The Big Island will have a strong claim to the 106th Manoa Cup title.
Hilo product Nainoa Calip and UH Hilo alumnus Isaac Jaffurs endured two tours around Oahu Country Club on Friday to emerge as the finalists for the state amateur match play championship.
Calip and Jaffurs will be back at OCC at 7 a.m. Saturday to begin the 36-hole final match after surviving Friday’s quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.
"I never really thought about it, honestly," Jaffurs said of reaching his first Manoa Cup final. "I was just trying to take it one match at a time, one hole at a time and really get through each hole without looking ahead."
Jaffurs, a 2006 Kahuku graduate, has trailed for just one hole in five matches this week and advanced to his first Manoa Cup final by outlasting golfers on both ends of the tournament’s age range. He got past 15-year-old Cole Shintaku 2 and 1 in the morning, then took control early in a 4-and-3 win over 56-year-old Doug Williams.
Calip also faced a high school sophomore in the quarterfinals — ‘Iolani’s Kengo Aoshima — and advanced with a 3-and-1 win. He then edged University of Hawaii teammate Scotty Yamashita 2 and 1 to reach the championship match in his first Manoa Cup.
"It was rough," Calip said after ending his match with Yamashita on his 34th hole of the day. "Mentally I was in it, but the legs were giving out a little. But I was able to stay in it and keep producing shots."
Calip, who led the Rainbow Warriors in scoring average the past two seasons, recalled playing against Jaffurs in a match-play tournament at Mauna Lani when he was in high school at Kamehameha-Hawaii. They’ll share a tee time again to play for the championship in one of the state’s most prestigious events.
"I was rooting for him, hoping he’d have a good UH career," said Jaffurs, who was playing for the Vulcans back then. "I always liked his game. I thought he was real solid."
Both have been unshakeable for most of the week.
Jaffurs and Calip have played OCC’s 18th hole just once each since opening the 64-player bracket on Tuesday.
After holding off Aoshima on Friday morning, Calip faced a familiar opponent in Yamashita, who played 14 holes at 6 under in his quarterfinal win over Brent Grant.
Calip and Yamashita were frequent practice partners over the past two years at UH. So there were frequent laughs exchanged between shots but there was sharp focus standing over the ball.
"(Calip’s) probably one of my best friends," Yamashita said. "On the golf side, of course we wanted to beat each other, but we were going to keep it friendly no matter what."
Calip was 1 up going into the par-5 15th hole and Yamashita caught him by rolling in an eagle putt from close to 10 feet. But he bogeyed the par-3 16th and Calip ended the match with a birdie on No. 17.
Both players landed their tee shots on the downhill and downwind par-4 close to pin high on the left side of the green. Yamashita’s long eagle putt slid past the hole and he missed his birdie attempt coming back. Calip stopped his eagle attempt about a foot short of the hole and his tap-in ended the match.
"My swing is on plane and I’m hitting the ball really solid," Calip said. "Not too many mistakes out there. That’s important in match play, always keep yourself in play and put pressure on the other player."
Jaffurs had a slightly shorter day after winning the first four holes in his match with Williams. Two wayward tee shots — one into a streambed on No. 12 and one into the trees on No. 13 — helped Williams close to 2 down. But Jaffurs extended the lead again with a par on No. 14 and drained a 12-foot downhill putt on the 15th to secure the win.
"My caddie’s been giving me good reads all week," Jaffurs said of former UH golfer Chase Bingham. "He’s been showing me where to hit and I’ve just been trying to get the speed from there. … Without him I wouldn’t be here. He’s helped put me in the right state of mind."
