Sometimes Raya Nakao surprises even herself.
Needing just a two-putt from 40 feet to seal the women’s division title in the 113th Manoa Cup, Nakao put a firm stroke into the ball to send it over a ridge in Oahu Country Club’s 16th green.
The ball held its line all the way to the bottom of the cup to punctuate a 3-and-2 win over Kara Kaneshiro and add the Hawaii State Golf Association’s amateur match-play championship to the high school title she captured in May.
“My goal was just to get up there in tap-in distance,” Nakao said. “To see it drop, that was just surprising. All I could do was look at Coach Anna (Murata) and just stare a bit. It was a really nice way to end the match.”
That said, the rising Punahou School senior’s march through the week at OCC shouldn’t come as a much of a surprise given her performances in the ILH and HHSAA championships in the spring.
Nakao shot a 9-under-par 64 in Monday’s qualifying round to earn the top seed in the 16-player match-play bracket. She ended her first three matches before reaching the 15th tee and needed to go just a bit longer to fend off her best friend in Kaneshiro, the second seed.
Nakao, who committed in December to play college golf at Oregon State, trailed for just one hole in her four matches and lost just six of the 55 holes she played on her way to winning the Manoa Cup’s sixth women’s division crown.
“She’s on top of her game right now,” said Murata, a Punahou coach and Nakao’s caddie for the week. “It’s amazing to work with a player that we can talk about a shot, know what we want to do, and have the player execute that shot. … Not very often do you have a player that good who can do that.
“Helping her was easy. We just talk about a plan and it was awesome to watch, really.”
Nakao, in turn, credited Murata for keeping her on track mentally throughout the grueling hikes along the hilly OCC layout and getting her pointed in the right direction on the greens, particularly coming off some recent struggles with the flat stick.
“I just had really good reads on some putts and the line Coach Anna gave me, it always just felt right,” Nakao said. “And when my line feels right I can put a good stroke on it. … When I feel good, it usually drops, so it was just the confidence in putting.
“Right before this I had a really bad stretch of putting. I think I just wasn’t being confident enough and second-guessing myself with what line I wanted to start it on. But having someone to help me and tell me what they think reassured me in what I thought as well.”
Even given the head-to-head nature of match play, Murata noted Nakao’s ability to keep her attention trained on her own game rather than drifting to her opponent’s.
“I think the turning point was at (the ILH championship),” Murata said. “She kind of had a moment where she was starting to play against the other girls in her leader group. We talked mid-round and said ‘You can’t focus on them, you have to focus on you and what you have to do.’ … So she got to be aware of that and experience that and conquer that feeling.”
Nakao went on to win the ILH title by six shots at Pearl Country Club, then captured the state title by nine strokes with a two-round total of 9-under 131 at Ka‘anapali in early May.
Kaneshiro, a senior-to-be at Kalani, placed second in the state championship and again found herself in a final pairing with Nakao on Friday. The duo have played and practiced together since starting lessons with Casey Nakama close to a decade ago.
“I was just really happy to have a chance to play against Raya,” said Kaneshiro, who has committed to Colorado State. “We always have fun out there. We’re always competing and we practice all the time. She always pushes me to get better.”
Nakao went 2 up after three holes in Friday’s final and didn’t give Kaneshiro many openings for a comeback as they weathered a mid-round downpour in Nuuanu. Nakao went 3 up with a birdie on No. 10, gave it back with a bogey on 11 and finished the round with her long putt on 16. She conceded Kaneshiro’s birdie putt, accounting for the final margin, and they shared a hug on the green and again in the trophy ceremony.
“We know how to be playful off the course and competitive on the course,” Nakao said of playing with Kaneshiro. “We still can have some fun in between shots, we can laugh abut things. After each match we’ve been eating together and hanging out. I don’t think it’s difficult to balance that relationship, but it definitely makes matches a lot more fun to play against your best friend.”
