Sandbagging takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to the Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association Senior Championship.

The question is not how honest is your handicap, but how accurate is your age? And — have you ever heard this before? — are you exaggerating up to get into an older flight?

Not that anyone would have done that at Monday’s 39th annual HSWGA Senior Women’s Championship at Leilehua. But the numbers were so high — 84 entries, including 11 in their 80s and a trio in their 90s — and scores so low it was sometimes hard to believe your eyes.

More than a few didn’t look 50 — the minimum age for eligibility — to say nothing of 80 or 90.

Six years ago it became gleefully obvious that Hawaii has some kind of mojo for “older” female golfers. A record 17 80-somethings showed up for this tournament.

Then a few in their 90s began appearing, a select and exceedingly healthy group that this year included Elaine Lee, Blanche Quintal and Annette Kono, who won this tournament 32 years ago.

She didn’t win this year. Mira Jang, 59, successfully defended her title, firing an even-par 72 in constant drizzle. That gives her two senior titles and bragging rights over daughter Anna, who won only one state high school championship.

No one else broke 80.

There is that number again.

The low-gross winner in the championship flight, inhabited by those ages 80-94, was Grace Wilson. The 22-handicapper shot 92, which is three three-putts higher than her age. Her son Dean won some $10 million on the PGA and Japan PGA tours.

Kyong Omura, playing in the 50-something D flight with Jang, captured overall low-net honors. The 12-handicapper was one of many who shot 80.

Jang was among six in the field with single-digit handicaps. That group includes Bev Kim, a Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer who won this championship two years ago, at 69.

But back to those in their 90s. Kono has great golf blood. Brother Billy Arakawa, another Hall of Famer, taught her and sons Curtis and Wesley to play.

“The Wahiawa Ladies group needed players, so they told me why don’t you come play with us,” said Kono, looking back some 50 years to her start. “I said I only play nine holes. They said join us and we’ll give you a 55-handicap. Like a dummy, I went, and practiced a lot. In two years I went down to a 19-handicap and won overall low net at Jennie K.”

Grateful to her brother for giving her the swing she still uses, Kono says she’s “still learning” the game. She calls her golf highlights a pair of holes-in-one at Kalakaua and the folks that surround her on the course.

“I just love it, being with the people,” she says. “I used to compete a lot when I was younger, but now my pleasure is being with my friends … and being able to walk still. I had two knee replacements and I’m still able to play 18 holes.”

Lee, the eldest Monday at 94, plays twice a week.

“I love the game,” she says. “Every time I go out, it’s a challenge to try to improve my score. And there’s meeting new girls. Everything about golf is fun.”

She won low net in her flight in the first tournament she played and has been “plugging away” ever since.

Same with Quintal, who joined the 90-somethings this year. She started playing at 64, when her neighbor “introduced me to the game, taught me what he knew.”

“I have never had a formal lesson,” Quintal says proudly, then adds, “maybe that’s why I golf so terrible.”

Recent history disputes that. Quintal had her first hole-in-one this February, at Royal Kunia, which reminds her with every spectacular view why she loves playing her “new sport” so much.

What would she advise someone taking up the sport — at any age — who wants to play into their 90s?

“I would say golf is a game where you have to be very patient, which I’m not,” she grins. “You have to be very patient when playing the game in order to keep yourself going.”

And going, and going and going. In Hawaii, the sky is the limit for senior women’s golf apparently.

Patricia Schremmer, who fell in extra holes in the semifinals of the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur last week, won the inaugural HSWGA members-only Stroke Play Championship in 2015. Now she can also play in Hawaii’s Senior Championship and chase Yoshiko Koyama and Mona Kim, who won the tournament five times each.

Until then, the HSWGA will probably keep giving out door prizes and calling out lost and found items for most of the awards banquet. And that shockingly large number of 80-year-olds might morph into an astonishing number of 90-year-olds.

A few might even look their age.