Back in 2006, Lance Armstrong claimed an ESPY Award and Tiger Woods was still winning majors.
In our little corner of the golf world, the professionals beat the amateurs for the 23rd time, in the 34th annual Gov. John A. Burns Challenge Cup at Mid-Pacific Country Club.
Tuesday it happened again … finally.
Breaking an aggravating eight-year skid that had seen the ever-younger amateur team close to within five in the series, the professionals won big, 15.5-8.5.
For the third straight year, one team dominated the final-day singles by an 8-4 score. Only this time it was the pros, bolstered by a bunch of guys still scrapping to play on a tour and Jake Grodzinsky, the only pro to go unbeaten the last two years.
Brad Shigezawa, a rookie pro, was typical of his newly diverse team. The 2010 Punahou graduate won the NCAA D-III championship as a Claremont-Mudd-Scripps junior in 2013. He leaves Friday for the final stage of Japan Golf Tour Organization qualifying, having survived three stages already.
He is young, relatively new to professional golf and bothered by the thought of getting beat by amateurs, despite playing on three winning amateur teams during their eight-year siege.
"For me, personally, I tried not to think about it much, but today I was thinking that, as a professional you are expected to beat a high school golfer," Shigezawa said Tuesday. "At the same time, you know these kids are up-and-coming college players. They are going to be very good, but I expect to win. I just tried not to think that way and put pressure on myself."
The amateur team featured high school seniors Kyle Suppa, Kyosuke Hara and Shawn Lu, who will all be playing in the Pac-12 next year. It also had former Manoa Cup champs Matt Ma, Tyler Ota and Brandan Kop.
But this time around the pros had Nainoa Calip and TJ Kua, who captured Manoa Cups in the past seven years and are now looking for a tour like Shigezawa. Brigham Young-Hawaii coach Ryan Acosta and Kyle Hayashi are on their way to Asia and PGA Tour China qualifying.
Those two were also unbeaten this year, along with Calip, Juan Rodriguez and John Hearn, who closed fast to beat Jun Ho Won — Lu and Hara’s Moanalua teammate — in singles. Hearn’s car, and clubs, were stolen last week so he had new sticks and borrowed a putter from pro co-captain Andrew Feldmann.
Half the 24 matches reached the 18th hole over the two days. The pros took a 7.5-4.5 advantage in Monday’s best-ball and alternate-shot formats, then piled on in singles, clinching the cup early when Hayashi beat 16-year-old Andrew Chin.
There were 78 birdies and two eagles Tuesday. Shigezawa had six birdies in his win over Lu. Grodzinsky had an eagle and trio of "2’s" on his card in his match with Ma.
Kevin Carll’s 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the final match, to beat Kengo Aoshima, 1-up, was all but overkill.
Then again, it was eight LONG years.
"We had a strong team and we were ready to play. We just wanted it a little more than the amateurs," Acosta said, sounding every bit the coach.
Then he grinned.
"It had been SO long," the 1999 Konawaena graduate acknowledged.
Feldmann felt that too, and started to gather his troops in August. Only one pro who qualified — Kevin Hayashi — could not play this year, and only because he was at Champions Tour qualifying in California.
"I was hopeful," Feldmann said. "I knew we had a strong team and if they beat us it would be nip and tuck. I emailed the guys a lot and asked them to practice, put some extra time into their games.
"We’ve been pummeled eight years in a row."
Now, Acosta is talking about a new streak for the pros, who have never won more than five Cups in a row despite their initial dominance.
"I actually do think we can win eight in a row now," Acosta said. "The pros are happy and not going anywhere and the juniors/amateurs have to step it up. They will lose a lot of players to college."
There is a consolation prize for the 12 amateurs. They tee off at 9 a.m. Monday at Waialae Country Club for a spot in January’s Sony Open in Hawaii. Garrett Okamura won the Aloha Section PGA slot earlier this year.
