Hearing the words "Drive, Chip and Putt" probably isn’t enough to seize the attention of most golfers between the ages of 7 and 15.
Hearing "The Masters" at Augusta catches them every time.
Hawaii is in the midst of hosting its second Drive, Chip and Putt competition. Neighbor island qualifiers are all in. Oahu expects about 100 at its qualifier July 11 at Kapolei.
Top finishers there join kids from Kauai, Maui and the island of Hawaii the following Saturday at Ko Olina, for one of 51 Sub-Regionals nationwide.
The top two boys and girls at Ko Olina— yes, girls are being invited to play Augusta — advance to a Sept. 19 regional at Torrey Pines in San Diego. It is one of 10 across the country.
Each girl and boy who wins their division at Torrey Pines will play at Augusta April 3 — the Sunday before the 2016 Masters begins.
It is a long haul, across some pretty impressive golf courses, but Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer David Ishii was a "Punt, Pass and Kick" finalist as a kid on Kauai. Nothing is impossible.
Jordan Terada, a Maui High sophomore, knows that better than anyone. When the USGA, Masters Tournament Foundation and PGA of America introduced the competition in 2013, only 17 states held qualifiers.
Terada was so fascinated by the idea of playing at Augusta he went anyway, competing solely on the mainland and coming up three points short of a Masters trip.
Last year, Hawaii’s Aloha Section PGA convinced the DCP committee to hold local qualifiers on the four major islands and a Sub-Regional here to make costs reasonable.
Terada reached the Torrey Pines Regional, but finished third — again just points away from Augusta.
He will be at Ko Olina next month and is coming off a win in his age division at last week’s qualifier for the Adams Golf Championship. He calls that the highlight of his year — so far — and points all the way back to qualifying for Junior Worlds, at age 10, as the highlight of his career.
"That," Terada says, "has been a long time ago."
Augusta would blow both those highlights away. Drive, Chip and Putt has caught his imagination, or at least seeing The Masters’ unique and legendary course has. When he first heard about DCP, only one thought came into his mind.
"I could possibly go to Augusta," recalls Terada, whose golf goal is to get a scholarship to play for Oregon. "That’s probably the reason most people sign up."
It costs nothing to enter, but families have to pay for travel until the finals, when the tournament provides a travel stipend for the player and a parent to Augusta — and three tickets to Monday’s Masters practice round.
The first thing Terada would do, if he can finally get there, "is probably take a picture."
The second would be to go hit some drives, chips and putts. The DCP format is based on a 25-point-per-shot basis, with each player’s three drives, chips and putts counting.
To earn the maximum points for a drive, the ball has to go 400 yards and stop inside the 40-yard width. The range for chips from 10-15 yards out is 25 points if they go in, or one point if they are left outside 10 feet.
Contestants attempt putts from six feet, 15 feet and 30 feet. If they sink it, they get the full 25 points. If they get it within a foot, it’s 20, if they leave it outside five feet it it is one.
Last year an eighth-grade girl from Las Vegas became the first to win all three disciplines, holing a chip and putt.
Terada’s strength has been his driving accuracy and length, clutch putting and the ability to avoid bad shots. There is no room for error.
There is room for all the kids who want to compete and that was the goal all along — to get them in the game and keep them.
