Saturday, June 30, 2001

Ace sparks
11-year-old
Kono’s win

Another local pre-teen golf
sensation makes her mark

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By Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.com

Stephanie Kono's first question after winning the Hawaii State Women's Golf Association Match Play Championships yesterday was "Can I take my shoes off?"

The 11-year-old didn't fight the post-tournament tradition and was thrown into the pool after defeating former University of Hawaii golfer Desiree Ting 6 and 5 at the Oahu Country Club.

"I really didn't want to get wet, but it wasn't so bad," Kono said.

It was the first victory initiation for Kono, the youngest winner in the history of the match play championships, but it could be the beginning of more for the Punahou School sixth-grader.

Kono is the second 11-year-old girl to make a major impact on the Hawaii golf scene this summer. Michelle Wie qualified for the Manoa Cup and played in the National Publinx match-play championships for the second consecutive year.

Kono was already 2-up when she sank her first hole-in-one on the ninth hole, a par-4 for the women. The 220-yard drive landed short of the green, about 12 feet to the right of the pin, rolled up the green and dropped into the cup.

"I felt surprised," Kono said. "It was so shocking I couldn't even think at that time. And then after that, everything started going my way, so it was very lucky."

Luck had little to do with it. It was Kono's composure, the same calm she had shown all tournament long that prevailed.

Kono's mother, Lori, said that Stephanie has always been calm. She said being in a mixed-age classroom with older students added to her maturity.

It also helped that she didn't feel any pressure to win.

She met the first goal she set for herself when she qualified for the championship. Kono was a medalist at 73, the lowest score of all the players in the match play championships.

"It was good, but I never imagined that I would win," Kono said. "My first goal was to just make the cut. Once I did that, I wanted to get to the finals.

"I didn't really care what happened today. I play better when there's no pressure."

Ting definitely didn't put much pressure on her. She trailed by three before her birdie on the eighth hole, but Kono's hole-in-one ended any momentum Ting could have hoped to take into the back nine. She seemed to crumble after Kono's birdie on the tenth. And the match ended three holes later.

"I totally broke down," Ting said. "That wasn't me. I was mentally exhausted. I lost my concentration."

Though she was disappointed in her own play, Ting hugged Kono after the win and even helped throw her into the pool.

So what is the only thing that rattles Kono?

"I don't like it when (my parents) watch. They make me nervous," Kono said.

Kono's next competition is the Junior World Championships in San Diego from July 17-19.