LIHU‘E — After three playoff holes, Brian Sasada of Makena Golf Course rolled in his putt for par to break the tie with Kevin Hayashi of the Mauna Kea Resort, at the 2005 Aloha Section PGA Club Professional Championship. After
LIHU‘E — After three playoff holes, Brian Sasada of Makena Golf Course rolled in his putt for par to break the tie with Kevin Hayashi of the Mauna Kea Resort, at the 2005 Aloha Section PGA Club Professional Championship. After 36 holes in a field of 33 players, three golf professionals, Brian Sasada, Kevin Hayashi and Paul Ito had two-day combined scores of 145 to force the playoff.
All three players made par on the first playoff hole. On the second playoff hole, Paul Ito, Director of Golf at Puakea Golf Course bogeyed the par 4, 438-yard, 9th hole to secure third place. Hayashi and Sasada then played out the first hole again to break the tie for first place. All three players will advance to next year’s national event to be held in the spring on the mainland.
Sasada, who played with a broken rib, shot 74-71 for the two rounds and will take home $2,000 for his win. “Puakea is a nice golf course. It’s more about placement off the tee and being able to read the greens here.” Sasada went on to say, “My goal was to make ‘em on the fairways and stay out of trouble — make a few putts. That’s all you can hope for.” At a par 72, Puakea plays almost 7,000 yards and Sasada’s round today was the only of 66 rounds that was under par for the two-day tournament.
“I came to Puakea to play and support this event. This is one of our largest events of the year, and it was great to be a part of it,” Kevin Hayashi, stated. “I played pretty solid, but struggled on the greens, as you saw on that final playoff hole.”
“Puakea Golf Course is a course where you need to be creative with your shots and use different shots throughout your round,” stated Ito. “We are honored to host the Club Professional Championship this year and Puakea proved to be a great testing ground for the national event. In addition to the two-day golf tournament, the weekend’s festivities are a great way for the state’s golf professionals to network and have fun together.”
The tournament is sponsored by Titleist, FootJoy, Club Car, Greg Norman and Cobra Golf.
