For the first time in nearly 40 years, Hawaii will not have a women’s State Stroke Play champion. This year’s golf tournament, scheduled last week at Mid-Pacific Country Club, was canceled when only six players signed up.

"I was pretty bummed …," admitted Columbia junior Monique Ishikawa. "I am a member at MPCC so I am always looking forward to playing a tournament on home turf."

Only seven played last month’s State Match Play Championship, where Northwestern sophomore Kacie Komoto defended her 2013 title with a win over Pepperdine junior Alina Ching in the final.

Those impressive academic adjectives in front of the players’ names are one of the complications. Golfers who enter — and invariably win — the amateur-only Stroke and Match Play events are increasingly younger.

Juniors and college players have dominated Hawaii women’s majors the past 30 years. When Michelle Wie won her stroke play title in 2001, she was only 11, and beat golfers from Pepperdine (Rachel Kyono) and Tennessee (Anna Umemura).

You have to go back to 1982 and Lynne Winn — a mother of two at the time — to find a champ older than 20-something.

Back then, Hawaii’s juniors had only rare success nationally and few opportunities to play. The Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association eased age restrictions to allow them more chances.

For the past 20 years, and particularly since Wie and Tadd Fujikawa burst into the national spotlight, Hawaii juniors have had immense success on the mainland and in college. Some travel most of the summer to AJGA, USGA and other major events.

Scheduling has become a problem. Stroke play was a week later this year, which had an impact. Match play conflicted with the U.S. Women’s Public Links, which had seven Hawaii golfers qualify for match play, and a major Hawaii State Junior Golf Association event.

Another obvious problem is the lack of older participants in the majors. Komoto suggests adding an A flight to encourage golfers with handicaps of 5-10, along with a senior flight.

She and Ishikawa both believe there is a need to get the word out better and earlier heading into the tournaments, too — with help from the golfers. The high cost for neighbor island players also discourages golfers from playing.

Ideas to encourage more entries include offering an enticement similar to the amateur exemption the Sony Open in Hawaii provides, which would be difficult to duplicate. There is also the possibility of inviting players from other countries.

But then, would it be a true Hawaii amateur championship? And still, would the 20- and 30-somethings, and up, show up?

"I know how much time it takes to put into the game to be competitive and right now I don’t have the time to put in because of business and things like that," says Anna Umemura Murata, now 35 and still the only golfer to win all three majors in one year (1997). "And probably it’s just desire. The desire is not there to go through all that. I enjoy charity events and when people invite me I play, but tournaments, no."

The match and stroke-play championships trace their roots to the Territorial Women’s Amateur Championship that began at Oahu Country Club in 1924.

Early champions included teenage Codie Austin, Jackie Pung and Joan Damon, who all won four titles and are in the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. Ramona McGuire, another Hall of Famer, won five territorial titles.

Damon would win five more after statehood, despite stroke play’s absence from 1965-68, when she was still in her prime — and long out of school.

The event has immense history. HSWGA representatives are looking into ways of saving it, including different dates and combining it with USGA qualifiers. It has become complicated.

"We are currently in the process of changing these tournaments," HSWGA President Gwen Omori says. "We have not yet decided how the state match play and stroke play will look in the future."

Hawaii’s young players are only getting better. Earlier this month, University of Oregon senior Cassy Isagawa, a state high school champion at Baldwin, shot a scorching 62 from the red tees at Ka’anapali’s Kai Course to win the 60th Maui Women’s Invitational.

That ridiculously low number can be intimidating to some, but Hawaii juniors and collegiate players see it as a challenge. When they have a break in their hectic schedules, they enjoy playing Hawaii’s majors.

"I love to play in Hawaii during the summer because it helps to stay competitive and saves a lot of money to not have to travel as much," says Komoto, who just finished 18th at the Canadian Women’s Amateur. "My coach strongly recommends that we compete in tournaments as much as possible during the summer and Hawaii tournaments help us better prepare for the mainland tournaments we play."