Local golf legend Art Rego keeps kids swinging

All Waiehu Municipal head pro Art Rego had to do to learn his lesson was go back to school — elementary school.

The eldest brother in one of Hawaii’s most legendary golf families found his youth golf program shrinking a few years ago.

“With so many other sports and activities available to today’s kids,” Rego wrote for a recent Golf Range Association of America Best Practices article, “I felt it was vital to proactively seek them out.”

Rego went on to write about his decision to take golf into local schools, “to teach the students the game right in their gyms and on their playgrounds.”

It involved SNAG (Starting New at Golf) equipment, designed to be used by anyone of any talent, any place.

It also took Rego’s imagination.

“Waihee Elementary has a ‘fun day,’” he recalled. “I brought SNAG out there. One of my pros was running with the sticky suit — he had a target on himself like a vest — and they were hitting tennis balls at him. The balls hit him and stuck on him. We did stuff like that for fun, trying to figure out how to get kids interested without getting them stressed out.”

Rego ultimately taught about 2,000 kids, going in three days a week for as long as three hours a day. He covered everything from chipping and putting to the full swing using the SNAG “Launcher” club, with its short shaft and high-impact plastic head.

“It was just to get them introduced to the game of golf,” says Howard Mikasa, now a retired fifth-grade teacher from Waihee. “Many had never picked up a golf club. They were excited because this was something so different. And, Art’s personality is very easygoing and patient. It was good instruction, he didn’t get into details and the nitty gritty.”

Rego got other Aloha Section PGA pros to help and help promote the game, which was the whole idea. When Rego started with Waihee’s six fifth-grade classes, he asked the kids in each how many of them had golfed before. About two raised their hands each time.

“Most of the kids we teach in schools are unfamiliar with the game, so it is a major triumph when we start seeing them at our facilities,” Rego wrote. “They are actually excited about learning how to play golf.”

He was excited they found it so much fun, just as his family did so many years ago.

The Regos’ father was personnel director for Del Monte and a recreational golfer. The family grew up on a pineapple plantation in Kunia, Oahu, and he introduced his four kids to golf when Art was 13, Brenda and Darrell, 8, and Clyde, 7. He dropped them at Hawaii Country Club in Kunia on his way to work in the summer and picked them up on his way home.

Clyde Rego, who died at 46, was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame in 2012 and Brenda three years ago after playing and officiating on pro tours, then coming home to work with Art Rego at Mililani and Waiehu. She is now head pro at the Wailea Blue course. Darrell Rego is head pro at Wailua on Kauai.

Art Rego’s resume includes a PGA Match Play Championship in the 1970s but is dominated by his work at courses like Waialae, Mililani, Ala Wai, West Loch, Ewa Villages and Wailua. He has been at Waiehu, which just reopened all 18 holes after major renovations, since 1986.

All the Regos work with junior golfers and coach high school teams, and are all about looking at kids to help grow their game and keep it growing. They remember all those who helped them so long ago in Kunia, and still feel blessed.

Rego extended his schools project to the Summer PALS program. Of those 2,000 kids, nearly half signed up to learn golf. Now he sees those kids coming to Waiehu with their parents and bringing siblings. They are in his eight-week golf program, which costs $110 for everything from instruction and range balls to time on the course.

“With over 40 kids involved, I am building a program that needed a boost,” Rego wrote. “Taking the game into the schools was that boost, and we are seeing the rewards of those efforts. After several years of doing this, I see that kids want to play. As a PGA professional, it is imperative to introduce the game to as many kids as possible. This exemplifies growing the game.”

That runs in the family.

Email Ann Miller at tiserannie@hotmail.com.