in 2006, but 2005 was the turning point in his career, and it started when he qualified for the U.S. Open at "comfy" Turtle Bay. That's part of why he traveled so far to play yesterday. The timing also coincided with the birthday and graduation of his girlfriend, former Rainbow Wahine basketball player Pam Tambini.

"When I qualified here it gave me a lot of confidence," said Soero, who also played the French Open on the European Tour in 2005. "I made it to the Open, it was a big lift. At that point it was my third year of college and I was like, 'What am I going to do after?' Lot of people said turn pro but I wasn't trusting myself. Then I went to the Open and played a practice round with Phil Mickelson and a couple other good guys and they told me I've got the game. I just need experience. Since then, the confidence has come."

Jamila, from Waimanalo, will play the sectional at Lake Merced Golf Club in San Francisco. The pro's last major title in Hawai'i was State Amateur Stroke Play, for the fourth time, in 1998. He was the Tadd Fujikawa of his time — and the last amateur to win the Pearl Hawai'i Open (1992) until Fujikawa captured it last year. Jamila also won the 11-12 Junior World championship in 1982, six years before a guy named Eldrick Woods — known now simply as Tiger.

Okino and Jang will play Hawai'i's women's sectional June 9 at Turtle Bay's Arnold Palmer Course. Dwyer has opted for the sectional at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., along with much of the Futures Tour. She is 46th on the money list in her third year and finished 17th two weeks ago. Her scoring average (73.38) is more than two strokes better than last year.

She grew up in winds like yesterday, and still sees them intermittently. "This wasn't as bad as El Paso (last week)," said Dwyer, who played here so she could celebrate Mother's Day with her mother. "At least there weren't dust storms."

This is just the latest breakthrough for the 14-year-old Okino. She became the youngest (11) to win the Hawai'i State Women's Match Play three years ago and has won the last two women's titles at the Hawai'i State Open. But she has never putted quite like yesterday.

"From anywhere, I was just making them randomly," Okino said. "I had a lot of save putts for par and good putts for birdie. I didn't have any three-putts."

NOTES

Punahou senior Stephanie Kono is first alternate for the women. She won a playoff with Japanese pro Akane Oshiro, after both shot 79. Corina Kelepouris (80), who plays on the Canadian Tour, is third alternate. Kevin Carll is first alternate for the men, Lorens Chan second alternate.

The Kaua'i local qualifier will be Monday at Wailua — the day before the boys state high school championship starts there — with 19 golfers playing for one spot. Maui's local qualifier is May 17 at Ka'anapali, with 22 players for two spots. The Big Island's will be May 19 at Waikoloa Kings', with 15 going for one spot.