Last week’s 53rd Hawaii State Amateur Stroke Play Championship was a peek into the future, with Kalani sophomore Miki Manta transforming the debut of a women’s flight into a personal introduction.

The State Am was also a long, windy, extremely accurate look at the current state of men’s golf in Hawaii. While 2015 Manoa Cup champ Tyler Ota scrambled to stay near the top, a pack of high school kids swirled around him. Ultimately, Kyle Suppa caught and passed him, one-putting five of the final seven holes to capture his second State Am title in three years.

Suppa, at 4-under-par 284, and Ota (287) were the only golfers to finish under par over four days. Behind them was a swarm of Moanalua Menehune, with Kyosuke Hara, Shawn Lu and Jun Ho Won all in the top six. Andrew Chin, Suppa’s Punahou teammate, was fifth and ‘Iolani’s Kengo Aoshima seventh.

“Not too long ago I was the youngest one,” says Ota, a 2011 Moanalua graduate. “Just like that I’m the oldest one. I feel a little old, but not that old. Then again, when I asked the guys I was playing with last week did you even graduate high school yet they’d all tell me nope. Now I feel older.”

Even beyond the bulk of high school talent, the Class of 2016 stands out. Suppa will play for USC next year and Hara and Lu for Oregon State. They can’t remember a time when they were not competing on the golf course.

“There has never been a tournament that we were all playing in where we weren’t trying to beat each other,” Suppa acknowledges, “but at the same time we are always rooting for each other to do well in whatever events we have.”

That shared inspiration has created a monster senior class. Lu was last year’s State Am champ, Hara took second at the last state high school championship and Suppa made the cut at the 2015 Sony Open in Hawaii. They have combined to collect titles here and on the mainland, individually and on teams.

“When you see someone have success it pushes you to want to do better no matter what,” Ota says. “Even if you don’t admit it, it’s in all of us. … I want to putt better, like Kyle, and hit it further like Matt (Ma). We try to feed off each other and it’s good. The younger kids got a lot better. Kyosuke and Shawn are the real deal, too.”

The quality of the 2016 class goes beyond the guys. The girls’ class features three-time state champ Mariel Galdiano, headed to UCLA, and Punahou teammates Allisen Corpuz (USC) and Aiko Leong (BYU), who tied for second Sunday with Kaiser sophomore Malia Nam, the reigning OIA champ.

But it was Manta who came out of the wicked gusts to win the inaugural women’s State Am title by six. She shot 73-75 on the weekend, when the average score on an exceptionally fast and firm Pearl Country Club was 79.

The flight, which had just eight entrants, was added by the Hawaii State Golf Association when the Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association changed two of its three “majors” — Stroke and Match Play championships — to members-only events. That cut out most of the state’s best players.

Mira Han, the 2015 HSWGA Player of the Year, won the inaugural Senior Women’s title Sunday and Kensuke Morinaka defended his Mid-Amateur (25-older) championship. Four-time HSGA Senior Player of the Year Phil Anamizu drained an eagle putt on the first playoff hole to beat Raymond Tendo.

But no one putted like “Suppa Man.” He birdied three of his last seven holes and sank a 15-footer for par on the 15th.

“That guy can flat out putt the golf ball. He is probably one of the best putters I’ve seen in my life …,” says Ota, who works for Nike and watched Jordan Spieth, in awe, at Kapalua in January. “He just controls the ball so well on the greens.

“He’s found the secret and he is sticking with it, and not letting anyone else know. He is a scary guy once he gets onto the green. You feel like he can make anything from anywhere. Anything is possible.”

The same might be said for the Class of 2016.