On a day when former champs Tadd Fujikawa and Andrew Chin proved their King Auto Group 12-and-Under State Championships were no fluke, four new champions were crowned Wednesday at Hawaii Prince Golf Club.
Taylor John McGerity successfully defended his Boys 7-10 title, breaking par both days on Prince’s B and C nines.
Millburn Ho won the Girls 7-10 title for the second time in three years. Her rounds of 71-76 beat Jennifer Koga (76—155) by eight.
Len Yamada overtook Guam’s Brent Salas to add a Boys 11-12 championship to the 10-under title he won two years ago.
Malia Nam (72—143) did the same, winning by nine shots over Samantha Kepper (75).
While Fujikawa fired a 64 on the eGolf Tour Wednesday, and Chin teed off in the second round of the Manoa Cup — the State Amateur Match Play Championship — the little kids played a 4,486-yard layout at Prince. The older Hawaii State Junior Golf Association age groups played it some 700 yards longer (forward tees).
It wasn’t long enough, at an event where you hear everything from “Feel my sweat” to “I played like crap.”
Ethan Finau bolted into fourth behind McGerity by closing with a tournament-low 68. McGerity opened with a 69 Tuesday and finished at 5-under 139 while hitting wedge into almost every hole. He won by two over Kona Kashiwagi (71) and three over Hilo’s Riku Omata (72).
“Kono was a great player today,” McGerity said. “And Riku was brilliant, really good today. He shot 73 with double bogey on the last hole.”
McGerity is headed to Junior Worlds next month, along with Nam and Ho, whose goal is to finish top 10. All three spend half the day, almost every day, on the golf course.
Ho, who is 4 feet 3, is so polished that kids and adults stick around to listen to her champion’s speech. Wednesday, she thanked Prince, the HSJGA, her parents for driving her over, the sponsor, her coach and God, then offered up the winner’s cup to her dad, as an early Father’s Day gift.