Tuesday, June 9, 1998

Record Hawaii field
to play in Publinx

U.S. Women's Amateur
Public Links Championship

By Bill Kwon
Star-Bulletin

A Hawaii record field of 15 qualifiers will compete in the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship June 24-28 at Kapalua Bay -- the first time the national tournament has been held at a resort course.

It's the second time in the event's 22-year history that it will be held in Hawaii. The first was in 1983 at the Ala Wai Golf Course.

The local qualifiers are:

Christel Tomori, Kathy Cho, Loreen Kunisaki, Jamie Ige and Meryn Ito (Oahu); Dawn Kaneshiro and Desiree Ting (Maui); Melanie Matsumoto (Big Island); and Bev Kim, Mei Lin Poai, Melissa Shintani, Rachel Kyono, A.J. Nakamura, Kiilani Matsuyoshi and Dede Morikawa (Kauai).

The University of Hawaii golf team is well represented with Kaneshiro, Ting, Poai and Shintani. Cho and Matsumura, the state girls' high school champion from Waiakea, will enroll at UH this fall.

Tomori, a 1996 University of Oregon graduate from the Big Island, plans to turn pro following the event. Matsuyoshi, 12, figures to be among the youngest ever to play in the women's publinx.

A total of 132 golfers have entered the event, which calls for a 36-hole stroke-play qualifying the first two days. The 32 qualifiers will advance to match play, playing two matches on June 26 (Friday) with the quarterfinals set for Saturday. The semifinals will be held Sunday morning and the 18-hole final that afternoon.

Defending champion Jo Jo Robertson of Roswell, N.M., is seeking to become the first to win the women's publinx for the third time. Only three golfers have won it twice, including Hawaii's Lori Castillo Planos in 1979-80.

Planos, who plays out of Kapalua, was instrumental in helping to secure the first USGA championship on Maui.

Angie Yoon, who lost to Robertson last year in Pennsylvania, is also another exempt player in the field.