Until Kirk Nelson came along the past two months, most of the golf talk in Hawaii involved keiki and no one had won the Aloha Section PGA Championship and its senior title the same year.
Nelson, a teaching professional at Elleair Golf Course on Maui, made history and a Sony Open in Hawaii tee time concurrently last week. He earned the section’s Sony exemption by winning its stroke-play title by seven shots. It came a month after he captured the section’s senior championship by 12.
Nelson, who will be 54 when he tees off in the Sony on Jan. 9, shot 2-under-par 142 in both tournaments. It came on tough courses — Poipu Bay and Mauna Kea.
Michelle Wie’s success at the 2004 Sony, when she was 14, set free a swarm of great Hawaii juniors who have dominated local golf news the past decade. Every once in a while, somebody "sophisticated" like Dave Eichelberger, Bev Kim, Kevin Hayashi, David Ishii or, now, Nelson squeezes the kids out. It is an intriguing change, particularly for the AARP members who accomplish it.
"I’m on top of the world," Nelson said. "The only thing I can say is, the closer I get to going broke, somehow the better I play. I can’t explain it. I’ve been trying to do this for so long.
"For the last three events, I got in the clubhouse without doing anything silly or making mistakes."
His recent roll caught him by surprise. In August, Nelson won the senior title at the Visa Hall of Fame Championship. It came two weeks after shooting the worst Maui Open score of his life.
He describes it as "the golf gods trying to see how much I can take and I just keep going back for more."
His success is not unprecedented. He won the Hawaii State Open senior title in his first try in 2009 and was second at the section’s stroke-play and match-play championships two years earlier. In 2003, he beat Hayashi in a playoff to get into his first Sony Open.
"I’ve never been so excited in my life," Nelson recalled. "The first time I was so nervous I couldn’t even hit a 7-iron on the practice tee with the guys next to me. I’ve calmed down a little, more used to situations. It’s still just golf, no matter how many are looking. You hit it, find it and hit it again."
He plans to practice his putting a lot over the next six weeks — "The greens are going to be perfect and whoever putts best usually wins" — and also put emphasis on the bunkers, playing out of 21/2-inch rough and distance control in Waialae Country Club’s wind. And he has put in a call to a friend, who is a friend of Justin Rose, to see if the world’s fifth-ranked golfer is up for a practice round.
"It’s so exciting, just neat," Nelson said. "I’ve been watching these guys on TV for so long …well, I guess not these guys, maybe the guys on the senior tour, but watching them at majors and it’s always thrilling.
"You think someday you’ll get out there. I’ll be out there two days for sure and I’ll try to make it four days. It’s not quite like a kindergartener going to a college-level class but …I’ve been doing it so long and I know they still hit it the same way. I just have to walk tall."
And, ideally, shoot a couple rounds in the 60s to make it to Saturday. If that happens, Nelson will set new goals.
"I can only imagine how all the winners feel when they make that putt on the last hole," he said. "They get to wave to the crowd and hold that big check. That’s been something I’ve dreamed of ever since I was little. I can almost see it. I’ve got to walk through that door and go to the next level."
But first, Nelson said, …"I’d just like to see my swing on TV."
