VIDEO: 2009 Oahu Country Club Women's Invitational

Tournament co-chairs Royce Sonnenberg and Barbara North were convinced competitive women's golf was still popular here. They believed the low turnout that ended the event in 1999 — after more than 30 years — was more about the public perception of OCC as a course that caused nightmares for golfers with its radical and relentless hills, weather chills and putting green thrills.

With the encouragement of head pro Andrew Feldmann, they reworked what used to be a low-net stroke play championship into a modified Stableford format. Those in Championship Flight the last two days got one point for bogey, two for par, three for birdie and four for eagle. Golfers in the other flights earned the same set of points, but used net scores with their handicaps.

A bad hole, exceptionally easy to achieve at OCC, was not a worry. Unlike the modified Stableford used by the PGA Tour at The International — last won by Hawai'i's Dean Wilson in 2006 — points were not subtracted for bogeys and worse. OCC was not nearly as traumatic.

"We wanted to have a good, solid start to this 10-year revival," Sonnenberg said. "Stableford was it."

Organizers hoped for 90 players and got 88 entries. Its format got great reviews after yesterday's final round.

Mid-Pacific Institute graduate Lisa Okazaki, a University of Portland junior and the youngest in the field at 19, and Jaye Gray, a 22-handicapper who joined OCC in February, liked it best. Both basically had no clue about Stableford — Okazaki discovered it wasn't a normal stroke-play format when she teed off Monday morning — but climbed over everyone to win the overall titles.

"I was like, 'What is this?' " recalled Okazaki, playing this summer to practice for her collegiate season. "They were like, 'You get points.' I said, 'Points?' I was shocked. It was different, but it was kind of neat. You don't have to worry so much about score. ... It relaxes you more than normal."

Okazaki got low-gross honors by collecting 59 points, winning Championship Flight by nine over Lily Yao. Gray earned 76 net points, scoring four on her final two holes then parring the first playoff hole to beat Estra Quilausing. The only other time Gray played Stableford she needed someone else to keep score.

Okazaki, who finished 15th in the state as an MPI senior, shot "real" rounds of 79-80. That would usually translate into 13-over-par from OCC's front tees. On a strange — literally and figuratively — course belted by strong gusts and groomed to challenge the state's best male amateurs, who just finished Manoa Cup Saturday, it was an accomplishment.

It was also the biggest win in her golf career. She joins some of the most successful female golfers in Hawai'i history as OCC champion.

The last winner was Anna Umemura. She was 20 in 1999, and two years removed from becoming the only golfer to win all three Hawai'i women's majors (Jennie K., state stroke and match play) in the same year. Hall of Famers Bev Kim, Marga Stubblefield and Joan Damon also have had success at OCC, along with former LPGA pro Lenore Muraoka. Wailea Blue pro Brenda Rego won both low net and low gross in 1973.

Kim won low net honors in Championship Flight with 65 points yesterday and Quilausing won A Flight with 76 net points. Jo Ann Chun won B Flight (71 points), Marty Drew C Flight (73) and Maud Chang D Flight (68).