'AIEA — First it was Mänoa Cup. Now, at the wise old age of 23, Travis Toyama has zeroed in on the Bridgestone Golf Pro-Scratch Championship.

Yesterday, Toyama did not defend the team title he won last year so much as blow through and grab it back during a series of rain squalls.

He and amateur partner Wade Nakamura won the ninth annual Pro-Scratch by one shot over an assortment of Oahu Country Club all-stars — Champions Tour player Dave Eichelberger and partner EJ MacNaughton (62-67), and OCC head pro Andrew Feldmann with Brandan Kop (61-68). It was only fitting, since Toyama became the youngest in history to win the Mänoa Cup — state amateur match-play championship — at age 15 at OCC, then won it again in 2005.

Toyama captured the Pro-Scratch last year with pro Leland Lindsay. In January, he turned pro and plucked insurance agent Nakamura as his scratch partner. They shot 62-66 for 16-under-par 128. They eagled the first hole both days — Toyama hitting his 3-wood to 5 feet yesterday — and closed it out with three birdies in the last four holes.

The key, both said simultaneously, was scrambling through a series of downpours at Pearl Country Club.

"I hit it, I find it, I hit it again and hit it again," Nakamura said. "And somehow make par."

For all their scrambling, the longest putt they made was 15 feet. Both lamented "a lot of missed opportunities," but those who finished behind had little sympathy. Pearl played tough in the rain, and Nakamura and Toyama — for the second straight year — were the toughest of the bunch.

Nakamura gave the former 'Bow much of the credit in his winner's speech: "Most of all I'd like to thank Travis," he said, "because you all know how good he is and I rode on his back all 18 holes today."

Toyama deflected it. For yesterday's best-ball format and Monday's two-man scramble, he characterized Nakamura as the straight man — down the middle, consistent, calm — while he provided most of the punch lines with his high-risk game across Pearl's increasingly soggy slopes. It was almost identical to the successful strategy Toyama and Lindsay used a year go.

"It helps when you have a partner who always makes par so you can charge a birdie," Toyama said. "You don't have to worry about it.

"Yesterday he held me up a lot because I've been hitting the ball really well and we were right there and I wasn't making putts and he just was. He makes everything. I don't need to worry."

The pros and their scratch-handicap partners played from Pearl's Championship tees (6,787 yards) with a lone exception: Three-time Hawai'i State Open women's champion Cyd Okino teed off from the middle tees (6,232 yards). The Punahou junior got two days off school to experience golf life in the fast lane and, even more enlightening, two straight days with exuberant Mid-Pacific Country Club pro Joe Phengsavath.

Okino was the first female amateur to participate. She and Phengsavath shot 66-69—135 to tie for 20th.

"It was fun," Okino said. "There's never a dull moment when we play, that's for sure. It was fun to play with all of them."

For the seventh straight year this tournament, originated by Bridgestone Golf distributor Del-Marc Fujita, sold out (40 teams). It had a waiting list that included defending champion Lindsay. Toyama won $2,000, or 20 percent of the pros' purse, while Nakamura received $600 in merchandise certificates from a $4,000 amateur purse.