Hawaii golf’s Ho‘olaule‘a was created to honor the game’s diverse faces, and bring them together.

At the Feb. 7 Ho‘olaule‘a, Casey Nakama will become the 70th member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. It comes nearly 40 years after he graduated from Moanalua as a basketball all-star and state long jump champion, with no interest in golf.

Millburn Ho, who turned 13 last week, will be honored as a Hawaii State Junior Golf Association Player of the Year, for the sixth time.

They are part of Hawaii golf history. Not surprisingly in our little part of paradise, they share a meaningful history.

Ho was a featured speaker at the 2012 Ho‘olaule‘a, when she was "significantly shorter than the podium." One of the many she thanked for helping her pursue her golf dreams was Coach Casey.

"He was the best deal in town," Ho says now of Nakama. "Better than a Costco hot dog, because he charged very little for lessons, but taught a lot. His best advice to me was, ‘Don’t do it for your parents; don’t do it for your coach; do it for yourself.’"

The 2015 Ho‘olaule‘a Hawaii Golf Awards Ceremony, sponsored by the PGA of AmericaAloha Section and Friends of Hawaii Charities, will be full of folks who followed that advice.

Nakama’s induction will be the highlight. He is known worldwide as Michelle Wie’s first golf instructor, but has also won a dozen Hawaii golf championships and played the Asian Tour before starting his junior golf development school at Olomana in 1996.

He won five times on the Golden State mini-tour in California and had runner-up finishes in the Malaysian, India and Singapore Open championships on the Asian Tour. His sponsor there was Chi Chi Rodriguez and his Hawaii-born wife, Iwalani.

Nakama’s goal was to qualify for the PGA Tour and he went to Qualifying School five times, twice making it to the final stage but never finishing high enough to get his card.

He came home and started to teach, initially taking in adults. Then Tiger Woods turned pro in 1997 and junior golf "blew up," with Wie coming along soon after as a gangly 10-year-old looking for lessons.

Other Nakama graduates include Cyd Okino, who qualified for the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open at age 14 and now plays for top-ranked Washington, and Bradley Shigezawa, who won the NCAA Division III championship while at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Shigezawa recently captured the Maui Open in his first professional start.

Okino, who graduates this spring and plans to play in Japan, is the Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association Player of the Year. Maile Morrell will be honored as First Tee of Hawaii’s Participant of the Year. Kevin Shimomura (Ko Olina) and Kevin Hayashi (Nanea) are the Aloha Section Player and Senior Players of the Year.

Punahou junior Kyle Suppa, who made the cut at the recent Sony Open in Hawaii, is double dipping at Ho‘olaule‘a. He is the Hawaii State Golf Association Player of the Year and the HSJGA’s boys Player of the Year for the 15-18 age group.

The girls Player of the Year in the oldest age group is ‘Iolani senior Rose Huang, who will speak, following in the tiny but dignified footsteps of former HSJGA speakers Ho and Minny Byun, who are back again as Players of the Year in younger age groups.

The HSJGA asks its speakers to thank the appropriate people, then simply "speak from the heart."

Byun spoke last year when she was a 9-year-old Star of the Sea fourth-grader. She first thanked the Aloha Section for organizing the Ho‘olaule‘a and the Junior PGA championship —"That was an unforgettable time for me," Byun said, "because I shot well and won."

At the end of her thank you list was God — "the greatest one I want to thank. He gave me many good chances to experience how to overcome my fears and many nervous times during this year."

Byun took third in her age group at last summer’s Junior World Championship. She believes her enjoyment of golf comes from "feeling very peaceful (on the golf course), like in heaven, and I like to see new things in nature. And also I think the feeling of remembering all the way when I was little and feeling myself now and knowing it is a big difference."

Ho started hitting balls at 3 and calls the golf course "my second home." She has been collecting Ho‘olaulea awards since 2010, winning five age-group honors and the 2012 Dr. Richard Ho "Spirit of the Game" award.

The "spirit" remains with her.

"I feel a strong connection with everyone in the room at the award night," Ho says, "because it is the love of golf that brought us together. I just turned 13 and have already been golfing for a decade. With this brand New Year, I am on the quest for more improvement, not only in golf, but also in my enjoyment of this amazing game."

Ho‘olaule‘a tickets are still available by contacting the Aloha Section at 593-2230 or kchun@pgahq.com. Prices are now $85 for adults and $45 for children.