No ‘I’ in Chan

‘Iolani golfer Lorens Chan can go from doubt to dialed in as quickly as anyone.

Chan is one of five boys to win two state golf titles, and in line to become the first to win three. The senior, who became the only freshman to win a state championship in 2009, has to negotiate a strong field when the state’s best converge on Wailua Golf Course on May 8-9, but he is so much closer than when the ILH season opened.

Chan underwent an appendectomy in February, keeping him from taking a full swing for a month and forcing him out of the Hawaii Pearl Open and a national

Sure, it involved a lot of pain, but it wasn’t career threatening. However, it did cause the champion to wonder how long it would take to get back to where he was when the clubs started collecting dust.

“I wasn’t sure how things were going to turn out,” Chan said. “I was playing pretty well before the surgery. I was pretty unsure if I was able to get back to that level quickly. A month is a long time for a competitive golfer to be off.”

Chan missed the first two tournaments of the season, and made his debut with a 76 at New Ewa Beach Golf Club. That left him with seven tournaments to get five scores low enough to finish in the top 25 and qualify for states.

No problem. All Chan has done since is shoot under par in his next six tournaments, including a stellar 64 at Navy-Marine Golf Course and a bogey-free 67 at Coral Creek.

Needless to say, Chan might be playing his best golf right now, even better than last year, when he captured his second state title by four strokes. The average of his best five scores this year is 67.6, nearly three strokes better than anyone else in the ILH. It was 68.2 last year.

He takes a break from prep golf this week to tee it up in the Mid-Pacific Open, where he is paired with mentors Dean Wilson, who is not above spending 2 hours on the range with him, and Parker McLachlin.

“There is always something to work on,” Chan said. “But I am feeling pretty good right now. Golf is just a game; all you can do is do your best and hope nobody does better than you.”

Chan has won 58 tournaments in his life, but he has the least control over getting the one he wants. His ‘Iolani team trails Kamehameha and Punahou and will have to have each boy play over his head to hope to match the Warriors and Buffanblu.

Chan has so many individual accomplishments to take pride in, but nothing matters more than the state title he helped bring ‘Iolani as a freshman. It was the school’s first team title since 1991, three years before he was born.

“Team comes first,” said Chan, who is headed to UCLA after graduation. “That is part of what makes high school and college golf so special. Our school at the time, golf-wise we were OK, but we hadn’t won a state title before. It meant so much to contribute to the team title.”

Conversely, if he could have one mulligan in his short career, it might be his drive on the 18th hole in last year’s state championship at Waikoloa Village.

Chan had his second individual state crown locked up, but knew that the team competition was too close to call. He tried to be a hero and ended up hitting it in the water and settling for a par while Punahou’s Kalena Preus got to the green safely and made an 18-footer for birdie.

Nobody knew it at the time, but a quick tallying of the scores showed that Punahou won the team title by a single stroke.

“That was a bummer,” Chan said. “We all knew it would mean something. It is one of those shots you think back on. I mean if I had laid up I may have made birdie. I don’t know, but I always wonder. Kalena made a great putt.”