This year’s 35th Hawaii Pearl Open was the last. Employees at Pearl Country Club were given the news last month after a board meeting in Japan. Past champions received a letter from Honda Kaihatsu Kogyo Co., Ltd., the golf course owner, a bit later.
The letter said that due to "various circumstances" the tournament has ended. "This decision was reached through deliberation and approval at a shareholders’ meeting" held March 28.
The letter was signed by Honda president Keiko Ogata, whose final paragraph reads, "In memory of Soichiro Honda, the founder of this tournament, and Tsugio Ogata (Keiko’s husband, who died last May), the long-time president of Honda Kaihatsu Kogyo, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you who have extended such great support and cooperation over the years."
PCC representatives said "circumstances" were mostly financial and also related to the death of Tsugio Ogata, considered the lifeblood of the tournament.
The $80,000 event drew about half its field from Asia. The HPO was started in 1979 "to give Hawaii’s top golf players the opportunity to compete with an international field of professionals."
The tournament had an entertaining history. Kauai’s David Ishii, PCC’s director of golf, won it six times, and Greg Meyer four. Kiyoshi Murota — another extremely successful player on the Japan PGA tour — took the title twice. Ryo Ishikawa played it two times while becoming a rock star in Japan golf.
It was the first "men’s event" Michelle Wie entered, at age 12, and she made the cut the following year. Japan LPGA Rookie of the Year Sakura Yokomine tied for 17th in 2005. Sixteen-year-old Tadd Fujikawa, fresh off becoming the youngest to make a PGA Tour cut in 50 years, won it on the final hole in 2007 — and turned pro a few months later.
Pearl and the Mid-Pacific Open have the best fields of any non-tour event in Hawaii and have become the place for young golfers with potential to measure their games. Now half those opportunities are gone.
"It was hard to take in," said TJ Kua, who won the Mid-Pac Open last month and is Ishii’s nephew. "It’s not about purse or anything, it’s just tradition. I don’t look at Pearl or Mid-Pac Open as ‘Oh, I can make $10,000.’ That’s why I wanted to stay and make my rounds here this year, because everybody has been so supportive and I want to make sure I’m there.
"If there’s no Pearl Open next year, that’s really hard. It’s a place that’s very special to me, with Uncle David there and they’ve always taken care of me. I really wanted to win it and I fell short this year, so I was hoping for another try."
UH golf fundraiser set
All proceeds from Friday’s "Wine & Dine at 3660 on the Rise," presented by University of Hawaii Warrior Golf, will go to the UH golf program. The event begins at 6 p.m. and the cost is $100.
Event organizers are former Rainbows brothers Norman-Ganin Asao and Kellen Floyd Asao, and Kimo Todd, and UH coach Ronn Miyashiro. For more information, contact the Asaos at 384-4297 or 392-3806.
Hawaii Hilo in regional
Seventeenth-ranked Hawaii Hilo opens play in the NCAA Division II South Central/West Regional on Monday at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash. Vulcans on the travel squad are James Hall, who is from Washington, and Hawaii’s Corey Kozuma (‘Iolani), Dalen Yamauchi (Waiakea), Chris Shimomura (Lahainaluna) and Kyeton Littel (Kamehameha-Maui).
Hilo is one of 80 teams to qualify for the national tournament. There are four 54-hole regionals. The top five teams from Hilo’s regional advance to the May 20-24 finals at Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Notes
» Olympian Roman Sebrle, who edged Hawaii’s Bryan Clay to win gold in the 2004 decathlon, was in Hawaii last month to pursue his new passion — golf. Sebrle entered the Mid-Pacific Open to see where he stood. The Czech had to play in the professional flight because he had no handicap index. Tournament conditions at Mid-Pac Country Club got the best of Sebrle and his short game — he six-putted the par-5 fifth after hitting the green in two. He shot 88-84—172 and missed the cut by 17 shots.
