More than a year ago, the 16th annual Hilo Invitational was swamped. After a month of hard rain — even by Hilo standards — the course reached its saturation point and the tournament was canceled for the first time.
"It was unbelievable," recalls Kevin Hayashi, the tournament co-chair with Hilo municipal teaching pro Lance Taketa. "We should have had a regatta."
The "16th annual" event re-appears this weekend on the Big Island. It is no longer on the winter calendar, but weather had no real impact on the move. The tournament, which opens Friday with the Pro-Am’s first day, is now in August because Hayashi’s busiest time as Nanea’s director of instruction is Christmas through April.
"We are from Hilo and know that it rains here sometimes," Taketa said with a smile. "The golfers all took it very well (last year) and understood the power of Mother Nature. We have no control over that and it’s not a big deal."
The tournament format opens with a four-player (three amateurs and a pro) scramble Friday afternoon. Saturday’s first round also has an afternoon Pro-Am — with the pro’s score counting toward the stroke-play championship. The rest of the tournament players go out in the morning.
Sunday is all stroke play, all the time. In 2012, when Nick Mason won his fourth championship, it took more than eight hours to finish.
Mason beat 2006 champion Jarett Hamamoto and Ryan Michimoto in a two-hole playoff. Matt Ma needed six extra holes to capture the amateur championship over Ciera Min. It was one hole more than the tournament’s previous record, a five-hole playoff between David Ishii and Mike Pavao in the inaugural Hilo Invitational in 1998.
The tournament was shortened to one round because of the weather in 2012, which was a first. Last year, they couldn’t even play that much, with officials canceling at 7:45 a.m. Sunday.
Friday’s forecast calls for a "90 percent chance" of rain in Hilo, but the course is not saturated this year and Taketa and Hayashi are hoping for the best.
They have run this tournament from its inception, raising more than $50,000 for charities as varied as The Food Bank, Lupus Foundation and Hilo and Waiakea High Schools. Their main focus now is funding the Hilo Junior Invitational.
"It’s a nice big tournament for kids on the Big Island and a few others from around the state," said Hayashi, a member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. "We take about 70 to 75 golfers and buy them all a good gift — putters or wedges, things like that. Every kid gets one because I remember seeing a tournament one time where a kid was really sad, walking with his mom, saying, ‘Mom, I didn’t win anything again.’ My perspective for this tournament is, I didn’t want kids to feel it was all about winning."
The Pro-Am has the same feel, and Taketa and Hayashi emphasize it is the focal point of Hilo Invitational weekend. Competition is stiff and the field is solid, with Mason, Hamamoto, TJ Kua, Jared Sawada, Stephen Zane and Manoa Cup champion Nainoa Calip back, but the sponsors are the lifeblood of the event. For this event they have been exceptionally generous, starting with former title sponsor Sears back in 1998.
"I believe the tournament has grown over the years to where many of the younger players quickly learn how to take care of our sponsors and to make sure to have fun," Taketa said. "It still is important to remain competitive, but the main focus is we try to teach them to always be respectful and to remember the people who make these tournaments possible.
"This is where Kevin and I always make it a point to teach the younger players to remember that. It’s basically understanding the aloha spirit, which happens to be a main campaign for the Aloha Section PGA. Without understanding the aloha spirit … nothing will survive."
The pros play for $15,000 and amateurs $4,000 in gift certificates. It draws a crowd at a time when tournament opportunities are shrinking. Hayashi, who always plays along with Taketa, admits he will be rooting for one of the Hawaii pros trying to make it on a tour this weekend.
"They need the money," he said, "and the competition."
It goes without saying that they also need experience playing in Hilo’s uncommon — for Hawaii — conditions.
"When I was in Oregon," Ma said two years ago, "I played in weather like this all the time — except it was colder. If there is anything I learned from playing in college, it is you have no idea what it’s like to have a second dry towel when you’re soaked."
