Dean Wilson first picked up a club — out of mother Grace’s bag — at Pali Municipal Golf Course when he was 13.
Without any introduction — he was unheralded as a junior and received zero college scholarship offers — but with outrageous resilience, he would eventually play professionally in 16 Asian countries and 46 U.S. States.
The Castle High graduate won six times and $6 million in Australia, Canada and Asia, collecting rookie of the year honors and major championships on the Japan PGA tour before breaking through in 2002 on his eighth try at the PGA Tour Q-School.
As a rookie there, he played with Annika Sorenstam in her historic appearance at Colonial. Wilson won the 2006 International in a playoff with Tom Lehman and collected nearly $9 million, and 20 more top-10 finishes, in 262 PGA starts.
In 2012, after he had golfed with 12 guys ranked No. 1 in the world and worked his okole off trying to catch up to them, he walked away quietly, just as he walked in.
Four years later he was inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame, where he lived 12 years while playing on tour.
Saturday, at Hawaii golf’s 12th annual Ho’olaulea Awards, Wilson became the 74th member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.
He was euphoric, which is saying an awful lot for a soft-spoken Kaneohe guy accustomed to flying high under the radar.
“If I was a dreamer,” Wilson said with a huge smile, “and you told me I’d golf in 46 states and 17 countries and play with a dozen No 1’s, I’d say that was pretty cool.”
To say nothing of ironic, here in the home he never really left no matter how long he was gone.
“Everywhere I go here people welcome me with open arms,” Wilson said during his acceptance speech.
Then he laughed out loud and continued: “Now I don’t pay green fees anywhere but Pali Golf Course.”
He got to know David Ishii, another Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer, when both played in Japan. Saturday Wilson thanked Ishii, and a few other close friends from Hawaii, for keeping him in the game when he got down on himself over there.
Ishii was happy to do it. After joking Saturday about Wilson’s penchant for “kicking his driver down the road,” he spoke of his friend’s first win, which came only weeks after he helped talk Wilson into sticking it out.
The victory changed Wilson’s life, giving him security and as much serenity as anyone can have when they grew up hitting two five-gallon buckets of balls a day at Bayview Golf Course, and figured the only way to keep up with the best tour players was to out-practice them.
Ishii said Wilson “just rode the wave” after that first win and matured into “a perfect example for all the kids in Hawaii.”
In return, Wilson told Ishii “you changed my life … you keep showing me the way.” The Hall of Fame duo will probably meet again on Japan’s senior tour next year. Wilson turns 50 in October and is exempt there.
He is excited about approaching the game from a very different angle.
“I’d really like to go play,” Wilson says. “I 100 percent think I could completely enjoy the game. It wouldn’t bother me if I played bad. I think I can go out and really enjoy it, see it from a different perspective and not be so hard on myself.”
When he is not here trying to win a fourth Hawaii State Open, cleaning up in the family’s Christmas golf tournament or hanging out with friends and family, Wilson lives in San Diego. He takes his 6-year-old son to Goat Hill Park to play.
The public course was saved by John Ashworth — founder of Freddie Couples’ Ashworth clothing — a few years ago. Wilson is now a part-owner, happy to take his son and dog to the 4,454-yard par-65 to play with persimmon clubs, surrounded by music and views of the Pacific Ocean … and beyond.
He has become mesmerized by the muni that will be home to the North County Junior Golf Association for at least the next 50 years, thanks to a new agreement, and also has a caddie academy.
Wilson has found golf heaven, far, far away from the professional tours.
“My idea now is to go to Japan and not looking at winning tournaments,” he says. “I’m looking at enjoying the game, enjoying where the game has taken me.
“What I notice about the senior tour is that’s what it is all about. They’ve all been there, done that. Now they are just thankful to continue the journey and keep playing. It seems like they are having a lot of fun out there.”
