Mild winds, low scores at Manoa Cup

Photo Gallery: Manoa Cup

Oahu Country Club greeted the 105th Manoa Cup on Monday with low winds and slow greens, at least for OCC. The 99 golfers reacted with many red numbers and a barrage of good scores.

There were 16 rounds at par (71) or better, with Punahou senior PJ Samiere and University of Hawaii junior Ryan Kuroiwa sharing medalist honors at 66. They are seeded second and third behind defending champion Matthew Ma, who automatically is No. 1.

All three will meet playoff survivors in today’s 32 first-round matches.

The cut, which had been 79 the past three years, was 77 this time. Nine players shot it and seven slots were available. The two who did not advance are both from the Sacramento area, with Jason Pereira not participating in the playoff and Jon Jew getting eliminated.

Three of the other seven from the mainland did advance, including Nick Ushijima, an Olympic Club member now living part-time in Wailea and Fukuoka, Japan, where his real estate business is based. He reached the semifinals in his first Manoa Cup two years ago. David Fink beat him on the last hole on the way to defending his title.

Ushijima, 48, was Hawaii pro John Hearn’s college teammate at University of the Pacific. Ushijima won the Japan Amateur not long after, and captured the Japan Mid-Amateur in 2007 and ’08. He feels Manoa Cup was made for him — in more ways than one.

"For me, coming to Hawaii is No. 1 obviously," Ushijima says. "It’s a vacation feeling and a nice place to come. And more than that, this course really reminds me of the course I grew up on in Japan. I like the feeling. The course I grew up with is just like this. It goes up and it goes down, elevation changes. This is very familiar to me."

Ushijima calls OCC a risk-and-reward course that, in a rare show of golf fairness, can be finessed or overpowered. "Either way it works," he says. "That’s the beauty of this golf course.

"When you go to big tournaments now you see a lot of high school and college kids. They play a different kind of game than I do. But this golf course, it doesn’t mean that much if you hit it long. I think that’s part of the interest for me in playing."

Brittany Fan also appreciates OCC’s short-but-quirky 6,200-yard length. She shot 74, despite a four-putt and double-bogeying the last hole. Fan had three birdies, and missed six other "reasonable" opportunities in her first Manoa Cup round.

Fan, 17, is finishing senior classes as a home school student this summer. She is about to commit to a college for 2014-15, planning to take the next year to train.

She meets Andy Okita at 8:21 this morning starting on the 10th tee. Monique Ishikawa, who just finished her freshman year at Columbia, goes out an hour earlier against Tyler Munetake.

Evan Kawai, 13, also advanced to match play. He starts off No. 1 at 7:21 against Keegan Loo. University of Hawaii-Hilo senior Nick Matsushima, last year’s runner-up, plays four-time champion Brandan Kop in another first-round match, and NCAA D-III champion Bradley Shigezawa takes on professional baseball player Kala Ka‘aihue.

Ushijima plays UH-Hilo’s Corey Kozuma on a course he likes, in an atmosphere he likes even better.

"The style of play is a lot more relaxed, in a good way," Ushijima says. "Sometimes people get too intense other places, and I don’t do this for a living so I don’t want to grind over it. Its supposed to be fun, especially when you get to my age."

Golf begins at 7 each morning, with the final, scheduled for 36 holes, on Saturday.