Lu shoots 68 in rain to gain spot in Sony

Some folks turn on the Sony Open in Hawaii every January to watch our balmy weather as much as the best golfers on the planet. But after earning Sony’s amateur exemption in Monday’s wet madness, Shawn Lu has one thing to say.

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.

Lu’s length, talent and ability to ignore all distractions — “not thinking,” he explained — combined to create a 4-under-par 68 at Waialae Country Club. He will tee off Jan. 14 in the Sony Open at Waialae.

Lu was three shots better than WCC member Kyle Suppa, who earned the slot last year, and former University of Hawaii golfer David Saka, who snagged it in 2011.

The other nine amateurs who qualified for this rare opportunity to play in a PGA Tour event were at 73 or higher.

The weather and Waialae did not make it easy. A course designed for tradewinds was dead silent, but for the sound of raindrops the first three hours.

They played winter rules, with standing water on most fairways and rushing water flowing over a bridge at the 14th hole. The fairways were saturated and uncut since Thursday, providing almost no roll.

“This is the longest I’ve ever played it,” said Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Brandan Kop, 54. He was the oldest in a field that included three high school juniors (Jun Ho Won, Kengo Aoshima and Andrew Chin) and three seniors who will play in the Pac-12 next fall.

One is Lu, who also captured this year’s State Amateur Stroke play and is headed for Oregon State along with Moanalua teammate Kyosuke Hara. Suppa will play for USC, which already was hooked before he won last year’s State Stroke Play, qualified for Sony and then became the first amateur since Tadd Fujikawa in 2007 to make the cut.

The last Hawaii amateur to make the cut before that was Donald Hurter, in 1981. That challenge is part of what makes this amateur exemption so special.

“I’ve been thinking about this since I was 6 or 7 watching the Sony Open,” Lu said. “It’s been a long time. This is like the biggest thing you can do in golf in Hawaii.”

Lu had one birdie on the front nine (Sony’s back nine) and two more as soon as he made the turn. His only bogey came at No. 13 and he closed with two more birdies — a chip-in from the bunker lip at the 17th and a two-putt birdie at the par-5 18th.

He was ready for the rain after his third practice round Sunday. Lu carried his bag in the rain and only finished 13 holes in the downpour.

“I had puddles in my shoes …,” he said. “It was brutal.”

It was brutal again Monday, but Lu stuck to his game plan and ignored all else.

“On the short holes,” Lu said, “I told myself, don’t hit driver. I took hybrid and 3-wood a lot today. I was going to go lower, but today the ball wasn’t flying at all.

“I made a lot of good putts today. And I realized I play my best when my irons are hitting greens, but in order for that to happen I have to be in the middle of the fairway. So basically I took whatever I needed to get to the middle of the fairway because everything is a pretty reasonable distance for me as soon as I hit the fairway.”

Over the next two months, Lu can work on hitting more fairways and preparing himself for the most pressure he has ever felt in golf.

“Just pray that you don’t hit people,” was Saka’s semi-serious advice, after he acknowledged there is no way to avoid being nervous. “Shooting 68 today was awesome. Shawn is a good player, tenacious.”

Saka, who had five birdies Monday, now plans to head to Asia to try his luck as a pro. Suppa and Hara will try to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship again at next week’s qualifier at Ewa Beach. The winner heads to Winged Foot in May.

Lu will be at the qualifier too, with Aoshima as his partner. It will be good practice for Sony. After Monday, Lu probably hopes it is still raining — Wednesday at Ewa and January at Waialae.

“I think I should just follow my game plan for today — it worked,” he said about Sony. “And keep my mind off of things.”