Ota captures State Amateur Championship

Christopher Vandette, 5,000 miles and 50 degrees from his Canadian home, took a four-stroke lead into Sunday’s final round of the 55th Hawaii State Amateur Championship.

Tyler Ota and Remington Hirano appeared out of the Aiea rainbows to chase down Vandette at Pearl Country Club.

Ota, player of the year in the Hawaii State Golf Association the past three years, won his first state amateur championship. He was 11 under par over the weekend and beat Vandette and Hirano by two.

‘Iolani freshman Kyung Eun Lee defended her women’s championship, closing with a 76 for a four-day total of 306. That was seven better than her total last year and the score of runner-up Anna Murata.

Mike Kawate won his second senior championship in four years, passing Kauai’s Jonathan Ota with a final-round 70 to win by three in the 54-hole competition. Shawn Sakoda (73—293) also won by three in the mid-amateur (25-older) flight.

Tyler Ota was coming off a win in last month’s HSGA Four-Ball event, with David Saka, and an appearance in the PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii, after earning the amateur exemption.

After two days at Pearl he was even par and seven back, but saw a glimmer of hope in his second-round 67.

“I owe this tournament to the second round, I grinded so hard,” Ota said. “I made two doubles on the front side and I scraped away with even par. That kept me in it.”

He shot a “practically flawless” 66 Saturday to get within five of Vandette, a 16-year-old from Beaconsfield, Quebec, and a shot back of Hirano, a Punahou senior.

The “old man” of the final group, at 24, proceeded to pass both high school boys on a Sunday that featured lots of wind and a few sprinkles.

When Vandette bogeyed the 15th and Hirano birdied it, all three golfers were at 9 under and Ota was in a zone.

“Catching him wasn’t the goal,” he said. “It was getting past him so I just tried to stay calm.”

He hit it to 12 feet on the next hole, but missed the birdie putt, somehow — “I couldn’t have asked to hit a better putt on that hole, in that situation, too.”

Vandette suffered a three-putt bogey on the 16th, where he was 5 over for the week. The imperturbable Hirano, headed to the University of San Diego with teammate Evan Kawai, got up and down to hold a share of the lead.

On the par-5 17th, Ota hit his drive dead center and hoisted his second shot over the flag before draining a 4-foot eagle putt to take control.

Both playing partners birdied, but by the time Ota “panseyed” his 14-foot birdie putt on the final hole short he had a two-stroke lead. Hirano missed the green and took bogey while Vandette managed only par.

“That guy is unbelievable,” Ota said of the Canadian. “The putts just weren’t dropping for him today. He is such a great putter. I was in awe of him the first two days. And he’s only 16, eight years younger than I am. He has a bright future.”

That could be true for Lee, too. The 14-year-old clearly has talent but is working on much more than her swing at this young age. She was grateful to Murata for lessons in emotions and etiquette over the weekend.

“I learned how she manages her emotions and how controlled she is on the course,” said Lee, who shot 76 three of four days from the white tees, “And she has really good etiquette on the course. That really taught me to be very considerate of the people who are playing when you are on the course.”

In 1997 Murata, then Anna Umemura, became the only golfer to win all three Hawaii women’s majors. She earned a scholarship to Tennessee and played professionally a short time before coming home.

In the last year, she has started to compete again. Sunday she saw exactly what she was up against, and was most impressed by Lee’s lack of mistakes.

Jeannie Pak, more than 30 years older than Lee, had five birdies in the final round to take third ahead of 2016 women’s champ Miki Manta, a Kalani senior.