Rearview Mirror: Francis I‘i Brown was Hawaii’s golf royalty

I enjoyed seeing Tiger Woods return to the Masters last weekend, and it reminded me of a local golfer who did something similar in 1934. His name was Francis I‘i Brown.

Both Woods and Brown were involved in serious car crashes while in their 40s. Doctors told them their leg injuries might prevent them from playing competitive golf again. But both returned to the links within two years. Let’s look at them.

Tiger Woods

One of the greatest golfers ever was born Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods in 1975 in Cypress, Calif. He became a professional golfer in 1996 at age 20, and in the next year won three major PGA tournaments, including the 1997 Masters.

In less than a year, he was the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world. Since then he’s won 82 PGA Tour events and 26 others.

On the morning of Feb. 23, 2021, in Los Angeles, Woods’ car went off the road, hit a tree and rolled over several times. The 45-year-old shattered an ankle and had two leg fractures.

Nine months of rehabilitation later, he hit golf balls for the first time. He entered the 2022 Masters Tournament 14 months after the accident and was in 10th place after the first day. He finished 47th.

While watching him play, I couldn’t help but think of a local Hawaii golfer whose life shared some parallels with Tiger Woods.

From an alii family

Francis Hyde I‘i Brown was born in 1892 to a wealthy alii family. Brown’s grandfather was John Papa I‘i, who was a friend and adviser to Kamehameha II and III. His estate included the vast Waipio Ahupuaa near Pearl Harbor.

Brown held only one job and worked at it for just three days, recalled his nephew, the late Zadoc Brown Sr., in a 1979 interview. His mother had gotten him a job with Castle & Cooke in the mailroom.

“The first day on the job, Francis arrived driving a shiny new Simplex sports car,” Brown said. In today’s dollars the car would have cost over $100,000.

“Mr. Tenney, the vice president of the company, took him aside and told him he didn’t think it was proper for Francis to be driving a car that was more impressive than the president’s.

“Well, Francis decided he didn’t like working there anyway and quit. And so, getting in his car, he departed for the Oahu Country Club where he took up golf.”

Though short in stature, Brown was a natural athlete. He was talented at tennis, swimming, polo, baseball, football and particularly golf.

Within two years he won his first Hawaiian Amateur (Manoa Cup) tournament in 1920. He then went on to win it the following three years, and then five of the next 10 years.

Honolulu Advertiser sportswriter Monte Ito said Brown “was an international figure who was equally at home in Scotland or at Pebble Beach. And he was as well known in Japan as in the United States.”

He set course records at Pebble Beach, Calif., and St. Andrews in Scotland, shooting a 62 in a practice round before the 1924 British Open.

A crash in Waikiki

His time on the golf links almost came to an abrupt end in 1933. In February of that year, Brown was driving home on Kalakaua and Beachwalk avenues when a car turned into his lane.

Brown veered but collided head-on with another car and was thrown 15 feet. He fractured his pelvis and ended up with a left leg 2 inches shorter than his right. His weight dropped to under 100 pounds, and his doctors said he’d never play competitive golf again.

He sat out the 1933 championship, recuperated and entered in 1934. In a close contest he beat Hawaiian golf star George Nahele. In his coverage of the contest, Advertiser sportswriter Red McQueen said the best efforts of golf’s greatest figures “couldn’t compare with Brown’s golf of yesterday.”

During his lifetime he had 14 holes-in-one. Brown owned homes in Kahala and Pebble Beach, and a Big Island estate where the Mau­na Lani Resort is today. The two courses there were named for him.

Love but not marriage

Winona Love was a grandniece of Queen Kaahumanu. She became a professional hula dancer at age 14 and danced at the grand opening of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927. She graduated from McKinley High School in 1929.

Her dancing greeted many ships during Hawaii’s “Boat Days,” and she performed for Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Ruby Keeler, European royalty and many others.

When Brown was hospitalized after the 1933 car crash in Waikiki, Love and others came to dance, sing or entertain him. He was 41 and she was 22. They fell in love, and from then on the two were inseparable.

“Winona Love was one of Hawaii’s beauties,” Honolulu Advertiser columnist Sammy Amalu wrote in 1976.

“Her hulas were entrancing, and her graciousness as a hostess was renowned. Her love for Francis I‘i Brown — legislator, philanthropist and sportsman — was a story-book romance without the usual ending of marriage.

“Their life together was the greatest romance, the greatest love story that Hawaii has ever known. Their young love would illuminate an entire room. And that love lasted and strengthened over the years. Time did not dull its ardor nor custom stale its piquancy. With each year, the love of Francis Brown and Winona Love became more and more precious.”

An impromptu trip

Marguerite “Sis” Widemann told newspaper columnist Ben Wood her favorite Francis Brown tale. She and her husband, Parker, and Bishop Museum curator Lahilahi Webb, along with Lizzie Bayless, Winona Love and Brown, went to Queen’s Surf to hear Andy Cummings’ group, which included Joe Diamond, Ralph Alapai and Gabby Pahinui.

“After closing the place, they piled into Brown’s limo and were driven to Honolulu Harbor and onto the freighter Mahukona, car and all. A millionaire such as Brown had a lot of clout.”

Sis remembers they were all laughing, thinking they were going to cruise around the harbor. “But Brown had the ship take them all the way to his Big Isle hideaway where the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel now stands.

“The ship steamed away and there they were. In those days there was no telephone there, and the only way in or out was by sea. The ship did not return for them until a week later. They had no way to contact their families, employers or anyone. But no one was worried and no one sent out search parties because everyone in town knew they were out with Brown.

“They had one helluva week, Sis remembers, and Francis thought it was a great joke.”

Statesman, businessman

Brown was elected to the territorial legislature from 1925 until 1967. He became president of the Hawaii Islanders minor league baseball team in 1963 after he and other community leaders united to provide the financial backing to keep professional baseball in Hawaii.

He died in 1976 in Pebble Beach at the age of 83. When he was inducted into the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame in 1978, Brown was affectionately called “Mr. Golf of Hawaii.”

Crooner Bing Crosby loved to golf in Hawaii, and he and Brown became good friends. He said the man he most admired and wanted to be like was Francis I‘i Brown.

———

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “Companies We Keep” books. Send him your questions or suggestions at Sigall@Yahoo.com.