The sound off the tee is pure.

Rare enough to be doubly appreciated. Kara Kaneshiro doesn’t say much about her superpower. At 5 feet, 2 inches tall, the Kalani senior does what she has always done since picking up the clubs as a 10-year-old.

Her average drive today is “about 265” yards, Kaneshiro said.

“I hit it a little further than the other girls I play with and I keep it in play for opportunities.”

Longtime junior golf coach Casey Nakama calls it speed.

“We have some players, they may not look bigger or stronger, they can just create speed — and Kara’s one of those players. Trying to hit the ball really hard, you have to have good core strength to swing the club fast. If she was a softball pitcher, she would throw the ball really hard,” he said.

Kaneshiro keeps working. She keeps smiling. Kaneshiro won the 2021 and ’22 Hawaii State Amateur women’s crowns. That includes a 65 on the course at Leilehua in 2021. She placed second in the event three weeks ago.

Also in ’21, she was the Hawaii State Junior Player of the Year and Women’s POY. Last summer, she carded an opening-round 65 and had the lead at the IMG Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines North Course.

“It was really fun,” she said.

One day, that road of sacrifice and training might lead Kaneshiro to her ultimate bucket-list destination.

“I really want to go to Tokyo Disney. I want to go to Japan. My main thing is to try all their foods,” she said. “I’m good with hole-in-the-walls. I want to travel. I’m really good at sleeping on the plane.”

After a decent-enough start to the OIA season, Kaneshiro has been in the zone. She won two weeks ago with a 68 at Barbers Point, then took last week’s tourney with a 67 at Ted Makalena.

“I enjoy the course. There’s a lot of birdie opportunities and you can go low. There’s a little bit of a breeze, so it wasn’t too bad,” Kaneshiro said.

When the pandemic wiped out high school athletics in 2020, it was a chance for Kaneshiro to recalibrate.

“COVID hit in the beginning of my freshman golf season. We didn’t have serious tournaments for about a year. It was a good mental break for me to just reset and start fresh. Prior to this break, I was feeling a little burnt out with frustration of not being able to shoot my desired tournament scores.”

There were a lot of reps at home during quarantine. Some teenagers learn a new life skill. Kaneshiro sharpened what she already had.

“I was able to identify what exactly I needed to do to become a better player. Being more mentally tough. More consistent. A better putter,” she said.

Her championship performance at the Hawaii State Amateur tournament in ’21 followed.

“That gave me the confidence for my game to start trending upward since then,” Kaneshiro said.

In ’21, the high school state championships were canceled again while the rest of the nation mostly played on. In ’22, Kaneshiro finished second in the HHSAA state tourney. Her pal from junior golf, Raya Nakao, took the crown. Kaneshiro and Nakao, a senior at Punahou, are part of the latest, elite group of college-scholarship players from the stable of golf guru Nakama.

“We’re like really close, like best friends, but we do get a little competitive out there,” Kaneshiro said. “In the end, we’re always happy for each other.”

Her Kalani teammate, Teal Matsueda, is another force of nature. The Boise State signee won the OIA tourney on March 8 at Oahu Country Club.

“To be honest, I can’t remember the first time I met Kara, but we really started to get to know each other when we started high school and played OIA tournaments,” Matsueda said. “She was one of the best golfers in the state already. She was and still is lots of fun to be around. From the beginning I remember her hitting the ball far and it literally amazes me.”

Their friendship grew through early mornings on the road.

“We roomed together at Girls Junior America’s Cup and had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning. When our alarms went off we didn’t move at all for like five minutes. Finally, we woke up only to snooze it,” Matsueda said. “Kara is the best teammate and my best friend because she is so caring and thoughtful. She always encourages others to do their best and tries her best to spread positivity. Kara is really clumsy and makes some really bad jokes, which makes it even funnier.”

Kaneshiro will be en route to Colorado State this fall.

“I was talking to a couple of other coaches, but I really like the (CSU) coach and team dynamic. They have really good practice facilities. Three home courses within a 15-20 minute drive,” Kaneshiro said. “An indoor performance center on campus. There’s a girl from Waiakea, a sophomore, Lacey Uchida.”

She is leaning toward business as a career.

“I’m undecided, but I’m kind of looking into business. I’d be content with an office job, maybe management,” she said.

That would be quite the scenario, an office employee who happens to be a perennial women’s amateur champion with a smoking-hot driver. The arrow is pointing up on a professional career in the future, though a future business plan might include golf and off-course training.

