Score one for the older guys.
Matthew Ma held off ‘Iolani senior Lorens Chan and everybody else Saturday to win the 48th annual Oahu Country Club Invitational. It was a rare win for the adults in a Hawaii golf world packed with prodigies the past few years.
Ma, 27, played for Oregon before coming home to, among other things, help coach Chan’s high school team. Chan will go for his third state championship this school year.
Even if he had chased Ma down to win his second OCC title in four years — he was second in the others — Ma wasn’t worried about the atmosphere at practices. "I would just use the age excuse," he said with a grin.
He could also use the experience excuse. Since Ma graduated from Oregon in 2007, Chan has played the 2008 Sony Open in Hawaii and won all kinds of titles. He is the reigning State Amateur Stroke Play champion and just returned from seven weeks on the mainland. He lost the 36th Junior PGA Championship on the final hole earlier this month. He is headed to UCLA next fall on a golf scholarship.
Ma has been working for a living, most recently as a golf sales representative. He plays tournaments in his spare time, so the three-shot lead he held over Chan with four holes to go Saturday hardly felt comfortable.
It wasn’t. With Chan one-putting four of the final five holes and Ma’s putter deserting him after he missed a short one just after making the turn, this turned into a shootout. Chan cut his deficit to one going into the final hole, only to flame out with double-bogey.
"We were hanging in there all day, so I figured it (Chan’s rally) was bound to happen," Ma said. "He’s so solid under pressure. He plays all the time.
"I just had to man up and get it in the hole."
Ma closed with an even-par 71 and won by two shots with a three-day total of 6-under 207. It was his first win since the 2009 Hickam Invitational. Chan (72) finished two back. David Saka (74) and Layne Morita (71) tied for third at 213.
Chan will play the AJGA Junior Players Championship this month. He has also been invited to play the Fubon Senior Open in Taipei — his grandfather’s home — this fall. It is a European Senior Tour event. David Ishii, Chan’s personal coach, is defending champion.
Paul Kimura (72—143) won the senior championship by a shot over Carl Ho (70—144). Steve Wilhite (74—147) won low-net honors at 139. The team of "Duck Fat" (Ma, Todd Rego, Saka, Cory Oride and Seung Jae Maeng) captured the team title with a two-round team score of 4-under 564.
