Cyd Okino won't be 15 until December. She just started her sophomore year at Punahou, but her future is basically set — and financed — through college.

"Just on tournaments we've played already we've got offers for a full scholarship," said Cyd's dad, Cyrus. "She's only in 10th grade, but they are trying to lock up scholarships earlier now. By your senior year it's too late. They want you to verbally commit ... and they want you to play all the big tournaments."

Those would be the U.S. Golf Association events and Cyd's performance in national championships has been just as vital as her pure putting stroke in fanning interest from Division I coaches. According to Cyrus, 14 major schools including Arizona and Arizona State, UCLA, Washington and Duke, are interested in having Cyd on their team.

He calls the opportunity "unbelievable" and the USGA's impact on Cyd's future undeniable. His daughter, the youngest Hawai'i State Women's Match Play champion ever, will play in five national championships this year — U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Women's Amateur, U.S. Junior Girls, U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links and USGA Women's Team Championship. He believes the expense served as a remarkable investment.

"I'm talking about a full scholarship, which is tuition, board, books, meals, and paying for that extra fifth year of college to graduate if you need," Cyrus said. "All of this has come from playing USGA tournaments. That's why more girls and boys should try to qualify for these tournaments."

Kaua'i's Mary Bea Porter-King, president of the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association, a member of the PGA of America's Board of Directors and former member of the USGA board, has been saying the same thing for as long as she has been here. She lobbied the USGA for years to get U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open Sectionals here, arguing that the prohibitive cost of qualifying on the Mainland — and even flying to another island for a local qualifier — was inherently unfair for Hawai'i golfers.

Porter-King succeeded while she was still on the USGA board, but the U.S. Open sectional was taken away this year, after three years. The women are on shaky ground if more don't register next year. According to Porter-King, another sectional loss would be "devastating."

"I hope we don't realize how big it is once it's taken away," she said. "We're on the verge of that happening unless people realize how important it is."

To college coaches, USGA events are the first stop on the recruiting trail. Washington's Mary Lou Mulflur estimates about 80 watched this year's U.S. Girls. They are looking at prospective players as young as the Classes of 2010 and 2011.

Most of this year's best seniors have committed. Coaches can't contact players until July 1 following their junior year, but players and parents can contact coaches as much and as early as they want and make unofficial visits.

New Rainbow Wahine coach Lori Castillo has first-hand knowledge of the power of a USGA performance. She won three national titles and parlayed it into a national championship at Tulsa, then played her final years at Stanford.

"Still to this day a USGA championship is the highest arena," Castillo said, "so you have to be there to recruit if you are looking for the best."

It also works in reverse. For college coaches to become interested, Hawai'i juniors — more than maybe any others because of our isolation — need to get their names out there. The shortest distance between the two points is qualifying for a national championship.

"All the USGA championships are national championships, premier events," Porter-King said. "Coaches look and if you have a national championship or do well at one, they are looking very seriously.

"The real difference is, the USGA runs championships and most other organizations run tournaments."

The proof is in the hordes of Hawai'i golfers now playing collegiate golf. The recent success of Hawai'i juniors at USGA events, many of which would not have been possible without local qualifiers, has changed everything.

"I have coaches calling me all the time, now more so than ever," Porter-King said. "I used to have to call them. On my e-mail now I have at least 10 messages from different coaches about our kids. We started 10 years ago on this path when the HSJGA was formed and no one was calling. Now coaches fly over to watch us play."