It will be the old school versus the new class for the 100th anniversary of the Manoa Cup, starting on Monday at the O‘ahu Country Club. Hawai‘i’s oldest golf tournament will feature a field of veteran champions and some of
It will be the old school versus the new class for the 100th anniversary of the Manoa Cup, starting on Monday at the O‘ahu Country Club.
Hawai‘i’s oldest golf tournament will feature a field of veteran champions and some of the states best young golfers. Jack Omura, 1960 champion, and 1964 champion Art Fujita of Kaua‘i ate among the greats to play the tournament and challenging them will be the reigning high school state golf champion Alex Ching and Lihu‘e’s T.J. Kua.
Other past champions who are scheduled to join the field are 2007 winner Kurt Nino, Brandan Kop, Guy Yamamoto, Travis Toyama, Ryan Perez, Kellan-Floyd Asao and Jonathan Ota.
Promising young golfers such as Lorens Chan and David Fink of O‘ahu and Sean Maekawa of the Big Island will also compete.
The Manoa Cup will be played in match-play format with the winner, after this weeklong event, being fitted with a green jacket, much like at the PGA’s first major, the Masters.
Tradition has the winner being toasted with champagne and being tossed into the clubhouse pool.
“History and tradition make it special,” four-time champion Kop said in a release. “You play the same holes, the same course. You get your name engraved on the same trophy. In the state of Hawai‘i, there is no other tournament like this.”
Many of Hawai‘i’s greatest golfers have played in and won the Manoa Cup. Between 1920 and 1934, Francis H. I‘i Broan captured the title a record nine times. In a similar 15-year span, between 1961 and 1975, Ken Miyaoka won it six times. Kop, George H. Angus and Charles Makaiwa won four times.
Kaua‘i’s David Ishii, who won the PGA’s Hawaiian Open in 1990, won this tournament before going pro.
This year’s Manoa Cup begins with an 18-hole qualifying round on Monday, with 116 golfers vying for one of the 64 spots in Tuesday’s match-play competition. The banquet for the golfers will be tomorrow night at the country club.
History:
• Michelle Wie was the first and youngest female to qualify for match-play. She was 11 years old. At 12, she was the first and youngest female to advance to the second round.
• Francis H. I‘i Brown has the record for most victories (9).
• Brown and George H. Angus share the record for the most consecutive victories (4 — 1920-1923).
