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Saturday, April 15, 2000
Yokomoto holds
By Bill Kwon
slim lead at
Mid-Pac Open
Star-BulletinBeau knows golf. And he knows there's still a lot of golf left, too.
Beau Yokomoto shot a 4-under-par 68 yesterday for a 36-hole score of 141 and a one-stroke lead in the Mid-Pacific Open.
One can't blame Yokomoto, who's looking for his first major victory locally, for sneaking a peek over his shoulder at those immediately behind him going into today's third round at the Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.
In second place at 142 is eight-time Mid-Pac Open champion Lance Suzuki, whose 69 was the day's second-best round.
Tied for third at 145 are Kevin Hayashi, winner of the past two major tournaments locally, and Casey Nakama, who won at Mid-Pac in 1996.
Lance Taketa, who played with Yokomoto the first two days, was at 146 with a 71 yesterday.
"Beau, if you had parred the 18th hole you'd be leading by eight strokes," Taketa told the 34-year-old Pearl Country Club teaching pro.
Well, maybe not eight, but a lot more than one stroke.
Yesterday, Yokomoto bogeyed the 18th, a 412-yard, par four that plays straight into a wind tunnel. The first day, he double-bogeyed it.
He also bogeyed the 16th, a testy dog-leg right up the hill, two days in a row.
"There are a few holes out there that are catching me," said Yokomoto, leaving shortly for the Canadian PGA qualifying school. "I've got to figure them out."
The 37th annual tournament ends tomorrow with the top professional winning $6,000, which converts to a lot more in Canadian dollars.
Meanwhile, Suzuki credited a return to his old putting style for one of his best Mid-Pac rounds in years, finishing with a bogey-free 32 on the back nine.
"My putting was holding me back," said Suzuki, who had won the event for the eighth time back in 1993.
He rolled in birdie putts at 10, 12, 14 and 16 -- the latter an 18-footer.
"Today was a couple of shots easier," Suzuki said about the playing conditions as the trades weren't as brisk as Thursday.
Still, the wind made every putt an adventure. Even 2-footers weren't gimmes.
Hayashi survived a bad-swing day with a 2-under 70, giving back only one stroke to par when he bogeyed the sixth hole after birdieing the par-5 fifth with its island green.
The Hilo Municipal pro sank a 6-foot birdie putt at the par-3 11th and two-putted for birdie at the par-5 12th before parring in the rest of the way.
His most interesting par came at the narrow par-4 17th after he dubbed a 2-iron that went only 130 yards. He got on from 206 yards out with a 3-iron and nearly sank a 20-foot birdie putt.
"It was that kind of a day," said Hayashi, 37, who will leave in June to play on the Golden Bear Tour in Florida.
But he's definitely back on track to make it three local majors in a row.
He'd especially like to add the Mid-Pac Open, which he has never won, to his list.
"I'm just trying to pace myself, work myself back into this tournament," Hayashi said.
