Two guys from Kaua'i morphed into golf world-beaters over the course of the 101st Manoa Cup — and the unorthodox Oahu Country Club course — this past week. Yesterday, TJ Kua and Layne Morita were good to the last hole, which is where Kua finally converted on his fourth chance to win Hawai'i's amateur match play championship.

Kua, a 19-year-old University of Hawai'i sophomore, never trailed in a final that went the regulation 36 holes for the first time since Ryan Koshi beat Kellen-Floyd Asao in 2001.

Asao came back to win two years later. After what Morita, 22, showed at OCC no one would be surprised to see him back. The Chaminade senior, who quit golf for two years before coming back to become the Silverswords' first all-conference player, trailed for just one hole in his first five matches.

But he could never catch Kua, who became the first lefthander to win in 30 years.

"This means a whole lot," Kua, 19, said. "This is the tournament everybody prepares for. There is nothing more prestigious than this. To do it having fun as well, that means a lot."

'CLAW' IN THE CLUTCH

The nephew of Hawai'i Golf Hall of Famer David Ishii had the most imagination on the way to the greens and immense gumption on them, with the funky "claw" putting grip his uncle showed him three years ago. Over the course of the last five days, Kua seemingly made every "make-able putt" he needed to halve holes and terminate rallies.

In match play, that type of clutch play is a giant killer. Kua, 5 feet 9 and 115 pounds soaking wet — which he was after the traditional champion's dunking — played the part to perfection.

"He killed everybody's momentum," said Travis Toyama, a two-time Manoa Cup champion who caddied for Kua to return a favor from 2005. "When he's losing momentum and guys think they're going to catch up to him he'll drain like a 15-footer. It just kills. He made a lot of 6- to 10-foot putts, especially yesterday (in quarterfinals and semifinals) to tie. That really deflates your opponent."

BOUNCING BACK

Kua won three of the final four holes in the morning round to take a 3-up advantage over Morita. He extended it to 4-up when Morita bogeyed the first hole and kept it there by matching Morita's birdie on the next hole, from 7 feet, and sinking a 6-footer coming back at No. 4.

Morita won for the first time in 10 holes when Kua had a hiccup on the fifth tee, pushing his drive into the water fronting the sixth tee. They halved the next hole. It would be the last halve for more than an hour.

Kua got up and down for par, from 3 feet, to win the next hole. Morita won the next three — two with birdie — to cut his deficit to one. He hit his tee shot inside Kua's on the par-3 11th.

"I felt like I was working really hard," Morita said. "I was just trying to bounce back. I felt nervous most of the time on the putts especially. I got some confidence around the back nine when I got 8, 9, 10. I thought 'You're still in this. Try to grind it out and see if you can get ahead.' He just kept making some really timely shots."

The most timely came on the 11th. With one whack of his putter, Kua grabbed the momentum back in shocking style, walking in his 40-foot birdie putt and following it with a fist pump. Morita's birdie try from 30 feet lipped out.

"That was a great putt," Morita said. "I was really surprised when he made it. I wanted to clap too, but I'm the opponent."

STRESS TEST

Still, the relentless Morita kept coming back. He coaxed a 10-foot birdie putt into the next hole, but lost the 13th when he yanked his approach shot up to the next tee just before Kua finessed a flop shot over the trees and safely on the green.

It would be the last hole Kua would win. They traded nerve-racking par putts to tie the next two holes. Kua had a 12-foot downhill birdie putt to win on the 16th. It slid 4 feet by and he missed the par putt to lose the hole.

"I wish I had it back. I added a lot of stress coming in," Kua said. "I really wanted to end it there and it would have been very nice to make that putt to win. That's how the breaks go."

A 14-footer to win stayed out on the 17th, as Morita salvaged par. Kua's 25-footer to win missed on the 18th, stopping 18 inches from the hole.

Morita's 6-footer for birdie to tie the match tracked toward the hole, but stopped on the lip. Kua stepped off the green to look at what normally would have been a routine tap-in. He and Toyama chatted and laughed. Then the guy who was a two-time state high school runner-up walked up to his ball and knocked it into the back of the hole.

"It had to look at least 18 feet to him," Toyama said. "He was nervous. On the fairway he was drinking water and you could see him shaking when he pulled the bottle up to his mouth. He was under a lot of pressure. I've been through it, I know what's like.

"I told him to relax, joked around with him a little bit. I told him he made this putt every day, several times a round. Step up to it and pop it in. He did."

WAILUA CHAMPIONS

During the trophy presentation, Kua asked his Kaua'i buddy if they could do it again sometime. From Morita's table came the words "at Wailua." Kaua'i's municipal course has produced more than its share of Manoa Cup champions, from Art Fujita to Guy Yamamoto, Deron Doi, Jonathan Ota and David Ishii, who has just one Cup among his many trophies.

That's all Kua needs for incentive. "I'll have to win two," he said.