The late Ted Makalena got his start in golf by swinging cut-down clubs and caddying in 1941, when he was 8. That December, play was suspended after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Concrete pill boxes were constructed at Waialae Country Club, where his father Sol worked, and barbed wire was put up along the fairways to discourage landings.

Nothing discouraged Makalena. He won the PGA Tour’s second Hawaiian Open 50 years ago last month, becoming the first non-member to win a tour event, and the first from Hawaii.

He opened eyes around the world, but especially here. A generation of young golfers suddenly realized Hawaii’s beautiful blue sky was the limit, not the ocean that surrounded them.

David Ishii’s first thought was, “Wow, somebody local beat guys from the mainland.”

“He was an inspiration,” Ishii recalled a few years ago. “He made it possible for us to think that maybe we can make it as professional golfers.”

Ishii absolutely has, winning his own Hawaiian Open in 1990 and becoming the first foreigner to claim the money title in Japan, where he still plays senior events.

Dean Wilson also broke through, along with Parker McLachlin. Lenore Muraoka Rittenhouse won on the LPGA tour, years after Jackie Pung put Hawaii on that map.

Yes, ESPN and Golf Channel, Hawaii did have great golfers before Michelle Wie put on her first pair of Nikes and Tadd Fujikawa began pumping fists. The pipeline continues to pump them out in large part because of Ted Makalena and that remarkable week at Waialae.

“These have been the four greatest days of my golfing career,” he said on the day he won. “My game was sound from tee to green. That opening day 66 gave me a great lift.

“I think I had an advantage on the greens. I can read them like a book and that helped me a lot. Many of the other players had trouble on the greens.”

Makalena read all of Waialae like a book. He grew up there and won the last five Hawaiian Opens played before it became a tour stop (1960-64), while he was Ala Wai’s head pro. He won 25 times in Hawaii and played in six U.S. Opens — finishing in the top 30 twice.

But nothing would match that magical week, when Makalena’s great length and uncanny accuracy made him the best player on the planet.

Allan Yamamoto, Makalena’s golfing buddy at Ala Wai, followed him all 18 holes in the final round. Makalena hit every green in regulation and birdied three of the final four holes to beat defending champion Gay Brewer and leading money winner Billy Casper by three shots.

“I think I was more nervous than he was, especially on the 18th,” Yamamoto remembers. “He had maybe a two-stroke lead and he hit his drive right down the middle on the last hole (now No. 9). He took out a fairway wood, a 4-wood.

“I’m thinking what are you doing? The only way he can lose the tournament is if he goes out of bounds. He can hit an iron 50 yards short and make six and still win. But no, no, no. He was loose and hit the middle of the green and two-putted for birdie.”

Makalena finished at 17-under-par 271, a tournament record Ben Crenshaw finally broke nine years later. The champ collected $8,500 and acknowledged it was twice as much as all he had won since more than a decade earlier. Chi Chi Rodriguez, who left a note in Makalena’s locker the final day reading “You get them, I’m with you all the way,” offered to sponsor him.

That wasn’t allowed, but Makalena joined the tour full-time in 1967 — after helping Bob Tom start the Hawaii Junior Golf Association — and roomed with a young guy named Lee Trevino.

Makalena was seventh that year at Waialae and tweaked his swing, according to Yamamoto, hitting it even longer without giving up any accuracy.

“I could see the difference in distance,” Yamamoto laughs. “The distance I was behind him got greater and greater.”

Makalena came home near the end of the 1968 season. At a family picnic, he was pulled out of the ocean unconscious. He died five days later, at age 34.

“I think he had more talent than any of us,” Ishii said in 2009. “It would have been nice to see what he could have done had he been alive to play out his whole career. All the other guys he played with, like Lee Trevino and Chi Chi Rodriguez, continued on to play the senior tour. He probably would have been like one of those guys.”

Two months after Makalena died, Trevino won the Hawaiian Open with Harry Makalena — one of Ted’s brothers — on the bag. Trevino dedicated the victory to Ted and set up a trust fund for his son.

The city named a municipal course after him and for years our State Open was named after him.

The memories remain vivid, even after 50 years.