The Incredible Tourney
“Steep” takes on abundant meaning at Oahu Country Club. The breathtaking setting is steeped in history and unique beauty. It is also, simply, steep. With all the golfing challenges that implies.
More than maybe any course in Hawai‘i, OCC has to be seen to be believed. “Lush” is not nearly expressive enough for a location overlooking downtown Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean, in the impossibly green—and, not surprisingly, often wet—Nu‘uanu and Waolani Valleys.
“Classic” is an understatement for a course that opened June 8, 1906, and is the island’s oldest private club and home to the fourth-oldest tournament in the country. That would be Manoa Cup, Hawai‘i’s amateur match-play championship. It will make its 111th appearance June 17-22.
“There is nothing more prestigious than this,” Hawai‘i pro TJ Kua said when he won the Cup in 2009.
Seven years later, Mari Nishiura captured the inaugural Manoa Cup for women.
“A long time from now,” she said softly, and with feeling, “the younger generation will say she was the first one.”
It means that much to amateur golfers in Hawai‘i, and has for more than 100 years. But there is more.
Manoa Cup is followed by the 56th-annual Oahu Country Club Men’s Invitational in July and OCC’s Women’s Invitational, which began in 1952, in August. The course hosted the Territorial Women’s Championship when it began in 1924.
It is an amateur mecca that, for the rest of the year, is richly enjoyed by its loyal members. OCC is a short course long on difficulty and prestige.
The original 2,813-yard, nine-hole layout formally opened April 27, 1907. The second nine holes came six years later. The 4,380-yard course played to a par 61. It has been stretched to a little more than 6,000 yards now. Par is 71 (73 for women) and a driving range was opened in 1988 and recently renovated.
There are also short-game practice areas and a junior program, multiple member dining areas, private meeting and banquet areas, a heated swimming pool and fitness facility. The course was designed by William Bell and has had just six head pros. The second was Alex “Sandy” Bell and he stayed from 1909 until 1944. Ed Sochacki was there 27 years and Bill Schwallie 21. Andrew Feldmann has been at OCC since 1998.
It is steeped in history, down to its roots. Curtis Kono won the 1987 Manoa Cup and was hired as OCC’s Superintendent 10 years later. He is still there, dealing with the course’s beauty and beasts—100 inches of annual rain- fall, 400-foot elevation changes—when he is not volunteering at The Masters. He has worked that ageless major the last 20 years.
He explains his course’s unique sense of place and privilege with a simple shrug. “It’s just the beauty of the Waolani Valley overlooking Honolulu,” Kono says. “It’s all natural jungle, one of Hawai‘i’s special places. … It has a natural, peaceful feel.”
Always has, even back in 1965 when Kono caddied for uncle Billy Arakawa as he won his second Manoa Cup.
Four-time Manoa Cup champion Brandan Kop, now an OCC member, traces his family’s history at the club back almost 100 years. He remembers grandfather Guinea Kop telling stories about caddying for Francis I‘i Brown in the 1920s.
Brown won five of his nine Manoa Cups in that decade, and went on to capture his own triple crown one year by adding titles at the Japan and California Amateurs. Kop, like his grandfather, Brown and Arakawa, is a member of the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. He is closing in on 40 Manoa Cup starts, and can’t wait.
“Oahu Country Club is such a unique and challenging golf course,” he says. “It seemed to be made for match-play format. You can make a lot of birdies if you’re playing well, but if you are slightly off on your touch, bogeys and double- bogeys are very easy to make.
“When the course is prepped for the Manoa Cup, a lot of people, including myself, consider this layout the toughest 6,000-yard course in the nation. With its beautiful views and magnificent clubhouse, everyone will remember playing this course.”
Maybe the Manoa Cup participants as much as the members, particularly because the 111-year-old event requires participants to walk every hole.
At OCC, particularly when it rains on the monstrous back nine, can be a game-breaker.
“It adds to the difficulty of the tournament,” says Matt Ma, who was 28 when he won the 2012 Manoa Cup. “There’s no secret why most of the past winners are under 30.
“It’s the toughest tournament to win. It’s the longest one and it’s just a grind and test of your patience.”
Which only makes it more memorable, much like Oahu Country Club.