Fink outlasts Ching

Compared to the rounds they played at Oahu Country Club as kids, the stakes were considerably higher when David Fink and Alina Ching arrived at the first tee on Wednesday.

But their Manoa Cup match still had the family feel they remembered from their days growing up.

“That’s what I said when we shook hands, I was like, ‘Just like old times,'” Fink said. “We were in for a fun day.”

Fun, yes. But by no means easy.

While the second-round pairing brought back memories for Fink, the match with Ching kept his focus firmly in the present and he advanced with a 1-up win to keep his pursuit of a third consecutive Manoa Cup title alive.

“I’ve grown up with her and she’s like a little sister to me and I know her game really well. … She’s an all-around good player,” Fink said.

“I haven’t really played a ‘family member,’ so to speak, so it was tough to kind of manage having fun but also buckling down. But we both did it. She was good at focusing when she needed to and so did I. It was something to build on for sure.”

Both Fink and Ching are members at OCC. So with any home-course advantage negated, Fink stayed steady long enough to reach the third round, where he’ll face Pono Tokioka this morning.

Fink has won 14 straight Manoa Cup matches and Wednesday’s marked his sixth 1-up win in that span. He survived four such matches on his way to retaining the title last year.

“The biggest word for me every day is to grind,” Fink said. “When you get those matches when you win 1 up or 2 up, you’re grinding for 3 hours up here and you’re just trying to stay in the moment and move one step at a time.”

With their families trailing them around the course, Fink, who will be a junior at Oregon State, was 2 up after six holes, but couldn’t stretch the lead any further. Protecting a 1-up advantage, Fink inched away with a birdie on No. 12, only to have Ching answer with a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 13.

After Ching bogeyed No. 14, she hit another long birdie putt on the 15th and the match was all square when Fink bogeyed the par-3 16th.

“She dropped some bombs on me and I think part of that is she knows the course really well and so do I,” Fink said. “She made the putts and made it count.”

One of Ching’s few shaky swings came on No. 17 when she dumped her approach into a bunker fronting the green. After Fink put his second shot about 7 feet below the hole, Ching’s shot out of the sand went into the rough and she settled for bogey while Fink’s par gave him the lead again.

Both reached the 18th green in two and after Ching’s long birdie attempt came up short, Fink cozied his putt close enough to halve the hole and end the match.

“It was really great playing against David. He really pushed me to my limits and made me play really well, just knowing I had to keep up with him,” said Ching, who reached the Manoa Cup’s third round in 2010 and closed her freshman year at Pepperdine last month by placing 21st at the NCAA championships.

Fink is one of two past Manoa Cup champions remaining among the final 16. Four-time champ Brandan Kop rallied from 3 down to advance to a 3-and-1 win over PJ Samiere.

Shawn Lu, a 13-year-old incoming freshman at Moanalua, stormed into the third round with a 5-and-4 win over 2006 champion Jonathan Ota. Lu hadn’t played OCC before Sunday, when a couple of members guided him through a practice round.

“They gave me really good tips, where to hit it, what club to use,” said Lu, who will face Matthew Ma today.

Kyosuke Hara, another 13-year-old, also advanced with a 1-up win over Kai Hayashida.

Marissa Chow, a recent ‘Iolani graduate who will be Ching’s teammate at Pepperdine in the fall, lost 5 and 3 to Michael Fan, who eagled Nos. 2 and 15.

“My putting really saved me (on Tuesday) but it wasn’t there today and Michael made every putt, and it’s hard to compete with two eagles,” Chow said.