Needing a two-putt to win, TJ Kua got it done in one.

Standing some 40 feet away from victory, Kua rolled in his eagle putt on the first hole of a playoff with Jared Sawada to win the Pearl Invitational’s professional flight on Saturday.

Kua and Sawada began the tournament’s final round tied atop the leaderboard and ended regulation still deadlocked after signing for rounds of even-par 72. They went back to Pearl Country Club’s par-5 first hole and Sawada ran into trouble amongst the trees along the right side of the fairway. Kua was safely on the green in two and curled in his final putt to claim the $2,000 first prize.

“Just trying to get it close,” Kua said of the tournament’s final stroke. “All day nothing was dropping, so it was no thoughts really. Just aim it and hit it and hopefully it ends up where it needs to go.”

The championship flight also went to a playoff, as Moanalua senior Jun Ho Won birdied No. 1 to edge AJ Teraoka to keep the tournament title within the Na Menehune program. Recent Moanalua graduate Kyosuke Hara won the inaugural title last year, when the tournament was reserved for amateurs.

The professional flight was added this year, with Kua and Sawada, former University of Hawaii teammates, reunited in the final group at 5 under after the first two rounds.

They went into the 18th hole still tied as Kua hit a wood that faded toward the trees on the left side of the fairway. The left-hander punched a low shot onto the back of the green for a two-putt par. Sawada also finished with a par to set up the playoff with both ending regulation at 5-under 211.

“I don’t know if you can relax,” Kua said of the closing stretch. “You can lie to yourself, you can try to hide everything, but something in the back of your head is going to remind you that ‘this shot is going to mean quite a bit.’ The more you focus on the goal the less the other stuff bothers you.”

Kua, 26, gained considerable experience under final-round pressure in an amateur career that included a Manoa Cup title in 2009 and a win in the Kauai Collegiate Invitational while at UH. He turned pro in 2012 and won the Mid-Pacific Open title the following year.

Practice time is harder to come by these days as an instructor at Aloha Golf Center, but he credited his ball-striking for keeping him in contention throughout the three-day tournament.

“It’s tough, but you just revert to super basic stuff,” Kua said. “Don’t do anything fancy and hopefully it goes where you’re aiming.”

In the championship flight, Won recovered from a 76 in the opening round on Thursday to charge to the title. He jumped from 10th place to fifth with a 69 on Friday and still didn’t think winning was within reach when he made the turn at even par on Saturday.

“After my first nine I was, ‘I think I’m too far out, let’s just have fun,’ ” Won said.

He then birdied his next three holes and added another on 17 in a round of 4-under 68 to catch Teraoka, who began the day a shot out of the lead and three ahead of Won.

“The first day I had a stiff neck and I couldn’t really hit the ball the way I wanted to because I had a sharp pain on my backswing,” Won said. “(Friday) I was just trying to get back to the top five so I could get into the top three by the end of the tournament.”