If you happen to be on Kauai today or Friday, Hawaii is hosting a world championship.
You might not know about it, but you probably know Wailua Municipal Golf Course. One of Hawaii’s most precious oceanside sites has been home for a trio of national championships. It was also home for national champions Guy Yamamoto and Casey Watabu, and David Ishii, the 1990 Hawaiian Open champ who won 14 times on the Japan PGA tour.
This week, the 13th World Deaf Golf Championships is at Wailua. The final round is Friday, with 111 golfers from a dozen countries competing, including the largest U.S. contingent in history. They brought about 100 friends and family with them.
The chair is 2013 Kauai High graduate Pono Tokioka, a two-time KIF champion. He put in Hawaii’s bid when England couldn’t host this year. It was scheduled to hold the bi-annual World Championships in 2020. That was postponed because of the pandemic.
The WDGC’s unique attributes hooked Tokioka from the first time he teed off in it as a 17-year-old a decade ago. He did not hesitate to commit hundreds of hours to bring the Championships home.
“When I played in my first WDGC tournament back in 2012, I fell in love with the atmosphere and meeting new people from all over the world,” recalls Tokioka, playing in his WDGC this week. “That was the first time I learned that other countries have their own sign language, which is completely different from my first language (American Sign Language).”
Oahu’s Gerald Isobe is playing his ninth WDGC and coming off a Super Senior title in Ireland in 2018. Punahou’s former JV golf coach made his World debut at the second WDGC in 1998, finishing second overall. He has traveled nearly 170,000 miles to play “challenging” courses at “world-class destinations” and make “new friends and connect with old friends” in a tournament whose appeal goes beyond words.
Isobe and Tokioka hope this week in Hawaii will go far beyond.
“I hope they are touched by the warmth, aloha spirit and multi-cultural population, the beauty of our islands, stunning golf courses, and the fun, fellowship and camaraderie that this tournament brings,” says Isobe, who has been inducted into the U.S. Deaf Golf Hall of Fame, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Sports Hall of Fame and McKinley’s Hall of Honor. “For the general public, I hope this brings recognition and raises awareness to the fact that the being deaf or hearing-impaired is not a disability.”
Isobe won the inaugural national championship in 1982. Tokioka’s eighth-place World finish in 2012 — he also was part of two team championships later — was sandwiched by fourths at the U.S. Deaf Golf Association Championships in 2011 and 2013.
Tokioka cherished his World debut and, even back then, the future University of Hawaii golfer was inundated by questions from his new friends about Hawaii hosting the event.
“I thought that would be a cool idea,” Tokioka says, “but I wasn’t serious at the time because I was still a teenager. Then, unexpectedly, I got an opportunity to host the WDGC this year and here we are.
“It just feels a little weird for me because literally my two worlds collide with each other at the same place and same time. The tournament is on Kauai where I was born and raised and over 200 deaf people from all over the world are coming to my home island. How cool is that?”
His organizational skills are evident all over the event’s website (wdgc2022.com), along with his love of the islands. There is tournament information, including live scoring, and all kinds of insights — including food truck schedules — for getting to know Kauai.
Tournament week started Saturday with arrivals at host hotel Royal Sonesta Resort. Along with golf, it includes the Opening Ceremony, last night’s luau — Tokioka hopes it was a “cultural shock, Friday’s closing dinner and free time dedicated to taking in Kauai.
Tokioka’s organizing committee consists of “me, mom and dad” (parents Beth and Jimmy, a state representative) and a few others from Kauai, the U.S. Deaf Golf Association and the Hawaii State Golf and State Junior Golf Associations.
They have brought in 20-plus sponsors, ranging from Matson and Aiea Bowl to construction groups, Garden Isle Disposal, Inc., Kauai Shrimp and HSJGA President Mary Bea King and her husband Charlie.
It is, according to HSGA Executive Director Paul Ogawa, a “huge deal.”
Tokioka’s goal is that this week will be “the best WDGC the players have ever been to, from the hotel to the golf course to the culture to the food, etc.”
When the USDGA announced Hawaii as a “unique and fantastic venue” for the World Championships in February, Tokioka’s video welcome came from Wailua’s iconic 17th hole next to the ocean, where he signed “I promise you this will be your best experience.”
What it means to him is difficult to describe in any language.
