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Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Friday, May 26, 2000

GOLF WATCH

Manoa Cup field
may be one of best

TRADITION is terrific. But it can only go so far.That's why you've got to give the Oahu Country Club a lot of credit.

As sponsor of the oldest continuous golf tournament in Hawaii - the Manoa Cup, which dates back to 1907 -- OCC knew that the times they were a changin', as Bob Dylan said.

So when the prestigious match-play event began losing Hawaii's top amateur players because it conflicted with the qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Men's Public Links Championship, OCC decided to do something about it.

That's why this year's Manoa Cup was moved to June 5-10 instead of its usual mid-July date on the local golf calendar.

"We did it to avoid a conflict with the Publinx qualifying and to strengthen the field," said Andrew Feldman, OCC's director of golf.

In previous years, Hawaii's top amateur golfers had to commit either to trying to qualify and making the nationals -- slated July 10-15 in Portland, Ore., this year -- or playing in the Manoa Cup.

Now they can have the best of two worlds.

Not surprisingly, the 2000 Manoa Cup will have one of its best-ever fields.

Shane Hoshino will be back to defend his title.

Other former winners entered are four-time champion Brandan Kop, two-time champion Guy Yamamoto, Damien Victorino (1996), Dick Sieradzki (1990), Curtis Kono (1987), Art Fujita (1964) and Jack Omuro (1960).

Other top amateurs in the field include Kendall Fukumoto, Sean Doi, Paul Kimura, Jonathan Ota and Jaime Matsumura.

THIS year's date change isn't the first new wrinkle in the Manoa Cup -- symbolic of the Hawaiian Amateur Golf Championship.

It used to be a stroke play event until 1926 before it became a match-play tournament ever since.

Now it's the most demanding local golf tournament.

It's a tournament that Casey Martin can never win, because all contestants are required to walk the hilly, par-71 Nuuanu Valley course.

It will be even more difficult this year because there's no break after Friday's 36-hole semifinals.

For the first time, the 36-hole finals will be held on a Saturday, instead of the traditional Sunday finish.

The times, they are certainly a changin'.

ROYAL OPENING:

Can it be that golfers will finally be able to play the Royal Kunia Golf Course in Waipahu six years after completion?

The course -- never opened to the public because the developers didn't pay the remaining $13 million (of the original $25 million) impact fee -- was sold for $11 million last week after it had been through foreclosure, receivership and close to being condemned by the city.

Whether its new owner, Liongain Hawaii Inc., will have to pay the rest of the controversial and outlandish impact fee remains to be seen.

The course - a great one designed by Robin Nelson - is there. Let's play it.

According to Nelson, at $11 million, the new owners got a "hell of a bargain."

"It's great that it can be finally opened to the public," he said. "I just played it two, three weeks ago.

"The fairways are immaculate and the course can be opened for play right away."

Designer of a number of top-rated golf courses in Hawaii, including Mauna Lani, Ewa International, Coral Creek, the Grove Farm on Kauai, and Maui Dunes, Nelson says Royal Kunia is "definitely one of the best" he has done.