It’s tough to beat experience, to say nothing of the ability to bury a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole.
Nicole Sakamoto, fresh off graduation and one of the finest collegiate golf careers in James Madison history, overcame the keiki Sunday to win the 62nd annual Jennie K. Wilson Women’s Invitational.
Sakamoto, who graduated from Kalani in 2008, has not lost a tournament in Hawaii since she was third at Jennie K. in 2009. She swept the state stroke and match play championships the past two years.
Now she has captured the final Hawaii women’s major. All she had to do was run down a bunch of teenagers on the final day at Mid-Pacific Country Club.
"I finally got this one."
Nicole Sakamoto
After winning the Jennie
K., which now gives the
Kalani grad a victory in
all three Hawaii women’s
major golf tournaments
Sakamoto bogeyed five straight holes early Saturday and was in danger of losing touch with the teens.
She fought back then and shot a smooth 1-under par 71 — the week’s only sub-par score — in the final round. Sakamoto played the last 10 holes in 3 under to beat 14-year-old Rose Huang by a shot.
On the 54th and final hole, Sakamoto put her approach 6 feet below the hole and drained the birdie putt. Caddie/coach and Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Lance Suzuki threw down the towel in celebration.
Sakamoto just grinned.
"Unexpected," she said later. "I finally got this one."
Sakamoto finished the 54-hole tournament at 8-over 224.
Huang, an ‘Iolani freshman, was playing in the final group with classmate Hana Furuichi and 16-year-old Brittany Fan. Huang closed with a 75 for a 225 total.
Fan (78—227) and Furuichi (80—231) went into the final round as co-leaders and finished third and fourth.
Hina Arakaki (79—231) and Arisa Hori (77—232), both from Japan, were fifth and sixth. Arakaki is 13 and Hori 16.
Sakamoto, feeling like a dinosaur at age 22, was not familiar with any of them.
"They are like 10 years younger than me," she said, laughing. "Gosh."
Huang and Sakamoto shared the lead from the time Huang bogeyed the 14th hole. Both had chances to pull ahead.
On the 16th, Sakamoto three-putted for par and Huang lipped out a 5-footer for birdie.
"It lipped out like 90 degrees and rolled further away," Huang said, "but I made that one."
The hole before, Huang got up and down out of the bunker. The hole after, Sakamoto did the same from behind the green.
Huang pulled her approach left of the final hole and chose to putt from the fringe to get into a playoff. She came up a foot short.
She has time.
Sakamoto is entering prime time in her career, hoping to turn pro within the year.
Everything she has touched in Hawaii the last three years has turned into golf gold, with Sunday’s last-gasp birdie a great example of why.
"Suzuki helped a lot today," she said. "It’s totally different having a caddie and not having a caddie. Today he helped a lot, telling me what kind of shot to hit and the club to hit in, because I tend to over-club a lot."
By the end, his influence was so great that Sakamoto had no idea how far out she was on the final hole. Suzuki just told her to hit a "three-quarter 9" and she stuffed it without question.
This month Huang, 14, has finished second to Punahou’s Kacie Komoto in her state high school debut and second to Sakamoto at her inaugural Jennie K.
Huang’s future is blinding. Her learning curve is apparently vertical. She said she struggled with her swing all three days, "but generally my short game saved me. … It saved me by a lot today.
"About one year ago I was happy when I shot in the 70s," she said. "I don’t feel anything has improved a lot because my swing was really bad today, but overall I get into less trouble than before. I’m more consistent now. I don’t do really stupid things."
Huang never appeared nervous Sunday, but said she was … "about the tons of homework that is waiting for me.
"I know," she grinned. "That sounds weird."
The A flight winner was Traci Kashiwabara (74—234), who shot the day’s second-best score and was seventh overall.
Miki Young (85—264) won the B flight, Alice Ridgway (90—270) the C flight, Estra Quilausing (94—281) the D flight and Jaye Gray (105—298) the E flight.
