Hawaii Beat
Star-Bulletin staff
|
Watabu misses U.S. Amateur cut
DALY CITY, Calif. » Casey Watabu of Kauai failed to qualify for the match-play field at the U.S. Amateur championship at the Olympic Club yesterday.
The Kapaa native carded rounds of 79-77 to finish at 156, nine strokes off the 147 cut line.
Jason Kokrak, of Warren, Ohio, led all qualifiers by shooting 69-68--137. His stellar play carried on into his first match, a 2-and-1 victory over A.J. Oleksak, of Agawam, Mass.
"I was trying to play aggressive today," said Kokrak. "But overall I tried to stick to my game plan of hitting 3-irons and 3-woods off the tee."
Due to a fog delay Monday, the final 64-man match-play field wasn't set until early yesterday morning, when the 315 entrants were finally done with 36 holes of stroke play.
Lynch repeats in Turtle Bay match play
John Lynch defended the title he won in 2006 by winning the Aloha Section PGA's Turtle Bay Match Play Championship yesterday with a 4 and 3 win over Kirk Nelson.
Lynch birdied Nos. 11, 15 and 16 on the Arnold Palmer Course to lock up the win.
Ron Kiaaina Jr. of Makaha Resort won the senior division championship.