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Few golf tournaments can trace their roots back nearly 100 years. Fewer still have gone through the vast changes of the Hawaii State Open.
It began as the Medal Championship of the Territory and — in 1959 — the state, then became a PGA Tour event. It was reinvented as a State Open and junior fundraiser, then reinvented again as a year-end golf family reunion to find the best players in the state, no matter what age or gender.
Generations of Hawaii’s greatest golfers have put their unique stamp on the tournament. It has been played on some of the most beautiful and imaginative courses in the world.
The Mauna Lani Resort Hawaii State Open tees off again two weeks from today. The tournament began in 1928 as the Hawaiian Open. The state’s best golfers were joined by a bunch of big names invited from the mainland, playing mostly at Waialae and Oahu Country Clubs.
Gene Sarazen won it in 1934 and Cary Middlecoff in 1948. Hawaii Golf Hall of Famers Arthur Armstrong and Jimmy Ukauka combined to win 11 championships between 1939 and ’55.
Ted Makalena won every one from 1960 to 1964. That final year, golf’s three biggest names — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player — came to Maui for the Canada Cup.
The international event made Hawaii realize what the game could mean to the state. Ken Brown, John Bellinger and Francis Wright, all former Waialae Country Club presidents, asked the PGA Tour to make it a regular stop.
It celebrates its 53rd anniversary — and 20th year as the Sony Open in Hawaii — next month at Waialae.
It has been huge for Hawaii, but that success left most of our golfers searching for a State Open to call their own for a decade. In 1974, the Ted Makalena Hawaii State Open came back as a fundraiser for junior golf.
It was at Ala Wai the first 10 years, then moved around Oahu and to Mauna Kea, Makena, Hapuna, and back to Hawaii Prince and Turtle Bay, before settling in at Mauna Lani.
The Kohala Coast resort realized golf’s potential when it hosted the Senior Skins Game from 1990 to 2000. The exhibition brought in guys like Arnie, Jack and Gary as well as Raymond Floyd, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Hale Irwin to play in a spectacular setting by the Pacific Ocean each year.
Mauna Lani sparkled. Francis I‘i Brown began acquiring the property in the early 1930s. The area is known as Kalahuipuaa and he helped restore traditional Hawaiian fish ponds and heiaus.
“Mr. Golf” was a territorial representative, sports fisherman and remarkable golfer. He shot 62 at the Old Course at St. Andrews before the 1924 British Amateur and played annually in Bing Crosby’s Pebble Beach Clambake, near one of his homes. He was once the reigning amateur champion of Hawaii, Japan and California.
“His” golf course built on lava defies description.
“Mauna Lani has 36 holes of championship golf by the sea over a unique volcanic landscape not seen in too many places in the world,” says Dave Eichelberger, who has seen pretty much everything since turning pro 50 years ago.
The Aloha Section PGA took the State Open over in 1993 and its foundation now runs it. The emphasis is on making the weekend an enjoyable golf reunion at the end of the year that also identifies Hawaii’s finest players.
It has worked so far.
Makalena won the PGA Tour’s Hawaiian Open in 1966 and David Ishii in 1990, after winning three Hawaii State Opens. Both are in the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame, along with multiple State Open champs Lance Suzuki, Clyde Rego, Lori Castillo, Casey Nakama and Kevin Hayashi.
Scott Simpson sandwiched four Hawaii State Open victories around his 1987 U.S. Open championship. Now he is part of the uber-competitive Senior Flight.
“I have a couple great memories that stand out,” Simpson says. “I do remember the first one I played at Ala Wai. I was able to play well and just barely beat Casey Nakama at the end. He got his revenge a couple years ago by beating us all for the Senior State Open crown with some great play.
“Getting to play with friends like him, Kevin Hayashi and David Ishii for all these years makes it very special for the seniors. I won that tournament as I was just getting started on the PGA Tour and it was a big confidence boost to play well down the stretch with the tournament on the line.”
Once dominated by Dean Prince, the Senior Flight is now a shootout between buddies like Simpson, Ishii and Eichelberger, who has played the State Open every year since moving here in 2003. The trio has combined to win 35 PGA, Japan PGA and Champions tour titles, but Mauna Lani keeps them coming back home at the end of every year.
“Mauna Lani’s best attributes are the uniqueness of playing in and out of the lava, and it’s just a really fun strategic course to play,” Simpson says. “They also have some of the most beautiful par-3s in the world on the South Course. It has also always been in great condition. It’s a good and fair test for a championship.”
The buddies will be back Dec. 15-17 at Mauna Lani, along with a field that includes defending champ TJ Kua, Dean Wilson, Tadd Fujikawa, David Fink, Isaac Jaffurs, Tyler Ota, Jared Sawada and Kyle Suppa.
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