COURTESY OF UH Pierre-Henri Soero will be the first golfer from UH to play in the U.S. Open when he tees up Thursday at Pinehurst.

U.S. Open gets a taste
of New Caledonia

It is very unlikely Pierre-Henri Soero will finish first among the field of 156 at the U.S. Open this week. But he becomes a first three times over when he tees it up Thursday at Pinehurst with playing partners J.P. Hayes and Jose-Filipe Lima.

Soero is the first golfer from the University of Hawaii to play in the Grand Slam event, according to UH sports information department research.

French journalists told Soero he is the first amateur from their country to play in the Open. The French claim Soero as their own because he is from New Caledonia, a South Pacific island protectorate of France near Australia and Indonesia. Also, he went to high school in Paris for two years.

Can we assume Soero is also the first golfer from New Caledonia to appear in the Open?

"Yes, that too," he said, before leaving Honolulu yesterday for North Carolina -- which has just one thing in common with his homeland: its initials.

Approximately 200,000 people live on New Caledonia, which was originally settled by the British and is known for exporting 25 percent of the world's supply of nickel (and other precious metals), and serving as a French penal colony in the 1800s. It was also a focal point during the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War II.

Soero, 21, who will be a junior at UH in the fall, said New Caledonia is like Hawaii in some ways. The climate is tropical, tourists abound and the resident population is cosmopolitan. Soero is part Indonesian and French.

He said the island is "about twice the size of the Big Island" and the World Factbook says it's "slightly smaller than New Jersey." Its total area is 7,624 square miles.

That's big enough for three golf courses, one adjacent to Soero's family's home in Noumea, the capital city of New Caledonia.

"It plays pretty good, it's beautiful. Right near the ocean with a lot of wind," Soero said.

He spent a lot of time on the course three years ago, when he took a year off after high school so he could learn English well enough to enroll at UH. (He was recruited by former Hawaii golfer Manarii Gauthier, who is from Tahiti.

"That year was very good for me," Soero said. "I grew a lot as a golfer because I had lots of time to work on my game."

He took up golf at 11. Before that, Soero was one of New Caledonia's best young athletes. He became a black belt just a few years after his first karate lesson at age 6, and triple-jumped 12 meters at age 12. Soero, who is now 6-feet-2 and 200 pounds, also played a little rugby. But he loved golf so much he gave up everything else.

He was about 15 when he first saw Tiger Woods play on TV, and Woods immediately became his favorite golfer.

Soero said his game improved when he went to Paris. He became friends there with Frederick Samade, who is now on the University of San Diego golf team. Samade agreed to caddy for Soero this week.

UH basketball player Pam Tambini, Soero's girlfriend, was on the bag when he earned his Open spot at Turtle Bay and Kaanapali qualifiers. She will be at Pinehurst, but as a spectator, Soero said.

So will Fabrice Ho, his coach in New Caledonia.

After qualifying for the Open on Monday, Soero took Tuesday off. Then he was back practicing again every day, at Honolulu Country Club and Koolau -- between phone calls from well-wishers and interview-seekers. He's enjoyed it, but also looks forward to the relative anonymity when he enters the orbit of Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els this week.

"I'm glad I have a couple days to practice," he said. "We'll see how the course is and then develop a strategy and go from there."

He knows that if he shoots 70-77 -- as he did at Kaanapali last week -- making the cut will be tough. Conditions won't be an excuse among the world's best.

"I'm a long hitter, but sometimes it's tough to keep it in play. My short game is pretty good right now, and my putting is improving," he said. "I know the greens there will be very tough."