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As a promising high school golfer, Evan Kawai twice partnered with PGA Tour pros in the lead-up to the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Now a redshirt sophomore at the University of San Diego, Kawai played his way into the main event in January by surviving a duel with a long-time teammate on Monday.
Kawai shot a steady 1-under-par 71 in gusting winds at Waialae Country Club to match Remington Hirano — a fellow Punahou graduate and current member of the San Diego roster — in the 12-player qualifier for a spot reserved for a Hawaii amateur in the Sony Open field.
After the Torero teammates matched birdies on the first playoff hole and pars on the next two, Kawai’s birdie on the par-5 fourth hole earned him a berth in the PGA Tour’s first full-field event of 2021.
“This is something I looked forward to my whole life. That’s very cliche, but it’s true,” Kawai, 20, said. “I dream about it, think about it 24-7.
“When I heard I was in the qualifier, I was in San Diego and that was all I could think about, playing my best here today and giving myself a shot.”
As a junior and senior at Punahou, Kawai was among the five Hawaii junior golfers who qualified to play in the HTA Pro-Junior Challenge annually held the Tuesday of Sony Open week at Waialae. He partnered with Tadd Fujikawa in 2017 (when the event also featured Bryson DeChambeau) and won the three-hole exhibition alongside Kyle Thompson in 2018.
After finishing their Buffanblu careers, Kawai and Hirano went on to San Diego and the summer following their freshman season included an all-Torero semifinal at the Manoa Cup — the state amateur match-play championship — which Kawai won 3 and 1.
“Known him a long time, he’s one of my best buds from high school days and junior golf days,” Kawai said. “It’s bittersweet because, one, I’m in the Sony, but, two, I had to play against one of my good friends.”
The pandemic wiped out most of the Hawaii State Golf Association’s 2020 schedule and the 2019 points were rolled over to determine the dozen picked to play on Monday in the first HSGA event since March.
After returning to San Diego for the fall semester, Kawai and Hirano practiced regularly at San Diego Country Club and The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and the Toreros played in three events in the fall season.
“I was kind of in a slump for the three tournaments, but in our final round in our final tournament I kind of found my game and just rolled with that,” said Kawai, who ranked second on the team in 2019-20 with a 71.8 scoring average.
Kawai returned home a week ago after finishing the fall semester at USD and parred 14 of his first 15 holes on Monday, the exception a birdie on the par-5 ninth. He gave back a shot on the par-3 16th and went to No. 18 a shot behind Hirano, who birdied No. 17 to get to 1 under in an undulating round that included six birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey.
Kawai’s approach to the par-5 18th came up just short of the green and he chipped to about a foot to set up a birdie. Hirano, playing in the following group, parred the closing hole and they returned to No. 1 for the playoff.
After opening birdies, Hirano extended the playoff by rolling in a 15-foot downhill, downwind putt on No. 2 and Kawai survived on No. 3 after hitting his drive into the rough.
Kawai found the fairway on the par-5 fourth and his 4-iron from 229 yards out came up 30 yards short of the green. A wedge settled about a foot from the pin and his tap-in birdie secured him a Jan. 14 tee time back at Waialae.
“Everybody’s game out here is good, that’s why they’re here,” Kawai said. “I’ve been in this qualifier before so I kind of know who to manage the emotions out there and I think that was huge.”
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