Kaneshiro took to a strenuous physical regimen in eighth grade and never stopped.

“I work out at Peak Performance. Right now we’re getting ready for college workouts. Front squats, dead lifts, iso lunges. We do 125 (pounds) for four reps of front squats. We do warmups, scorpions, windmills and jump rope,” she said. “We do medium (weights), but we’re working up to heavier weights. My fitness coach, Steven Lee, he personalizes our workouts for golf and knows us pretty well.”

The fitness mentality was natural for Kaneshiro, whose first sport was swimming.

“I was maybe 5 or 6. I swam competitively when I was 8 or 9 and stopped toward the ending of sixth grade to focus on golf more,” she said. “The swimming competitions were fun. I was a backstroker. Those were 50 and 100 yards. The practices were brutal. I was moving up in age groups and I would have to practice almost every day, so there wouldn’t be time to golf.”

Kaneshiro was good enough to make the state team for Kamehameha Swim Club. Kara’s mother, Lenora, noticed the difference when they talked about the two sports.

“Her response was, ‘What about golf?’ She always wanted to make sure to do that,” she said. “It became her passion.”

By the time Kaneshiro was in high school, her parents knew she was ready to take on a new level of preparation. Discipline started with mom, an elementary school teacher, and passion was channeled through dad Lance.

“My dad golfs for fun. He started after high school, just goofing around with his friends. I think he probably took me out for my first 18-hole round when I was 8, Hawaii Kai par-3 course. It was fun,” Kaneshiro recalled. “It gave us some bonding time.”

It didn’t take long for the offspring to surpass the elder.

“We would end up being competitive when I was 11 or 12. Maybe 11 is when I beat him. I think he was happy that his money and time and taking me to lessons was working,” she said.

Lenora Kaneshiro is among the ultimate chauffeur parents. There is no count for the mileage she racked up, toting her daughter to all points.

“She would get off work first to take me to practice after school. My dad was a retail manager at ABC retail stores, so his schedule wasn’t the most ideal, but I would go with him on his days off,” Kaneshiro said.

There was no compromise when it came to staying on point with school work, not with an educator at home.

“She always wants me to double-check it right away,” said Kaneshiro, who has a 3.875 grade-point average. “My mom was kind of strict with me on grades. Sometimes it’s a little difficult to study. I learned time management with practice.”

The repetition and mental discipline required to master golf — spelled flog backward — is normal in the minds of young phenoms like Kaneshiro. For others, it is less inviting, beyond the normal neurological limitations of the synapses.

For Kaneshiro, golf life is in her soul. It has taken her far beyond her island home.

“In 2022, I was on the mainland for a month playing in tournaments with my friends. It was a really fun month, the summer before senior year. I went to North Carolina, then San Diego, Kentucky and Montana. It was mostly golf, but the one in Montana, we had a bunch of team-bonding things we could do,” she said.

Nakama’s tutelage is as influential as ever.

“I found his golf development center and signed Kara up,” Lenora Kaneshiro said. “She loved it from the beginning. Coach Casey made it fun and challenging. She was hooked.”

Watching her daughter give back freely is what Lenora Kaneshiro cherishes.

“Kara volunteers to help kids in Coach Casey’s program. She also takes the time to talk to them at the range or on the golf course. It’s good that she can give back in a small way and, hopefully, will inspire others to also love the game,” she said.

Nakama didn’t play golf in high school. He was a standout basketball player at Moanalua who took up golf after graduation.

“I really thought I was going to coach basketball, not golf. Then, I got sidetracked into golf. Coaching golf is way more satisfying to me now. When they’re 10 and they don’t know how to play golf, and by the time they graduate, they’re the best in the state and getting scholarships,” he said.

“When Kara came into my program, she was nothing special, one of the girls,” Nakama said. “It was just normal. Then they’re qualifying for Junior Worlds, top five, barely making cuts and playing.

“Then, all of a sudden, probably from sophomore to junior year, Kara really got stronger and was really determined after coming back from Junior Worlds. She knew she was pretty good. When she won the (Hawaii State) women’s amateur tournament, a 65 on the last day, she drove from Leilehua to Mililani, where we were, and it was a surprise,” Nakama recalled. “Then she repeated the women’s championship the following year. She and Raya, Kara won in the playoff. At that point, you could tell she’ll get a Division I scholarship, playing at another level.”

Nakama doesn’t predict which of his young beginners will evolve into elite players, but Kaneshiro had a natural edge.

