A qualifying round played in idyllic Oahu Country Club conditions Monday all but guaranteed this week’s 104th annual Manoa Cup would be just as unpredictable as any of the first 103.
Four diverse golfers tied for medalist honors in the Hawaii State Amateur Match Play Championship, which officially begins at 7 a.m. today with the first round. None is seeded first.
That honor belongs to OCC member and Oregon State junior David Fink, who will try to become the first golfer in 80 years to three-peat. As defending champion, he is automatically seeded first.
That left it to 97 golfers to play for the 63 other match-play slots. They started in OCC’s legendary rain, which stopped after 45 minutes, and were blessed with all but windless conditions.
When it was over, the medalists at 3-under-par 68 made up a varied foursome:
» Four-time Manoa Cup champion Brandan Kop, 51, who started by two-putting for birdie and ended with two bogeys.
» 13-year-old Kyle Suppa.
» Nich Ushijima, 48, a member at Olympic Club — site of this week’s U.S. Open in San Francisco — who fell to Fink in last year’s semifinals.
» Richard Hattori, 16, who is home-schooled and planning to turn pro and qualify for the Japan tour this month.
Hattori’s score included a double-bogey — he had two approach shots to No. 12 roll off the green — after he did not play a practice round at OCC, in part because he was qualifying for the U.S. Public Links at Ala Wai.
Fink, who has won 12 consecutive matches, opens this morning against Dennis Harrison, one of four to escape a five-way playoff for the final spots at 79.
Among other survivors are OCC members Marissa Chow, who earned the 11th seed by shooting 71, and Alina Ching (73). They will be Pepperdine teammates in the fall. Kalaheo graduate Monique Ishikawa (84) missed qualifying in her first Cup appearance. She will play golf for Columbia in the fall, after top-10 finishes at the past two state high school championships.
Chow was the only senior on ‘Iolani’s state championship team last month. She plays 56-year-old Carl Ho this morning.
Chow got to the second round last year and sounds as if she learned more in that week than she does in hours on the range.
"This shows that we can play and don’t have to hit the ball 300 yards," Chow says. "You actually get to see what you need to work on against these guys. If you hit the ball straight anything is possible here because it’s not that long of a course."
Ching, younger sister of 2008 Manoa Cup champ Alex Ching, holds the distinction of advancing the farthest of any female. She reached the third round in 2010, breaking the mark set by a 12-year-old Michelle Wie in 2002.
A year earlier, Wie became the first female to qualify for Manoa Cup. Now it is a common occurrence.
"All the girls, if they want to get better they should play this," said Kop. "This (6,041-yard) course is about college length for them. If they want to be a better player they should play. They shouldn’t feel bad. If 20 of them play, that would be even better."
Ching ended her freshman year with the Waves in the NCAA Championship. She attributes some of her college success to her Manoa Cup experiences. She started on the steep back nine and made the turn in 2-under Monday, but shot 40 on the front.
"I’m not as comfortable here as I am playing with girls and it just makes me work harder," Ching said. "In years past I kind of felt I had nothing to lose. Now that I’ve come back from a year at college I feel a lot better with my game. Now I feel like I can actually compete with these guys. I want to make it past the third round, that’s my goal."
Evan Kuwai, 12, was the youngest to enter and is seeded 24th after shooting 72. He plays Matt Ma. Tom Goodbody, the oldest to play at 69, also qualified and is in today’s final first-round match against Michael Fan.
The 36-hole final is Saturday, starting at 7 a.m.
