Turn your brain back a couple decades, before the latest crop of elite junior golfers were born.

Anna Umemura graduated from Punahou in 1997 in the midst of becoming the only golfer to win the Hawaii women’s triple crown — State Women’s Stroke and Match Play Championships and Jennie K. Wilson Invitational — in the same year.

No doubt she would have been the Hawaii State Golf Association’s Women’s Player of the Year, if there had been such an honor.

Now back to the future.

The Jennie K. turns 70 next year.

In 2013, Nicole Sakamoto four-peated at the 48th and final Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship.

About a year later, Kacie Komoto defended her title at the 73rd and final State Women’s Match Play Championship (previously Territorial Women’s Amateur Championship).

Sakamoto and Komoto are playing professionally now. Since 2015, the women’s stroke and match play championships have been only open to Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association members, leaving out most of the state’s best players.

And 40-year-old Anna Umemura Murata leads the inaugural HSGA women’s player of the year standings with 800 points.

The HSGA now has women’s flights at its State Amateur Stroke Play and Manoa Cup (match play) championships, and pretty much every other event it sponsors. Murata and former University of Hawaii golfer Julie Miyagi are about to join the HSGA board of directors.

“I want to support everybody,” says HSGA executive director Paul Ogawa. “I don’t want it to be male-oriented, so that was the reason I put it (Women’s POY) together.”

The points list the award is based on can change dramatically. `Iolani junior Kellie Yamane soared into the conversation Tuesday by winning the 42nd Oahu Country Club Women’s Invitational, then confirmed she plans to play the last Oahu event — Mayor’s Cup — in a few weeks.

The Kauai, Big Island and Maui amateur championships are the other three tournaments remaining in 2019. The inaugural women’s player of the year schedule began with the Hawaii Stroke Play, followed by the Women’s Army Invitational (won by Murata), Jennie K., Manoa Cup, Waialae Women’s Invitational and U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier.

Tuesday, Yamane earned a tournament-record 77 points to win OCC’s Stableford format (one point for bogey, two for par, three for birdie). She had eight birdies Monday, less than 24 hours after a runner-up finish in the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association’s Mixed Team Championship at Poipu Bay.

Danielle Ujimori won the Manoa Cup’s fourth women’s championship in June, after coming home from her freshman year at Nevada. She had seven birdies at OCC Tuesday to finish second, two points behind Yamane.

That pulled her into third on the Player of the Year list with 520 points, just behind Punahou junior Karissa Kilby (575), who fell to Ujimori in the Manoa Cup final. Kilby was also second at State Amateur — to Patty Ehrhart — and had to withdraw Tuesday at OCC because of school obligations.

Waialae Invitational champion Allysha Mae Mateo also had to withdraw after qualifying for the women’s amateur. She is seventh in the standings heading into her sophomore season at Brigham Young.

This player of the year stuff is complicated, unless you are Tyler Ota, who has won the last four HSGA men’s player of the year awards, or Carl Ho, the reigning five-time Senior POY.

Or maybe Murata, whose first reaction after hearing there would be a Women’s POY, was to “try to play as many events as I can because every little point helps.”

The men’s player of the year awards began in 2009. Three years ago, the HSGA supplemented the honor with an invitation to a major national or international event, complete with $1,000 travel stipend. Ota chose to play in Japan and Ho in Singapore this year.

“We want to give them some incentive to get the award,” Ogawa says. “The other part is to get women like Anna playing who have lots of experiences they can share with other players, whether it be in college or playing in national tournaments.”

Murata, who played for Tennessee and turned pro after winning three state high school titles and her triple crown, is up for that. She also recognizes how “player of the year” looks on a college golf resume.

“It’s a great chance for recognition for these young girls and something they can work toward,” she says. “Summer time is so important for them because they are on break from college and high school and this gives them a good chance keep up with their competition.”

And, in 2019, earn an honor as unique as Murata’s triple crown of Hawaii women’s golf — the first HSGA women’s player of the year.

Annika Espino was the overall Low Net Champion at the OCC Women’s Invitational with 77 net Stableford points. Flight winners were Corie Lee Hasselmann (72 points) in A, Ellen Wilson (73) in B, Joy McLaughlin (76) in C and Gwen Omori (74) in D.

Omori recently won OCC’s Member-Guest championship with Sue Palumbo. They went par-birdie on the first playoff hole to become the first female champions since the event started in 1975.