In her final golf tournament as an amateur, Nicole Sakamoto broke a record, matched a legend and outlasted a hard-charging Duck.
Sakamoto sizzled through wind and rain at Mid-Pacific Country Club Thursday, closing with a 5-under-par 67 to win her third straight State Women’s Stroke Play Championship.
She became only the second woman to win at least three straight stroke play state titles. The late Joan Damon, a member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame, won the second stroke play title in 1963, then captured the next four.
Sakamoto, whose coach is hall of famer Lance Suzuki, won’t break that record. She graduated from James Madison in May and plans to turn pro now.
The Kalani alum broke the stroke play scoring record she shared with Stephanie Kono, at 4-under 212. Sakamoto was 9 under the last two days and finished at 6-under 210.
She needed most of that to hold off Cassy Isagawa, an All-Pac 12 selection last season as a freshman at Oregon. The Baldwin graduate closed with a 69 to finish two back and tie the old scoring record.
Isagawa stubbornly made it interesting.
"I really wanted to make her fight for it," she said.
The two shared a five-shot advantage over the rest of the field going into the final round. Sakamoto was 3 under at the turn and parred the first five holes on the back, not even sniffing bogey, to build a two-shot advantage.
"Honestly, there were no flaws in her game today," Isagawa said. "The putts she needed to make, she was making them. I was making long putts and thinking it would be hard for her to make those putts now that I put on some pressure. But you know what? She was perfectly calm and just sank all those putts."
Isagawa drained a 25-footer to cut her deficit in half at the 15th, only to see Sakamoto cover her birdie with one of her own from about half the distance.
"I found out where the match stood around the 15th and I thought, ‘OK, I need to focus and start grinding more,’ " Sakamoto said. "She made me play better."
And better. From 150 yards out on the par-5, 379-yard 16th, Sakamoto launched her second shot up the hill to within 5 feet. Isagawa, only 100 yards out, hit her approach over the flag and drained a 20-foot eagle putt coming back to tie for the lead.
That lasted less than a minute. Sakamoto covered that too, dropping her eagle putt to get back her two-shot edge.
"She made it harder," Sakamoto said. "I had to control my nervousness. The 16th hole, I was really nervous. I had to assume she was going to make eagle from where she was."
Sakamoto’s only bogey — playing it safe on the final hole — came after Isagawa three-putted the 17th.
Both shot 34 on the back nine, and played remarkably well.
"It’s not like I was playing bad," said Isagawa, who had a huge grin when she walked up to the 18th green. "I was playing well. For someone to win because they were playing really well … I wasn’t nervous because I know they deserve it."
Sakamoto, who had five top-five finishes before ever winning a Hawaii women’s major, has now won six of her last seven. She lost to Anna Jang, 3 and 1, in the state match play two weeks ago, preventing her from a shot at becoming only the second golfer to win all three women’s majors in the same year, after Anna Umemura.
Isagawa made that match play title her first local major. The 2010 state high school and PGA Junior champion went after her second with abandon.
"She putts well and her wedges are on point, really good," Sakamoto said. "I pretty much had to assume she was going to make every putt."
Sakamoto works at Olomana Golf Links, while working on her game. Her next tournament, and pro debut, might not be until the Hawaii State Open in December. Next year, she hopes to take on the LPGA Q-School.
After the past three years, the amateurs must be happy to see her move on.
Notre Dame sophomore Kelli Oride (71—219) and Portland State senior Britney Yada (70—220) also broke par Thursday to finish third and fourth. Mid-Pacific Institute senior Lisa Kang (72—222), who lost to Isagawa in the match play final, took fifth.
