IT'S easy to understand why any golfer would be frustrated at being 14-over par through five holes. But the prospect of hitting that perfect shot, one so sweet you barely feel the club hit the ball, keeps you playing. Clearly, when it comes
to golf, Colton’s an aceColton Knedler of Aina Haina stood at the sixth tee on the Hawaii Kai executive course one day last week after taking a triple-bogey on the previous hole.
But Colton stepped up on the 73-yard No. 6, hit his tee shot and aced the bugger. With a new club. On the first real round he'd ever played in his life.
Colton is 6 years old.
"I hit it the other way and it hit a bank and rolled for the hole," Colton said yesterday. The ball hit the pin and dropped in the cup only when the wind blew the flagstick back.
Colton's mother, Erlene Marcus, explained that the two of them were going to just hit balls on the driving range that day, something they had done a few times together this summer. But the course wasn't crowded so they decided to play nine (Colton finished with a 54).
After the round, Colton had the clubhouse abuzz. "I said to my mom, 'Mom, it's just a hole-in-one. What's the big idea?' "
"I told his mom I'd be his agent," said Warren Leung, who was playing with them.
"People gave me one fifty," Colton said.
A hundred and fifty dollars?
"No. A dollar fifty."
Not Tiger Woods money, but a good start. Colton said he was going to save the money forever, "because Mom said it was the first money I made in golf."
He's going to get a new set of clubs out of the deal, though.
Colton had been playing with a set of cut-down clubs that a friend made for him. The day before his hole-in-one, though, Mom bought him a driver made by U.S. Kids Klubs.
After the ace, Erlene wrote to tell the company about it. They are going to use Colton's picture in a big golf expo coming up in Las Vegas and he'll get a complete new set of clubs from them.
Awesome, baby.
Pairings came out yesterday for the Maui Invitational basketball tournament and it looks like a good one. Twine time on Maui
Upsets can happen, of course, but Kentucky and Arizona are likely to meet in the semifinals. That should be a great matchup, a rematch of sorts of the NCAA championship game. Of course, Kentucky has a new coach, Tubby Smith, who took Georgia to the Rainbow Classic title last December.
Here are the first-round pairings: Chaminade plays Duke at 9 a.m. Nov. 24 in the opening game. That will be followed by Missouri vs. DePaul at 11 a.m., Arizona vs. Boston College at 2 p.m. and Kentucky vs. George Washington at 4:30.
The Arizona-Boston College game will be televised on
ESPN 2. The Chaminade-Duke and and Kentucky-George Washington games will be on ESPN, as will the semifinal and championship games the next two days.
As usual, that week is one of the busiest and best of the year. Let's see, there's the final of the Aloha Classic women's basketball tournament on Sunday, the Maui Invitational on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; the Western Athletic Conference women's volleyball tournament runs all that week; the Rainbow men's volleyball team plays exhibitions against Pepperdine on Wednesday and Thursday; the Wahine basketball team plays host to another tournament Friday, Saturday and Sunday; the Rainbows play Indiana to open the men's basketball season on Friday; UH-Hilo holds the Big Island Invitational, beginning Friday; the Prep Bowl is Friday; the Rainbow football team plays Notre Dame on Saturday and the Rainbows play either Illinois State or Northeast Louisiana in hoops on Sunday. Mark your calendars.
