Wednesday, February 4, 1998
What ever happened to Jackie Pung, Hawaii's first woman U.S. Amateur Golf Champion, who later became a touring professional golfer? Golfer Jackie Pung
lives on Big IslandThe first lady of Hawaii golf lives at Waikoloa on the Big Island. Hawaii's first golfer ever to win a national championship, she is known for opening golf courses at Mauna Kea and Waikoloa Village.
"I got off the tour in '64 and returned back to the Big Island," she said. "We needed to do a film for (the) Mauna Kea (course). That film was 'The Big Three' and that, of course, was Jack Nicklaus, Arnie Palmer and Gary Player."
She recalled: "Ted Makalena and I were the Hawaiians that opened up that golf course (in 1965)." Mauna Kea owner Laurance Rockefeller wanted two Hawaiians to open it, "so Ted and I were elected."
Today, she operates the Jackie Pung Golf Academy. "I do three-day workshops. I also do family golf at Waikoloa Village," she said. "I enjoy teaching."
Pung entered the Aloha Section PGA Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame in 1988. "I think God gave me a gift and that was golf," she said. "Now that I'm 76 years old and I started when I was 6 years old, I've played for 70 years."
Pung won the first of several Hawaiian Women's Amateur Championships in 1938 and won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1952, placing second in the 1953 U.S. Women's Open.
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