[ THE MANOA CUP ]
Hee Beom Kim teed off in front of a rainbow during the Manoa Cup yesterday at Oahu Country Club. Kim beat Tad Fujikawa 2 and 1 to advance
Champs, kid
knocked outTwo former winners and a
13-year-old upstart didn’t make
the cut to the Manoa Cup
quarterfinals
Two former champions and a 13-year-old upstart were among the vanquished yesterday following the third round of the state amateur match play championship at the Oahu Country Club.
Brandan Kop and Guy Yamamoto, a pair of marquee names who have won six Manoa Cup titles between them, were ousted along with eighth-grader Tadd Fujikawa as howling winds and rain socked the hilly Nuuanu course.
"It was brutal out there today, really nasty," said 18-year-old Ryan Perez after he had turned back two-time champion Yamamoto, 5 and 4, to advance to today's quarterfinals.
Kop, a four-time winner of this event and the medalist in Monday's qualifying round, saw his hopes for a fifth title dashed by 25-year-old Shannon Tanoue, 2 and 1.
Fujikawa, an eighth-grader at Moanalua Middle School, made a valiant run against Hee Beom Kim, the low amateur in the 2003 Hawaii State Open, before losing 2 and 1.
Kim, a four-year veteran of the Hawaii-Hilo golf team, is an imposing 6-footer. He looked almost twice the size of the child-like Fujikawa, who is well under 5 feet. But the big guy was not taking the little guy for granted.
"I knew I couldn't underestimate him," said Kim, who made it to the semifinals of the 2002 Manoa Cup. "I figured he was good, but he was great for his age. He played solid golf all day long."
Kim didn't make things easy for Fujikawa, jumping out to an early 2-up lead when he birdied the first two holes. Fujikawa cut that lead to 1-up at the turn, but lost the 11th to a par to fall back to 2-down. The two golfers continued to trade holes on the back nine until Kim closed the youngster out with a birdie at 17.
"I wish I could have taken him to the 18th hole," an enthusiastic Fujikawa said. "But I did my best. I played really well today. I just ran into a great player."
The 13-year-old called playing in the Manoa Cup a "tremendous experience" and vowed to return next year. "My goal is to win this tournament as soon as possible," he said.
Tad Fujikawa urged on his putt on the 13th hole during the Manoa Cup yesterday. The 13-year-old was eliminated by Hee Beom Kim.
Sixteen golfers teed off in yesterday's third-round matches and among the survivors were two other past champions, Randy Shibuya and Damien Victorino. Shibuya, the winner in 2000, advanced with a 2 and1 win over Ryan Matsuda, while Victorino, the 1996 title holder, turned back Troy Hagashiyama, the 2003 state high school champion, 4 and 2.
Ex-champ Yamamoto, 43, won his first Manoa Cup in 1985 and repeated in 1992, but yesterday Perez was too much for him. The recent Moanalua High School graduate, who lost this year's state high school championship in a playoff, took a 4-up lead on the front nine when he won four consecutive holes, starting at the third.
Yamamoto got one back when he birdied 10. Had he not missed a short par putt at 11, he would have won that hole as well.
"That hole was pivotal," he said. "It would have gotten me back to 2-down with seven holes to play.
"I didn't execute when I had to today," Yamamoto said. "Take nothing away from Ryan. He played steady par golf. And with all the wind and rain, par was a good score."
Kop, who like Yamamoto is also 43, said he couldn't find his rhythm until the 15th hole, and by that time it was too late. Two down with two holes to play, he holed a 30-footer for birdie at 17, trying to extend the match. But Tanoue covered that birdie with one of his own from 12 feet to send Kop packing.
OCC member Ron Haranda, at 53 the oldest golfer remaining in the field, continued his remarkable run with a 4 and 2 win over Brandon Abreu.
"I'm playing a cut above my normal game," he said. "I've got my putter going."
Haranda called the third-round conditions awful. "The wind was gusting so hard, the rain was literally falling sideways," he said. "You had to play for the wind on your putts."
The veteran golfer said the uphill, par-5 13th was the turning point in his match with Abreu.
"I was 1-up at the time and my opponent was on the green in three, putting for a birdie," he said. "All he needed to do was two-putt for a par to win the hole."
Instead, Abreu five-putted the treacherous green from 20 feet to go 2-down.
"And he was below the hole," Haranda said. "It had to demoralize him."
Three holes later, Haranda closed out the match.
Also advancing yesterday were Doug Williams, who crushed former Army Amateur champion Todd Rego 8 and 6, and 43-year-old Maui golfer Lee Sakugawa, who escaped with a 1-up win over Garret Hayashi.
The Sakugawa-Hayashi match was the only one to go all 18 holes. Sakugawa, who is playing in his first Manoa Cup, spent most of the round coming from behind.
Three down after losing 11, 12 and 13, he rallied to win the next three and even the match. At 18, Hayashi overshot the green, while Sakugawa found the middle of the putting surface with his own approach and looked to have the advantage.
"But then a strong gust of wind came up and blew my ball right off the green," he said.
Sakugawa made bogey, yet still managed to win the hole -- and the match.
In today's quarterfinals it will be Shibuya against Haranda, with Perez taking on Williams in the upper bracket. In the lower bracket, Tanoue will be up against Kim. Victorino will face Sakugawa.
The tournament concludes with 36-hole semifinal- and final-round matches tomorrow and Saturday.
