Sakamoto’s confidence takes root

Nicole Sakamoto is a picture of patience and persistence, particularly next to the parade of prodigies Hawaii junior golf has produced the past few years. Clearly, there is more than one way to succeed at this strange game.

Sakamoto will defend her Jennie K. Wilson Invitational championship, beginning Friday at Mid-Pacific Country Club. She won it last year just days after graduating from James Madison.

Two months later, after winning her sixth Hawaii event in seven tries, Sakamoto said she was planning to turn pro. She had shattered her own scoring record to win a third consecutive Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship, also at Mid-Pac. Only the late Joan Damon, a Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer, had accomplished that before.

But Sakamoto is back as an amateur for the 63rd annual Jennie K., the first of 2013’s three women’s majors and the one with the most history. She has spent the past year working at Olomana Golf Links, where she has worked on her game with Hall of Famer Lance Suzuki since she was little. Both figured there were more playing opportunities if she stayed an amateur heading into LPGA Q-School at the end of August.

The Jennie K. is named after Ana Kimi Kapahukula Kamamalu Ku‘ula Wilson, wife of former Honolulu mayor John Wilson. She attended every awards banquet until her death, at age 89, in 1962. The list of past champions includes nearly every woman inducted into the Hall of Fame, including Damon, Jackie Yates, Jackie Pung, Edna Lee, Tura Nagatoshi, Ramona McGuire, Marga Stubblefield, Bev Kim and Lori Castillo.

Michelle Wie won it at age 11 and Stephanie Kono at 13, on their way to the LPGA. This year, 12-year-olds Miki Manta and Aneka Seumanutafa are playing, along with 13-year-old Malia Nam.

From 2006-2010, Kristina Merkle captured four championships and a runner-up. Japan’s Eri Joma, a high school junior from Fukuoka, won in 2011, becoming the first foreign player to claim the Jennie K. in 22 years. Three from Japan are in the championship flight this year.

Sakamoto drained a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat ‘Iolani freshman Rose Huang by a stroke last year. It was her first Jennie K. win, after top-three finishes her last two years at Kalani. She swept stroke- and match-play titles in 2010 and ’11 and lost a playoff with Tamara Surtees at the Hawaii State Open five months ago.

At all those events, most of her competitors weren’t old enough to buy a beer or drive a cart. Over the past three years, Sakamoto has blossomed into a shining example of someone who kept working and coming back for more and finally figured how to seize it all.

"It just depends on the person," she said. "A lot of the girls winning now are young. It’s amazing. They are just so accurate and so good at such a young age. When I first started I was their age. The game seemed so hard. Like Cyd (Okino). I was good friends with her when she first started and she was 8 or 9 and just beating me so bad. I was like, ‘Wow, this is mind-blowing.’"

Sakamoto, now 23, persisted. She turned the near-misses into three collegiate victories and began to win everything in sight when she came home in the summer. The confidence that Sakamoto’s James Madison coach had been trying to instill finally took root.

"I guess I just grew up," Sakamoto said. "Being away from home, not having my parents around and being in an atmosphere I wasn’t used to made me be more independent. I just grew up and decided it was time to win something."

Only Surtees, and Anna Jang in the State Match Play semifinals last year, have beaten her since.