When the late Dr. Richard Ho was honored by the Aloha Section PGA nearly 20 years ago, he told people golf “was like an obsession, a magical inexhaustible journey.”
The journey lives on in the Dr. Richard Ho “Spirit of the Game” Scholarship, given out annually by the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association.
It is donated by an “anonymous HSJGA family” to honor a man who once played to a 5-handicap, founded the Hawaii State Golf Association and sat on its board along with others locally and nationally.
The HSJGA interviews folks who help out at its tournaments to find a junior who best exemplifies Ho’s joy for the game. Past winners are Ken Miyata, Millburn Ho, John Oda, Aiko Leong, Pono Yanagi, Noah Koshi, Lacey Uchida and reigning state high school boys champion Jake Sequin.
The reigning Spirit of the Game honoree is recent Kaimuki Middle School graduate Teal Matsueda. She enters Kalani this fall fresh off winning the Girls 13-14 title at this month’s King Auto Group HSJGA State Championship. In December, she was second in 11-12s at the Michelle Wie/HSJGA Tournament of Champions.
But she considers Dr. Ho’s award the highlight of a golf “career” that began when she was 7 and started bonding with dad Ian on the driving range.
“It is a prestigious award that isn’t given to many,” she said. “I was ecstatic and surprised because there are so many junior golfers and they chose me. To me, this award took a happy attitude on the golf course, respectfulness, being helpful toward others and friendliness.”
She has her $1,000 travel scholarship in the bank, even though she is traveling in California and Florida all this month. Many Hawaii golfers are heading out to events like U.S. Kids, AJGA and Future Champions tournaments. Many more — Koshi, Davis Lee and Karissa Kilby are good examples — are going to USGA national championships, Junior Worlds, Junior PGA, Optimist International, and the Hogan, Mary Cave and Junior America’s Cup team events.
Matsueda is in good company, and apparently IS good company based on her Spirit award. She calls traveling a major part of her love for the game. Her family’s first summer golf adventure lasted two weeks and the next was three.
The Matsuedas are on the road all of July this year, playing for fun and taking Teal to AJGA qualifiers, the Optimist International in Miami and other events. Their time in Southern California is a bonus because they can help Teal’s brother Cole with his transition to Chapman College simultaneously.
It is their family vacation, and has been since Teal started taking golf seriously and mom Janet had to start taking travel seriously.
“I’m getting good at it,” Janet Matsueda said with a laugh. “I can help a lot of people because I’m a so-called travel hack. It takes a lot of time to plan, but the effort is worth the savings you can generate. My cousin just told me you should have a website. If I find a good deal I want to tell everybody.”
The site would be popular, even just among Teal Matsueda’s age group. She is one of five Hawaii girls, along with Kara Kaneshiro, Nicole Tanoue, Raya Nakao and Kirra Kawai, who qualified for 13-14s at Optimist.
The age group is loaded — Matsueda beat Rachael Wang in a playoff for the state championship — and the competition has clearly inspired everyone in it, on and off the golf course.
Matsueda thrives on it, and has since getting past her first “nerve-wracking” tournament here and now many more on the mainland.
“The thing that I like the best about golf is my friends,” she says. “I have made so many friends. They were all so kind and they showed me the way around tournaments. Being the new girl on the golf course was probably my biggest fear, but they were there to support me.”
And push her. Matsueda’s goal this summer is to qualify for her first AJGA event and do well in Florida. The long-term goal is a D-I college scholarship, as a payoff for “all my hard work.”
Then, someone else can pay for the travel.
