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Deadlines are coming up for four USGA local qualifiers. The earliest is next Wednesday, for the U.S. Mid-Amateur. Qualifying will be at the Big Island Country Club Aug. 15.
The other three qualifiers are on Oahu. Deadlines for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur (Aug. 31 at Ko Olina) and U.S. Senior Amateur (Aug 29 at Waialae Country Club) are Aug. 3. Aug. 10 is the deadline for next year’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. That qualifier is Nov. 29 at Waikele.
Visit usga.org to sign up. Golfers must register by 11 a.m. Hawaii time the day of the deadline to be eligible.
Hawaii golfers head to Alabama
Tyler Ota, Jun Ho Won and Andrew Chin earned the right to represent Hawaii at the 2016 USGA Men’s State Team Championship, next month at Country Club of Birmingham, in Alabama.
The tournament started as part of the USGA’s Centennial Celebration in 1995, bringing together three of each state’s best amateur golfers who are not in college. It was so successful it is now played every other fall. The Hawaii State Golf Association provides a stipend to assist players with expenses.
Ota, a 2011 Moanalua graduate who just won the Barbers Point Invitational, rose to the top of the HSGA points list with victories at last year’s Manoa Cup and Oahu Country Club Invitational. He had six other top-three finishes.
Won is about to start his senior season at Moanalua. He won the Hickam Invitational last year and this year’s Pearl Invitational, advanced out of the local U.S. Open qualifier and had a pair of runner-up finishes.
Chin, from Punahou, was runner-up this year at Hickam and among amateurs at the Mid-Pacific Open. He also had Top-10s at the Hawaii State and Turtle Bay Amateurs and the Mauna Lani Resorts Hawaii State Open.
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