Fittingly, the final day of the 50th annual Oahu Country Club Men’s Invitational was filled with the bizarre and the beautiful.
In other words, it defined OCC to a tee.
On this weird and windy day, Jared Sawada won his fourth tournament of 2013.
Sawada, the hottest guy in Hawaii golf this year, shot even-par 71 Saturday to win by two over Kyle Suppa. The Punahou sophomore had the day’s low round (68) and, at 1-under-par 212, was the only other golfer in red numbers for the week.
It was Sawada’s fourth win since April. Two weeks ago he won the Army Invitational. Four months ago he captured the Francis Brown Four Ball with Evan Kawai.
A month later, he graduated from UH and claimed the Manoa Cup championship at OCC.
"My strategy was pretty much the same as Manoa Cup," Sawada said Saturday. "My course management, what clubs I used were the same as Manoa Cup. That was a good enough strategy. I played conservatively, didn’t really go for par 5s in two, just relied on my wedges a lot."
He went into the final round with the lead, but with 10 golfers within five shots.
What followed was an afternoon of big numbers, spectacular surges followed by dramatic drops, bent wedges, lost balls and assorted OBs, five-putts … just another afternoon at OCC’s sneaky and extremely steep layout.
Sawada, a numbers cruncher who can spout statistics on every phase of his game, got through it with three birdies and three bogeys and without a blip. It wasn’t his best, but it was definitely good enough.
"My wedge game was not that good today," Sawada said. "I had zero up and downs with my wedges, like inside 120 (yards). I averaged 20 to 30 percent over the last year. I hit 13 greens. I’m happy with 13, but this summer I’m averaging 15, which is really good."
Suppa came the closest to matching that precision, while OCC just teased everybody else. He was five back when the day started and 3 under at the turn.
"I made a lot of putts, so I can’t really complain," said Suppa, who was second low amateur at this year’s Mid-Pacific Open and helped Punahou to the state championship. "But I missed a short one on my second-to-last hole."
That gave Sawada a cushion, not that he knew. Suppa was three groups back. The way Sawada has played this year, Suppa didn’t like his chances of catching him. His goal was to finish under par.
Few others shared in his success.
First-round leader Tommy Yamashita was 5 under at the turn but shot 69 to share third with Corey Kozuma (74) and PJ Samiere (70), at 214.
Samiere was also part of that Punahou championship team, and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur last month. He eagled the opening hole and was 7 under for the day — 5 under for the tournament — through 12. A pair of triple-bogeys derailed his charge.
Richard Hattori, who beat Suppa in the Manoa Cup semifinals before falling to Sawada, was in search of his third win this summer. His hopes all but ended when he bent his wedge against a tree — for the second time this year — on his 11th hole.
He tied for sixth with 2012 Manoa Cup champ Matt Ma, attempting to become the first golfer to three-peat at OCC since Casey Nakama (1983-85).
The 15th hole dulled his stab at history. Ma went OB there all three days, saving par Thursday, missing a 6-foot par putt Friday, then taking a quadruple-bogey 9 Saturday.
The senior flight ended Friday with Carl Ho winning the 55-older title. Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Wendell Kop finished fourth, shooting his age (78) Thursday and one better (77) Friday.