Bobbi Kokx has covered a lot of ground in her golf career, which began as a third grader in Grand Rapids, Mich. Next month, that journey will be celebrated when she becomes the 75th player inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.

Kokx will be the 15th woman to be inducted. The first, in the Hall’s inaugural 1988 class, was Jackie Pung. The 1952 Women’s National Amateur winner, five-time LPGA champion and “Hawaii’s First Lady of Golf” is the reason Kokx came here. In 1982 Pung, then the University of Hawaii coach, offered Kokx a scholarship.

Kokx calls Pung “a great swing coach and teacher of different aspects of the game,” who encouraged her love for golf’s creative aspects. She compares her scholarship offer to “winning the lottery — it was an awesome opportunity to play golf and represent the State of Hawaii.”

Since Kokx moved here nearly 40 years ago her accomplishments include:

>> Becoming the first Rainbow Wahine to win a collegiate tournament, while leading Hawaii to its first team championship, at the inaugural Rainbow Wahine (now Donnis Thompson) Invitational in 1986.

>> Winning the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational and Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association Match Play Championship twice each — the Jennie K. before and after her pro career.

>> After graduation, becoming one of the state’s first female PGA club professionals — her business card read “A Patient Teaching Pro” — and coming back to coach UH from 1995-97.

>> After that, she became a public school teacher on Maui and Oahu. During a 12-year career at Kihei Elementary, she was named Maui District Teacher of the Year. She’s now a State Resource Teacher, supporting and mentoring beginning teachers.

It is very much like she supported and mentored golfers and elementary school students. Kokx recently ran into a former third-grade student on Maui, who checked in her rental car.

“It is always nice to visit with former students and family members,” Kokx says. “It reminds me that, maybe, I contributed to their growth.”

Kokx regained her amateur status after her 15-year professional hiatus and was just as competitive as she had been back in the 1980s, winning multiple titles on Oahu and Maui.

She was also one of the few her age with enough talent, poise and “patience” to compete against Hawaii’s burgeoning mob of gifted junior golfers.

One of Kokx’s greatest golf memories was winning the 50th annual Jennie K. in 2000 — her first tournament after becoming an amateur again. The next year she was second to 11-year-old Michelle Wie.

Kokx’s greatest golf accomplishment remains that week she and her teammates came up out of the big ocean breeze at Kaneohe to beat a field laced with then-Pac 10 teams.

“It was a magical week hosting the top-ranked teams and players at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course,” Kokx says. “I remember the wind was relentless and the players were awestruck at the beauty of the island … and I used this to my full advantage.”

To this day, the amiable Kokx remains awestruck by Hawaii and the many friends she has found along the way. She apprenticed under siblings Art and Brenda Rego — also in the Hall of Fame — at Waiehu and believes they had the greatest impact on her golf career.

“They taught me how to be a better player and a better person,” Kokx says. “They were excellent role models as to how to manage a small business, cultivate relationships and represent the profession. I really looked up to them as professionals, I wanted them to be proud of me.”

She will be inducted at the 12th annual Hoʻolaulea Awards banquet, Feb. 15 at the Manoa Grand Ballroom at the Japanese Cultural Center. The night also celebrates the champions of Hawaii’s major golf associations. For more information, contact the Aloha Section PGA (aspga.com).

Kokx can’t wait to celebrate her golf career and all the warm memories — and infinite laughs — she has found in Hawaii.

“I’ve met so many people through golf,” she says, “and had an opportunity to hear their incredible stories – from junior golfers, to the 442nd soldiers at Waiehu Golf Course, to small-business owners, to regular folks like me. Everyone has a story, and I think it is important to honor them by listening. Golf has a way of bringing people together.”