In The Wood
Retired Star-Bulletin staffer Lyle Nelson, reading that I played my first round of golf at Ala Wai 50 years ago, recalls with his amazing memory and golf course records the difference between playing the Ala Wai today and 50 years ago when he first played the course. Lyle Nelson wants
Ala Wai to measure up
"Ala Wai is out of balance," Lyle said. "It is 623 yards shorter today than in 1950."
He said that in the late 1980s, holes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were taken out and what he calls "easy holes" 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 went in. "No. 2 in 1950 is No. 6 today, he said. "In addition, No. 1 was reduced from 380 yards to 348 and No. 6 from 429 to 355. No. 10 was trimmed from 534 to 480, No. 15 reduced from 190 to 163, No. 17 increased from 337 to 364 and No. 18 reduced from 415 to 360.
Lyle has score cards for proof. He has at least one card from every course he has ever played.
"These are better, bigger, easier greens to hit today than 50 years ago," Lyle continued. "In those days the greens were small and flat, hardly receptive to the wedge. The Ala Wai guys (editor's note: guys who were sometimes called bandits) used a famed run-up shot because the greens were like concrete.
"It was a tough course then. The old No. 3 was a tough, long par-3 and No. 4 and 5 were long. No. 7 ran along the fence headed ewa.
"I covered the 1960 National Publinx. With all those good golfers. With the USGA making Joe Guerrero lay on two applications of fertilizers to jazz up the roughs, no one in the 36-hole qualifying portion could break par. Only one guy matched par-71 in one round, Mike Andonian, a schoolteacher from Pontiac, Mich."
Lyle can't understand why a pond was built in back of No. 2 during the makeover.
"On a thousand golf courses in Florida, the pond is put in front of the green," he said. "A quick fix: Build a new green on No. 2 in back of the pond, move No. 3 tee to the left along the course boundary fence."
Lyle played the Ala Wai 50 years ago and shot 100. Recently, at age 77, he shot 83 there because, he said, the course is so easy now.
Lyle is an athletic senior. He ran the last Honolulu Marathon.
NFL fans who want to play golf with some of the former pro stars should enter the Christian Okoye Foundation tourney at Koolau Friday. The $125 entry package includes green and cart fees, awards reception with pupus and more. Call Emi Espinda at 236-4653 ext. 223 to enter.
Singer-restaurateur Iva Kinimaka, 61, fired his first hole-in-one last week on Bay View's 109-yard 6th hole using an 8-iron. Iva was playing with his son Hale, Johnny Fernandez of Society of Seven Las Vegas and Chad Anke. After the round, Iva bought pitchers of beer for everyone in Kaniela's at Bayview and sang karaoke with the gang into the night.
Ben Wood, who played his first round of golf at Ala Wai
50 years ago, vows to learn how to play the game well even if
it takes another 50 years. E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com.