“The only thing she had going for her is she had speed and some power. Everything else, she had to work at. The short game — not natural, just average. She’s what we call a streak putter. Once it goes, she can go off. She can shoot 64, 65. That capability is special to players. She’s a good putter, but when that confidence gets going, she goes low,” he said.

Of all the intangible elements, Nakama has seen something unique in Kaneshiro.

“Deep inside, she’s what I call a believer. She believes that she’s pretty good. She has that confidence and she has that drive. All good players at that level have that determination. Great players, they hate losing more than they love winning. That’s why she has that ability to bounce back,” Nakama said. “If she has a round that’s OK, she’s going to come firing back the next day.”

Lance Kaneshiro will have memories of tooling around golf courses with Kara.

“I’m most proud of her attitude, being positive, letting a bad round of golf go, and focusing on what’s next,” he said.

He will miss watching her play up close.

“Having to support her from a distance, not seeing her every day,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get to see her compete in college.”

KARA KANESHIRO

Kalani golf • Senior

>> Top golf courses I’ve played: 1. Pinehurst No. 2. 2. The Club at Olde Stone. 3. Nanea. 4. Torrey Pines North.

>> Top 5 local golf courses: 1. Hualalai. 2. Hoakalei. 3. Leilehua. 4. Turtle Bay. 5. Hawaii Prince.

>> Top 3 golf courses I hope to play at: 1. Augusta National. 2. Pebble Beach. 3. Chambers Bay.

>> Top 3 toughest golf courses: 1. The Club at Olde Stone. 2. Pinehurst No. 2. 3. Hoakalei.

>> Best golf memories: 1. Starting Casey Nakama’s junior golf class when I was 7. 2. Traveling to Girls Junior America’s Cup twice and competing for Team Hawaii. 3. Leading the IMG Junior World Championships (after one round).

>> Gear: “I use the Callaway Rogue driver, Taylor Made P790 irons, Titleist Vokey Wedges and a Scotty Cameron putter. I have 14 clubs in total.”

>> Very superstitious? “My good luck charm is my Pink Panther headcover that I’ve had since I was 8.”

>> Top 3 movies/shows: 1. “Five Feet Apart.” 2. “Outer Banks.” 3. “Lemonade Mouth.”

>> Top 3 food/snacks/drinks: 1. Steak (Tanaka of Tokyo). 2. Pasta (Assagio’s, chicken parmesan). 2. Sushi (Shokudo, rainbow roll)

>> Top 3 homemade foods: 1. Steak. “Both my parents make it. My dad (Lance) makes it on the grill and my mom (Lenora) makes it on the frying pan.” 2. Chicken curry. “My dad makes it maybe once every two weeks.” 3. Fried rice. “My sister (Tori) and I make this together. We like using oyster sauce.”

>> Favorite class: Digital Media, seventh grade, Niu Valley Middle School. “I really liked making posters and learning how to use different tools in Photoshop.”

>> Favorite teacher: Mrs. (Lisa) Potterton, business. “I liked her sense of humor and the way she taught us in class. She would always check in on us and showed that she cared about our learning a lot.”

>> Favorite athlete/team: Viktor Hovland. “He’s very personable in his interviews and has a good attitude on the course.”

>> Funniest teammate: Teal Matsueda. “She just says some really random things at times and she can always bring the spirit of our team up. It’s just all over the place and it makes us laugh. Sometimes, she’s unintentionally funny.”

>> Smartest teammate: Teal Matsueda. “She’s pretty smart, too. She’s very book smart.”

>> GPA: 3.875. “My mom was kind of strict with me on grades. Sometimes it’s a little difficult to study. Time management with practice.”

>> Time machine: “I would go back to last summer (2022). I was on the mainland for a month playing in tournaments with friends. It was a really fun month, the summer before senior year. I went to North Carolina, then San Diego, Kentucky and Montana. It was mostly golf, but the one in Montana, we had a bunch of team-bonding things we could do.”

>> New life skill: “I learned how to make coffee two weeks ago. My sister taught me how to use her coffee machine, an espresso machine, so I can make a macchiato at home instead of going to Starbucks. Saves me a little bit of money.”

>> Bucket list: “I really want to go to Tokyo Disney. My main thing is to try all their foods. I’m good with the hole-in-the-walls. I want to travel. I’m really good at sleeping on the plane. I’m excited because this summer we’re going to Canada (British Columbia) and stay a little longer to enjoy it.”

>> Shoutouts: “My coach, Casey Nakama, I’ve been with him since I was 7. He’s brought me to where I am today and I’m very grateful.”