PO‘IPU BEACH — It was an easy day for golf fans yesterday as the 24th PGA Grand Slam of Golf started with the Champions Clinic and Pro-Am. After checking out the golf shop, celebrity chef Sam Choy of O‘ahu met
PO‘IPU BEACH — It was an easy day for golf fans yesterday as the 24th PGA Grand Slam of Golf started with the Champions Clinic and Pro-Am.
After checking out the golf shop, celebrity chef Sam Choy of O‘ahu met his Pro-Am teammate Travis Toguchi, 17, at the fourth hole.
“Travis, come here for pre-game pep talk,” Choy said to Toguchi. “Don’t get nervous now, I heard you were good. Just hit it long, you get it close and I’ll putt it in.”
Choy joked that even though the two of them were playing on a team with Ron Castillo, PGA president Brian Whitcomb and U.S. Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy, Toguchi was the real weight of the team.
“You’ll be our own horse,” Choy said.
The Kapa‘a High School senior was all laughs, blushing at Choy’s comments.
“I’m not nervous,” he said. “I’m just more excited to play.”
Teenage counterpart, Miki Ueoka, 17, from Kaua‘i High School, wasn’t nervous either. This is her second appearance in the Pro-Am. She played alongside six-time Grand Slam Champion Tiger Woods.
“Last year, my team finished 17 under par,” she said. “That’s real good. I don’t know how we’re going to do this year. I’m not really all that nervous. I just want to have fun and enjoy everything.”
To play in the Pro-Am, golfers must buy their way in. This year, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and the county of Kaua‘i teamed up to provide a Pro-Am opportunity for Toguchi and Ueoka, Kaua‘i Junior Golf’s players of the year.
Both teenagers played six holes with the pros.
Yesterday, the PGA of America donated a combined $50,000 to Kaua‘i Junior Golf and the Hawai‘i State Junior Golf Associaton. Those funds will be used to continue the organizations’ involvement with the annual tournament.
Each pro was spread out, teeing up at different holes with their amateur teammates. They started at Holes 1, 4, 8 and 14.
But that was the extent of the fun and games as the main event starts today with the course gates opening at 10 a.m.
• Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
