Mid-Pacific's ace

Course superintendent Amoy and his crew worked hard to get the Country Club in playing shape

THE RAIN that bombarded the islands for more than a month created havoc for every golf course in Hawaii and left a lot of people wondering whether this year's Mid-Pacific Open will go on as scheduled.

Well, thanks to Jason Amoy, it will.

MID-PACIFIC OPEN When: Tomorrow-Sunday Where: Mid-Pacific Country Club Defending champion: John Lynch PAST CHAMPIONS 2005: John Lynch 2004: Reagan Lee 2003: Reagan Lee 2002: Reagan Lee 2001: Larry Stubblefield 2000: Beau Yokomoto 1999: Greg Meyers 1998: Keith Kollmeyer 1997: Greg Meyers 1996: Casey Nakama 1995: Brandan Kop 1994: Darren Doi 1993: Lance Suzuki 1992: Lance Suzuki 1991: Jeff Richardson 1990: Greg Meyers 1989: David Ishii 1988: No tournament 1987: Lance Suzuki 1986: David Ishii 1985: Richard Martinez 1984: Lance Suzuki 1983: Lance Suzuki 1982: Wendell Tom 1981: Lance Suzuki 1980: Allan Yamamoto 1979: John Kalinka 1978: Lance Suzuki 1977: Lance Suzuki 1976: Allan Yamamoto 1975: Charles Barenaba 1974: Ron Castillo 1973: Larry Lee 1972: Larry Stubblefield 1971: Chipper Garriss 1970: Rick Weihe 1969: Joe Carr 1968: Allan Yamamoto 1967: No tournament 1966: Jerry Barber 1965: Jesus Rodriguez 1964: Paul Scodeller 1963: Jerry Barber 1962: Paul Scodeller 1961: No tournament 1960: Al Greer 1959: Paul Scodeller 1958: Ted Makalena 1957: Ted Makalena 1956: Guinea Kop Note: The winning pro will take home $12,500 of the $60,000 purse . . . The top 22 in all flights will be awarded money or gift certificates.

"When it first started raining I wasn't too concerned," said Amoy, the golf course superintendent at the Mid-Pacific Country Club, site of the four-day tournament that begins tomorrow. "But when it kept on raining, that's when I started to get concerned.

"When that low pressure just kept hanging around and hanging around, that wasn't good news," he added.

"And we watched the satellite, the radar, every day and when we saw what was coming up that Friday morning (March 31), it looked like it was going to come across the southern side of the islands and that's when I was really concerned. I could just imagine a course that was already extremely saturated to go through several inches of rainfall in one event, that's what really concerned me.

"At that point you kind of throw your hands up in the air. You know you lost the battle. It's all damage control at that point."

HARDEST HIT, said Amoy, were the 12th and 15th fairways.

Nestled in a low-line area next to innocent looking slopes of a mountain, tons and tons of rock came crashing down on the course, making the 15th and 16th fairway resemble a rock quarry. And with all the rocks came an endless rush of water and mud that flowed through both fairways all the way to the 12th.

That part of the course was so bad one MPCC member said a portion of the 12th fairway was dubbed Lake Lanikai.

"All you could see was water," Vince Yim said.

Amoy, a Kamehameha Schools graduate who got a horticultural degree from the University of Hawaii and has been at MPCC for 3 1/2 years, said all he could do was wait until it stopped raining. And when the rain finally subsided, he didn't waste any time getting the course competition-ready.

"We let the course drain out over the weekend," Amoy said.

"And the following Monday the guys were out there and we were able to start shoveling sand into the bunkers. Obviously we had a lot of pumping of water off the course and the pick up of tons of rock debris (and) mud debris started almost immediately in the areas we could get to.

"But really, we were sitting on one hand waiting for the ground to dry.

"We did what we could at the time. But our priorities was kind of clear the way (of rocks, mud and debris) and let things dry up in the meantime."

Mowing, he said, was out of the question.

"We couldn't get any kind of heavy equipment out there," said Amoy.

"The ground was so soft and saturated," he added. "Just merely walking on the turf left muddy footsteps and damage so taking heavy equipment out there was almost nonexistent."

The 15th fairway was still not mowed as of last Thursday because there were still patches of standing water on the 388-yard, downhill, dog-leg right par-4 hole.

But thanks to a little more sunshine, less rain and some wind, Amoy said the course should be fit for play.

"I WISH WE didn't go through as much rain as we did," said Amoy, who started out at the Koolau Golf Course before moving on to The Experience at Koele on Lanai, Mamala Bay in Kaneohe and the Waialae Country Club. "The course won't play the way I would have liked the course to play. We simply ran out of time.

"But I think the course will play well. It's going to present a tremendous challenge."

Amoy said most of the credit should go to his crew, who has been out on the course working 12 hours a day to get the 6,792-yard, par-72 layout ready for play. The other factor, Amoy said, is the weather cleared up.

"And it cleared up in a hurry," he said.

Amoy's work has not gone unnoticed.

MPCC head pro Mark Sousa said he was amazed at how Amoy and his crew cleaned up the course and made it presentable for this week's competition.

"He's like our ace in the hole; a miracle worker," said Sousa. "The club is very fortunate to have him."

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On the PGA Tour

HOUSTON OPEN

Site: Humble, Texas
Schedule: Tomorrow-Sunday
Course: Redstone Golf Club, The Tournament Course (7,422 yards, par 72)
Purse: $5.5 million
Winner's share: $990,000
Television: USA (Thurs.-Fri.), CBS (Sat.-Sun.)
Last year: Vijay Singh won the tournament for the second straight year and third time in four years, beating John Daly on the first hole of a playoff. Singh and Curtis Strange are the only three-time winners in tournament history.

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On the LPGA Tour

FLORIDA'S NATURAL CHARITY CHAMPIONSHIP

Site: Stockbridge, Ga.
Schedule: Tomorrow-Sunday.
Course: Eagle's Landing Country Club (6,401 yards, par 72)
Purse: $1.6 million
Winner's share: $240,000.
Television: None
Last year: Annika Sorenstam won the fourth of her 10 2005 LPGA Tour titles, finishing at 23-under 265 for a 10-stroke victory. She shot 67-64-67-67.
Last week: Lorena Ochoa rebounded from a playoff loss in the Kraft Nabisco with a wire-to-wire victory in the Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas.

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LINK UP IN HAWAII

APRIL

» 19-23: Mid-Pacific Open, Mid-Pacific Country Club. 261-9765.

» 28: Na Kekoa Kane Cooperstown Baseball team, Hawaii Prince. Information: 368-3554

Source: 808golf.com

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LOCAL ACES

NAME	RESIDENCE	COURSE	HOLE	YARDS	CLUB	DATE
Franklin Kamihara	Kaneohe	Makaha Valley CC	2	140	9-wood	April 16
Richard Wight	Waipahu	Makaha Valley CC	13	170	5-iron	April 16
Hiroki Kawakami	Honolulu	Pearl Country Club	13	175	5-wood	April 16
Erin Choi	Torrance, Calif.	Ewa Beach GC	16	101	5-iron	April 11

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