Marissa Chow stood 4 feet away from a trip to Pebble Beach.
When her birdie putt on Oahu Country Club’s second hole circled the rim of the cup and fell, she took a moment to consider just how far she’d come to return to the U.S. Women’s Open.
“When it went in, just literally flashed back to the past two years,” Chow said after winning a three-way playoff in Monday’s qualifier. “I thought I was never going to play golf again and it’s just emotional to be going back.”
Chow, an ‘Iolani alumna and former All-American at Pepperdine, had her professional career sidetracked by a car accident in 2019 and wrist surgery in 2021. At 29, she was looking to transition into another line of work when she decided to enter the U.S. Open sectional qualifier on her home course.
She carded two rounds of 1-over-par 71 to end regulation in the 36-hole qualifier tied with Mililani’s Allysha Mae Mateo and Tsukiha Nakashima of Hyogo, Japan, with totals of 2-over-par 142.
The trio went to No. 1 for the playoff and Chow rolled in a 12-foot par putt to survive the first hole. Her second shot on the par-5 second hole settled in the rough to the right of the green and she chipped to about 4 feet.
Chow watched as Nakashima and Mateo, a Maryknoll graduate who recently completed her collegiate career at Brigham Young, had birdie putts lip out. Chow thought she was headed to a third playoff hole when she struck her putt, expecting it to break to the low side.
Instead it lipped in to send her to the storied Pebble Beach Golf Links, which will play host to its first U.S. Women’s Open on July 6-9.
Chow first played in the U.S. Open in 2014 while at Pepperdine and topped the leaderboard “for a hot minute” when she birdied four of her first six holes at Pinehurst. She returned to the U.S. Open in 2016 at CordeValle and joined the Epson Tour in 2017.
But her swing “was never the same” following the car accident and the surgery on her left wrist two years ago.
While she could otherwise function normally after her six-month recovery after surgery, “I couldn’t do the golf swing, which was my whole life. That’s all I’ve ever known.”
“So honestly I’m thankful to play golf again,” she said. “And I have to thank my friends. They’ve rebuilt me because I haven’t golfed for so long.
“Before, I relied on (her game), but I had to learn literally everything again and I’m still learning. I’m not totally comfortable with my swing, but everyone around me, all my friends, they’ve helped me and pushed me to practice and just to keep going and just to keep golf in my life.”
She entered the local qualifiers for the Lotte Championship and U.S. Women’s Open last year in her lone competitive rounds of 2022.
She again entered the Lotte qualifier in April and took another shot at the U.S. Open, “because why not try? You never know.”
Chow ended the first round on Monday two shots behind Mateo, who opened with a 2-under 69, and remained steady through her second tour of OCC.
“Thankful,” was her reaction to draining the putt on the first playoff hole, and a word from her caddie, Tyler Ota, who won two Manoa Cup titles at OCC, helped her focus on the chip that set up the winning putt.
“He said, ‘Your fundamentals are good, just hit what you know how to hit,’” Chow said. “I just wanted to hit what I’m comfortable with, because that is what’s reliable under pressure.”
As Chow celebrated with friends after making her putt, Mateo went on to secure the first alternate spot on the next playoff hole, with Nakashima finishing as the second alternate.
Chow joins LPGA Tour pro Allisen Corpuz and Michelle Wie West as Hawaii products in the U.S. Open field. Corpuz is ranked 25h in the world and tied for fourth at The Chevron Championship, the first major of the year, in April. Wie West, who won the 2014 U.S. Open, stepped away from golf last year and indicated in an interview with Golf Channel earlier this month this U.S. Open “might be the farewell” to the event.
