Nakatsukasa holds his own at Manoa

Barely rising above the handle of his push cart, Go Nakatsukasa gamely trudged up the steep incline toward Oahu Country Club’s 10th green.

Isaac Jaffurs paused on the climb to give his 11-year-old opponent a hand pulling the cart to his ball in the fairway.

Other than that, Nakatsukasa didn’t need much help around OCC the past two days.

The youngest entrant in this year’s Manoa Cup field navigated the course well enough to qualify for the state amateur match-play championship on Monday and held his own for much of his first-round match with Jaffurs on Tuesday morning.

More so than age or size, it was Jaffurs’ shot-making that earned him a 5-and-4 win and a spot in the Round of 32.

“(Nakatsukasa) was just steady with his pars,” said Jaffurs, the tournament’s runner-up a year ago. “I had to step up my game because pars weren’t going to cut it today. I had to make some birdies.”

Jaffurs circled four on his scorecard, including back-to-back birdies around the turn, and advanced to face Waiakea’s Shon Katahira in the second round Wednesday at 7:40 a.m.

Jaffurs, a Kahuku graduate who played his college golf at Hawaii Hilo, made a run to the final last year before falling to Nainoa Calip. Those five wins to reach the 36-hole championship match “gave me a lot of confidence and expectations are there again,” Jaffurs said.

“It just comes down to the short game and staying relaxed enough to make putts.”

Jaffurs then praised Nakatsukasa, who practices primarily at Kapolei Golf Club, for his solid play in both elements on Tuesday. Nakatsukasa turned in the shot of the match with a chip-in birdie from the slope below the green to win the 12th hole.

“I thought it went over,” said Nakatsukasa, who didn’t see his shot drop. But the cheer from nearby spectators let him know the result and Jaffurs high-fived him on his way to pick up his ball from the cup.

Jaffurs had built a lead with a birdie on the 239-yard par-3 ninth hole and chipped over a bunker to set up a tap-in birdie on No. 10. He pulled his drive off the 14th tee to the left then popped his approach over a tree, landing the ball about 3 feet from the cup, leading to a clinching birdie.

“I just had to hit it straight up in the air and it was enough club,” Jaffurs said. “Lob wedge and I just swung for the fences.”

The medalists in Monday’s qualifying round — Justin Ngan, PJ Samiere and Shawn Lu — all finished their matches before reaching the 17th hole while advancing to the second round.

The Round of 32 also includes two past champions in Matthew Ma and Brandan Kop. Aiko Leong, an incoming senior at Punahou, advanced in her first Manoa Cup match with a 5-and-3 win over Tyler Isono and is the lone female left in the field.

Leong caddied for Cassy Isagawa in the first two rounds of last year’s tournament and decided to enter the tournament this summer with a nudge from her mother.

“(Isagawa) was having a lot of fun, I was thinking about it this year and my mom gave me the push I needed,” Leong said.

She didn’t think her round of 80 on Monday would be enough to get into the bracket but went to the putting green anyway after a rough day on the greens. She ended up a stroke inside of the cut and the extra work paid off on Tuesday.

“My putting kind of saved me today,” said Leong, who finished sixth at the state championship last month at Waikoloa and committed to BYU this spring. “I practiced a lot after my round yesterday because my putting was really bad.”

Leong will face Brian Lee at 8:36 a.m. on Wednesday.