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Members captured higher-handicap flights, but it was nonmembers who tamed Oahu Country Club’s foibles and the Stableford scoring format to win the major titles at the OCC Women’s Invitational on Wednesday.
Mid-Pacific Country Club member Mira Han won the overall low gross championship with 61 points, scoring 32 on Tuesday and 29 on Wednesday. She won by one point over Sara Koizumi, who played the last six holes in 2 under par.
Marty Drew, who plays Olomana Golf Links, took the overall low net championship with scores of 41-43—84. That is 12 under par in the tournament’s modified Stableford scoring, which gives players one point for bogey, two for par, three for birdie and so on.
No points were subtracted for net or gross scores worse than bogey, a modification designed to encourage outsiders to play OCC, a unique layout with few flat lies or easy putts. That helped Drew, a 23-handicapper, shrug off the nine she took at the first hole Tuesday. She chipped in for a natural birdie — and net double eagle — at the par-5 13th in the final round.
Han "worked hard" for her 32, including three birdies, in the opening round. She considered the birdie at No. 1 her greatest accomplishment. The 4-handicapper had one more birdie Wednesday.
"This course is challenging," Han said. "Course management is very difficult here compared to Mid-Pac, but I love this course."
Kekoa Soeda (33—70) won the A flight (14-18 handicap). OCC members Amelia Andrade (39—76), Jaye Gray (42—80) and Janet Bukes (35—74) captured the B (19-21), C (22-24) and D (25-28) flights.
The tournament began in 1971 and ran through 1999. It was revived two years ago.
Chan finishes sixth
A second-round 68 helped ‘Iolani senior Lorens Chan finish sixth at last weekend’s Junior Players Championship, an American Junior Golf Association major played at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
Chan shot 74-68-75 for a total of 1-over-par 217. Gavin Hall, a high school junior from Pittsford, N.Y., won with a score of 211. Hall fired a second-round 64 and earned a sponsor’s exemption to the Nationwide Tour’s Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open next month.
There were 78 players from 21 states and 15 foreign countries invited to the tournament.
Punahou eighth-grader Allisen Corpuz tied for 14th at the AJGA Girls Championship, which ended Monday at Furman Golf Club in Greenville, S.C. Corpuz, one of just three eighth-graders playing, shot rounds of 77-70-76 and finished 11 shots back of Emma Talley, a high school senior from Princeton, Ky.
Talley won a record fourth straight AJGA title. She is a three-time Rolex Junior All-American. The 78-player field had golfers from 16 states and 10 countries.
State junior mixed team event this week
The Hawaii State Junior Golf Association’s Mixed Team Championship is this weekend at Poipu Bay Golf Course.
Golfers go out starting at 11 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday. Teams are made up of one boy and one girl from the 13-18 age division.
The format in the first round is four-ball stroke play, with foursome stroke play on Sunday. Scott Yamashita and Cyd Okino won last year.
This year’s teams include Brittany Fan and Donny Hopoi, Mariel Galdiano and Pono Tokioka, Ciera Min and John Oda, and Margaret Min and Scott Yamashita.
The mixed team championship will help prepare Hawaii team members for the fifth annual Asia Pacific Junior Cup, Nov. 17-20 at the Waikoloa Kings’ Course. That tournament’s format is similar to the Ryder Cup, with top Hawaii juniors taking on top juniors from Japan.
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