×

HSJGA gets creative to resume play

Island-by-island match play to start next month; Wie TOC tentatively set for December at Wailea

Dillon Jonke of Kihei hits a shot on the first hole during the first round of the Michelle Wie HSJGA Tournament of Champions on Dec. 7 at the Wailea Emerald Course. Jonke went on to win the boys 13-14 division. This year’s Wie Tournament of Champions is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 5-6 at Wailea Golf Club. The Maui News / DAKOTA GROSSMAN photo

The first sign of sanctioned sports competition returning in Maui County came last week from the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association.

The HSJGA emailed a press release outlining island-by-island match-play and stroke-play events later this summer leading up to the Michelle Wie Tournament of Champions, which is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 5-6 at Wailea Golf Club.

The match-play events are first up, from July 1-28. After entering on the HSJGA website, the higher-seeded player will choose an available course to hold the match and the match would be played within a week.

The event will also be a fundraiser for the Hawaii Food Bank.

“We feel that a match play of this nature will accommodate the guidelines around large gatherings while in Hawaii Golf Phase 2 and gives our juniors a great option in competitive golf,” Matt Rollins, HSJGA executive director, said in the press release. “We also want to show our support to the local community through golf in these difficult times and that’s where we will have our juniors reach out to their networks to pledge donations for the Hawaii Food Bank. We want to continue teaching youth in Hawaii about the importance of social responsibility and how they can provide a positive impact within their community.”

The match-play championships on each island will continue until age-group champions are crowned in 7-10, 11-12 and 13-18 divisions for boys and girls. Stroke-play events are tentatively slated for September and October, also on an island-by-island basis to avoid travel due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Those results would help players gather points for the season-ending Wie event.

Jennifer McNally, the Wailea director of sales and marketing, stressed that dates and logistics are still tentative for the Wie TOC.

“We certainly support junior golfers resuming some sort of activity in getting back into allowing the juniors to enjoy and continue to grow in the game of golf,” McNally said.

Maui Junior Golf Association vice president Jasper Yun is excited about the concept for the return to action.

“With the (state’s) Phase 2 opening of golf, one of the usual things with Hawaii State Junior Golf is a statewide tournament,” Yun said. “Instead of doing a statewide tournament, we are kind of doing it by island chapters, so that limits the flying for safety reasons.”

Since the coronavirus pandemic shut things down statewide in March, the heart of the HSJGA schedule was sliced. Players traditionally earn their way to the Wie TOC based on season-long points lists.

“This match-play tournament is an opportunity to still keep the tournament season going because right now there’s no real (stroke-play) tournaments that can be played,” Yun said. “The reason they’re doing that is to limit mass gathering of all juniors, so it’s basically just the two juniors, they’re just playing a twosome while still continuing the junior golf tournament season.”

There was only one stroke-play tournament finished this season before the shutdown.

“There hasn’t been any opportunity for the juniors to get together since March, I think most importantly is to play together. Our primary focus is to make sure that the juniors have the opportunity to play with each other in a safe environment and a competitive environment also,” Yun said.

Each player must be an HSJGA member and are encouraged to donate to the Hawaii Food Bank system before their matches next month. The HSJGA has a plan for officials to be standing by so they can be reached by FaceTime if a ruling is needed in any match.

“Our staff has been working from home since the beginning of COVID,” said Lauren Yama, the HSJGA director of communications and special events from her home on Kauai. “We’ve been trying to do different things for the kids on social media. We did an art contest, we did all kinds of interviews and videos, and at one point I was thinking, ‘Now that golf is opening back up, what can we do for the kids? Can they go play on their own?’ “

The idea grew from there.

“Our tournament director was like, ‘Maybe we should do match play because that’s kind of the easiest format for them to do on their own without rules officials or a scoring area,’ “ Yama said. “They can meet up and decide between themselves as players — ‘We’re going to play this golf course at this time.’ Then they just report the results directly to the (HSJGA) and I was, like, ‘That’s brilliant.’

“We can do that on all islands. It’s safe, it’s socially distancing from others, and it’s allowed, so this gives the chance to kids on all islands to participate.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
     
Support Local Journalism on Maui

Only $99/year

Subscribe Today