KAMUELA, Hawaii >> Familiar faces showed up in high places during Sunday’s final round of the Mauna Lani Resort Hawaii State Open.
Tadd Fujikawa — now a decade away from becoming the second-youngest to make a PGA Tour cut — caught and passed three-time State Open champion Nick Mason at Mauna Lani’s North Course.
In the stacked Senior Flight, 14-time Japan PGA champ David Ishii birdied his last four holes to run away from 1987 U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson.
Britney Yada, a 2009 Waiakea graduate who will try to work her back to the LPGA Tour next year, captured her second women’s title in three years.
Mason, a Leilehua graduate who golfed for University of Hawaii Hilo, birdied the first three holes to break to a four-shot advantage early Sunday.
Fujikawa caught him with birdies on four of the first six holes on the back. His margin of victory came on his eighth and final birdie, after he hit to three feet on the par-3 17th.
He would finish with his second straight 67. His 12-under-par 204 total was one off the tournament record at Mauna Lani, set by Mason and Parker McLachlin in 2015.
Mason shot 69—205 and Texas pro Robby Ormand (68) was another shot back.
Kyle Suppa, a Punahou grad now playing for USC, shared the lead with Mason going into Sunday. He shot 77 — with two triple-bogeys on the back nine — and earned a share of ninth along with low-amateur honors for the second time in three years.
It was Fujikawa’s first win since the 2010 State Open. It was worth $10,000 and felt “totally different.”
“In 2010 I was coming off a good year. I played the eGolf Tour the whole year and was fourth on the money list. I had one win, I was playing well,” Fujikawa recalled. “Over the past bunch of years since 2010 I really haven’t had one good year. I’ve been through a lot of bad spells and was really struggling with my game.
“It was nice to just be in contention this week. I hadn’t put myself in this position for a long time. I didn’t know what to expect.”
Fujikawa turns 27 on the final day of 2018’s first PGA Tour event — the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua Plantation. The Sony Open in Hawaii, where he introduced himself to the golf world with an eagle and a massive fist pump after making the cut in 2007, is the following week at Waialae Country Club.
He shares great golf memories with Ishii at Waialae — where Ishii won the 1990 Hawaiian Open — and now Mauna Lani.
Ishii got his second State Open Senior championship, to go with three overall titles, some four months after breaking his hand. He outlasted fellow PGA champions — and good buddies — Simpson and Mike Reid.
Ishii’s latest, greatest charge actually began with a hole-in-one on his third hole Saturday at Mauna Lani South. It was his 13th ace overall, but first in Hawaii, where he is a Golf Hall of Famer. He rode that wave to a 65 — low round of the week — and took a two-stroke lead over Reid into the final round. He was five up on Simpson.
After 12 holes Sunday on the North Course, he and Simpson were even and Simpson was 4 under.
Ishii roared to a close with birdies on the final four to finish at 69—207 for a five-stroke victory.
“I just wanted to get back to even par,” shrugged Ishii, who won $4,000, “but the putts kept going in.”
Yada, who won $1,000, took a nine-stroke advantage into the final round. She came out 12 ahead of Reese Guzman, who was second in the David S. Ishii Hawaii High School Golf Championship last spring.
Yada shot three sub-par rounds to finish at 210, but was frustrated she couldn’t go lower and hit it closer — just as she has been frustrated all year.
“I wanted to win by a lot and that wasn’t happening,” she said. “The younger girls played well. They were making some birdies and made it a little scary. They are good.”
Nelson Domingo (72—218) won Senior Amateur honors. Pat McGinness (79—231) took A Flight for the second time in three years.