Justin Ngan spent much of his week in comeback mode. Joshua Sedeno has raced to early leads in all five of his matches so far.
Their varied paths through the 110th Manoa Cup bracket converge today in the final of the state amateur match-play championship.
Ngan, a Baldwin graduate, completed his freshman season with the UH golf team this spring and will make his second appearance in the Manoa Cup final in the past three years when he tees off with Sedeno in the 36-hole championship at 7 a.m. in Nuuanu Valley.
Ngan survived the round of 16 on Thursday by edging 2015 champion Tyler Ota in 19 holes and rallied from 3 down with eight holes to play in his quarterfinal match against Evan Kawai — last year’s runner up — to win 2 up Friday morning. He held a slim lead for most of his semifinal against Mid-Pacific junior Davis Lee before closing out a 3-and-2 victory to return to the final.
“It taught me to have patience throughout the round,” Ngan said of his experience in the 2016 title match, when he fell to Brent Grant. “Even though you might be down, just stay patient and you can always come back.”
Sedeno, a rising junior at Alabama with strong ties to Oahu Country Club, continued his roll with a quarterfinal win over Hawaii Baptist Academy sophomore Noah Koshi 6 and 5 Friday morning. He then ended former University of Hawaii quarterback Hunter Hughes’ run with another 6-and-5 win in the afternoon semifinals.
Sedeno has yet to face a deficit in his second Manoa Cup appearance after heeding his grandparents’ request to add the tournament to his annual visit from Northern California.
“This is normally a family trip and I’m excited to add some golf this year,” Sedeno said. “(My grandparents) said they wanted me to come back and play this year and it’s always something I love to do. I’ve played here a ton over the years.”
His grandfather, Jim Pappas, is a former OCC president and both of his parents are Kaiser graduates. A decorated high school golfer in California, Sedeno signed with the powerful Alabama program and played in nine events as a freshman. A pinched nerve ended his sophomore year after three events and he watched from afar as the Crimson Tide made a run to the finals at the NCAA championships before losing to Oklahoma State last month in Stillwater, Okla.
“It was a weird position, being a cheerleader/wishing I was out there,” Sedeno said. “They made it to the final match, which was awesome to see, but I wished I was there too.”
Sedeno played in his first Manoa Cup in 2013 as a 13-year-old (he advanced to the round of 32 that year) and he’s relied on quick starts to string together early finishes in his return. Sedeno was 5 up after eight holes against Hughes and closed out the match by draining a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-5 13th hole. His second shot on the steep incline skipped through the brush on the right side of the fairway, but emerged safely to allow him to set up the clinching birdie.
Hughes rode a hot putter to a 5-and-4 win over Boise State sophomore and former high school state champion Jun Ho Won in the quarterfinals, and his week at OCC, where he also works in the pro shop, provided a boost in his transition from football to golf.
“To shift gears athletically, to really focus my attention on golf now, it’s no longer just something that’s in my mind of ‘I could do this.’ It’s ‘I know I can do this,’ ” said Hughes, a scout team quarterback with the Rainbow Warriors the past two years. “I came out here and battled with the best in the state and I proved something.”
Lee, the youngest of the semifinalists at 16, also left OCC with added confidence and experience in a week highlighted by a win over Nevada junior Stephen Osborne on Thursday to improve on his run to the round of 16 last year.
“It shows me I can hang with those older guys, especially the college level,” Lee said. “Every part of my game was steady and the driver was really good this week.”
