Stableford system works for OCC

Words like "severe" are common when describing Oahu Country Club, a short golf course made tough by steep climbs, warp-speed greens and all kinds of quirks. When OCC wanted to revive its women’s invitational a few years ago, "severe" and "Stableford" in the same sentence seemed to make sense.

The Stableford scoring system, developed by Frank Barney Gorton Stableford a century ago, is used often in Europe and South Africa. It is so rare here that Lisa Okazaki, winner of the revived OCC Women’s Invitational in 2009, had no idea what it was until the point system was explained to her on the first tee.

The format awards points for scores. OCC’s modified system gives one point for bogey, two for par, three for birdie and four for eagle.

OCC member Kristen Le, 15, won this year’s tournament with 70 points in her Stableford debut. She had five birdies and nine bogeys Monday for 32 points. Le, who works with David Ishii, shot a career-low 2-under-par 71 in Tuesday’s final round. She had an eagle — knocking it in from 70 yards at No. 12 — and two birdies.

"The first time was kind of weird …," Le admitted. "Because it was points I wasn’t really focused on score. I was just trying to make par on every hole. I’m going to try to apply it to my normal game because you are supposed to play it one hole at a time. I think I learned a lot from this format."

The Stableford strategy at OCC was to make it fun and rewarding, not create a bunch of anxious golfers worried about bad scores on a strange course.

"Our golf course is severe for ladies who are mid-handicappers," OCC head pro Andrew Feldmann said. "When we used to have the event (that ended in 1999 after some 30 years) there were some situations where the ladies really struggled. Since then we’ve moved the tee box up on 12 and 13 and in Stableford you can make a double bogey and there’s no negative. You can just pick up. You’re not going to take a beating if you take triple or something."

This year’s invitational attracted nearly 90 golfers. Almost everybody was done before noon. It also attracted a mother-daughter entry from Palos Verdes, Calif. Lynn Fujihara wanted a tournament for her daughter Paige, 17, to play on vacation. Paige’s brother Chase will be a freshman on the University of Hawaii team this fall. His cousin is former Rainbow Jared Sawada.

NOTES

» Waikoloa Beach Resort is offering a $35 kamaaina Labor Day Special, Sept. 1-3 on either the Beach or Kings’ course. Golfers must present a valid Hawaii driver’s license. Call 808-886-7888 for tee times.

» The 63rd Korean Invitational is Sept. 8-9 at Pali. Entry fee is $125 and deadline is Aug. 31. For more information, contact Duke Chung (748-5601), Kerry Ahn (846-3395) or Wayne Yoshimura (799-1020).

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Ann Miller, Star-Advertsier