Hickam’s back, hoping to grow the game

In its first 25 years, the Hickam Invitational’s list of winners was littered with Hawaii Golf Hall of Famers, national champions, Sony Open qualifiers and teen terrors destined for college greatness.

Then, after Lorens Chan defended his title in 2011 at Mamala Bay, the tournament went away, like so many others.

This week, in a rare show of resilience, it is back. Guys like Kyle Suppa, Kyosuke Hara, Phil Anamizu, Isaac Jaffurs, Carl Ho, Shawn Lu, David Saka, Jun Ho Won and Brandan and Wendell Kop are back with it.

They tee off Friday in a field of some 120 golfers in five flights — Championship, Senior (50-older), Super Senior (60-older), A and B. The field will be cut in half going into Sunday’s final round.

By then, all will have gone through one of the most challenging aspects of playing at Hickam Mamala Bay: getting there.

Essentially, the tournament went away because access for those not in the military got so difficult after Hickam Air Force Base became Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam a few years ago.

Carl Kelly became golf course manager two years ago and thought the "growing in period for Joint Basing" might be mature enough to allow non-military and Department of Defense golfers access for the tournament again.

It took lots of time and cooperation, but the support came and the golfers were good with the extra demands now needed for secure access.

Game on, for a tournament that started in 1985 and has had more than its share of memorable winners. U.S. National Public Links champions Casey Watabu and Guy Yamamoto both won at Hickam. So did Tadd Fujikawa, at age 14.

"Hosting an event like this builds interest and demand for Mamala Bay Golf Course," Kelly says. "When we get the competitive field that we have in our event it becomes a prestigious and meaningful victory for those fortunate enough to play well."

And, it helps the game and Mamala Bay’s bottom line.

"By hosting competitive golf events it encourages golfers to practice and play more at our facility," adds Kelly, a PGA pro, "helping to grow the game of golf — something all golf professionals should strive for."

Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Brandan Kop won the inaugural event in 1985, won again two years later and — in typical Kop fashion — finished on top again in 2004.

He appreciates the work it took to get this going again, and knows more than most about how complicated base access can be. His company — Kop Distributors — deals in golf equipment, apparel and accessories and he remembers having to wait at the gate so someone could bring him to the pro shop to deliver merchandise.

Kop also remembers one of the reasons this tournament became so big. Prizes for the amateur event are gift certificates at the golf shop. Those are more valuable than most because "the markup is smaller" at military shops.

Hosting a tournament is a way to reach out to the community and encourage business. Kop says issues with access had to hurt the course and even an annual event can bring in real revenue between entry fees, practice rounds and a bump in food and merchandise purchases.

Also, once golfers see Mamala Bay, they want to come back. Kop calls it a "good challenge" with great variation of short and long holes and the ability to force golfers to think on every hole.

"And you’ve got the ocean. There are a lot of fish over there," he says, then laughs about an annual occurrence during the Sony Open in Hawaii. "Paul Azinger can tell you where to fish."

Kelly emphasizes the difficulty of Mamala Bay’s par-3’s and warns those who haven’t seen the course recently that some out-of-play areas — "Well, for most of the better players" — are now back to their native state.

"We have focused more attention on the important areas of our course, which may come as a shock to golfers that haven’t played here in some time," Kelly says. "No longer can you hit it anywhere and find a decent lie. It is becoming a shotmaker’s golf course."

Just one more thing to think about this weekend, beyond a who’s who of past champions. And now, present and future champions.