Teenager Codie Austin captured four consecutive Territorial Women’s Amateur Golf Championships in the 1930s. Jackie Liwai (Pung) and Jackie Yates (Holt) were national champions in the ’50s. Joan Damon rolled to five consecutive State Stroke Play titles in the ’60s.

But, 40 years ago this month, something more historical took place with pens instead of putters. The Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association began — again. This time it was in for the long run.

The original 20-member clubs said their objectives included “encouraging golf for women in the state, promoting junior golf and ensuring USGA standards of handicapping are maintained.”

Norma Baxter, who was with the HSWGA from the start and served as its third president, claimed there was another reason.

“We started it mainly to organize ladies tournaments,” Baxter shrugged. “They all did what they wanted and there were conflicts.”

There were conflicts earlier. Billie Beamer organized an HSWGA in 1960 because she felt it was important to standardize women’s handicaps, re-rate courses and provide more opportunities.

A year later the Jennie K. Invitational — Hawaii’s most prominent women’s tournament — refused to give prizes to golfers who were not HSWGA members. A year after that, with tournaments unwilling to enforce the members-only restriction, clubs began to drop out of the organization.

Beamer acknowledged the HSWGA was “doomed, but the rising of another association to take its place is inevitable.”

It happened at the end of 1976, with new president Kay Banning emphasizing the need “to guide and cooperate with clubs.” The HSWGA grew to 36 clubs, on every major island, in three years.

The group served as a volunteer army when the University of Hawaii hosted the 1977 AIAW Championship. Wahine Lenore Muraoka took eighth and won on the LPGA Tour six years later.

The HSWGA was anchored by multi-term presidents like Keiki McCombs, Lynne Winn, Eloise Young, Sally Harper, Marcia Lee and Gwen Omori, and its original “Honor Roll” — Baxter, Hope Yee, Barbara Dowd, Betty Roth, Wilma Vorfeld, Nita Howell, Bev Kim, Kahili Chong, Helen Higa and Kathy Ordway. It became well known for hospitality. Along with smaller events and fundraisers, it has also played a major volunteering role when Hawaii hosted U.S. Women’s Public Links and, for the last 35 years, the LPGA.

The HSWGA also was responsible for reviving the women’s State Match and Stroke Play Championships and starting a women’s State Senior Championship.

It was the first to bring a USGA official to Hawaii, in 1983, to introduce the new Slope System of Handicapping.

By 1991, it would have 72 clubs and 2,500 members.

Six years later, Anna Umemura became the only golfer to capture all three women’s majors — Jennie K., Stroke and Match Play — in the same year.

A decade later, pre-teens Michelle Wie and Stephanie Kono became the youngest to claim Match Play (Kono), Stroke Play and Jennie K. (Wie) titles. Wie would also give Hawaii a sneak peek at her unique expectations, becoming the first female to qualify for match play at the 93rd Manoa Cup — Hawaii’s men’s amateur match-play championship.

This year, after the HSWGA changed its rules and prevented non-members from playing its tournaments, the Hawaii State Golf Association created women’s flights for Manoa Cup and its Stroke Play Championship. Mari Nishiura and Miki Manta claimed the inaugural titles.

The HSWGA now has 33 clubs and approximately 1,200 members. It has rated courses here and in Japan and now honors players, most improved players and volunteers of the year annually. It has emphasized fair handicaps and knowledge of the USGA’s unwieldy rule book, with plans for yearly seminars. In the last several years, about a dozen 80-somethings have played in the popular Senior Championship, along with a few 90-somethings.

The mission now, according to HSWGA president Barbara Schroeder, is to “promote fellowship, competition and knowledge of the game to amateur women golfers in Hawaii.”

Many events have come and gone, but member clubs still sponsor long-running invitationals like Jennie K., Waialae, Puamelia, Maui, Army Women and Oahu Country Club.

There are plans to add an HSWGA tournament and rules seminar on Maui in 2017 and bring back an annual outer-island event every year. With the recent success of team events, the schedule will continue to include three state members-only championships and three team tournaments.

The HSWGA’s latest members-only format means the days of watching “the kids” dominate women’s events are over for now. Nicole Sakamoto won her fourth consecutive Hawaii State Stroke Play Championship in 2013 and Kacie Komoto her second straight Match Play title the following year. Both were coming off college seasons. Those were the last HSWGA “majors” open to everyone.

As Brenda Rego prepares to become the 14th female inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame, the association looks a little more like the group that used to sell home-made honey to support itself in the 1970s. Champions like Patty Schremmer, a 51-year-old former LPGA Tour player who has won the first two members-only Stroke Play titles, and reigning Match Play champ Jeannie Pak, who is five years younger, are the new norm.

In its 40-year history, the HSWGA has had time to go through lots of changes. That is something to celebrate.