At 55, David Ishii is leading a dual golf life.

He is here much of the year, coaching kids such as Lorens Chan and Allisen Corpuz at Pearl Country Club, where he has been director of golf for decades. His David S. Ishii Foundation sponsors the Hawaii high school golf championships.

Every few months the Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer takes off, usually for Asia, to play senior events.

Sometimes he surprises himself and wins. Last weekend, Ishii captured the Fubon Senior Open in Taipei for the second straight year. He went into Sunday’s final round three shots back and fired a 5-under 67 to win by four at Miramar Golf Country Club.

In his first two tries in Taiwan, he finished second. "I don’t know what’s happening there," said Ishii, who won $30,000. "It’s like Hawaii to me. It’s windy and all Bermuda grass."

The Senior PGA of Taiwan stop isn’t exactly the Champions Tour, though Japanese star Massy Kuramoto — two months younger than Ishii — finished fifth.

There were no leaderboards until the final hole. Ishii, in the next-to-last group, looked up to see only he and his playing partners on the top of it.

Ishii thought something was wrong, but he was wrong. A precise short game and suddenly hot putter sent the 14-time JPGA champ to next week’s Japan Senior Open on a winning streak. He plans to play two more senior events in Japan after that and come home in time for the Hawaii State Open at Turtle Bay in December.

He will play the senior flight. That will shield him from having to compete against his students, who range in age from 10 to University of Hawaii sophomore Henry Park.

Corpuz, who captured last year’s Hawaii State Women’s Match Play title, is all of 12 and already ranked nationally among all girls.

Ishii fell into his teacher’s role when a few juniors approached him for help as he entered his senior career full-time. He was successful from the start, with players such as Ayaka Kaneko and Chan. More kids and parents called and his "coconut connection" grew.

Ishii got hooked. With Beau Yokomoto and Regan Lee also attracting large numbers of little kids to Pearl, the place has taken on a junior golf life of its own. Success has bred more success, and a great environment.

"Right now, teaching is more satisfying than playing," Ishii said. "When you play, the only person you are getting to satisfy is you. When you teach, you see them do good. It’s nice to see them do well and enjoy their golf and learn new things.

"The way my father (Chica Ishii) taught me it was not so much how good you do, but more how you play the game and seeing others play well and learning. The kids are nice that come here. They are polite. It’s just a nice atmosphere. It’s kinda satisfying for me to see nice kids with good manners, all getting along. That’s the good part. We’ve got nice kids playing golf now, they get along. They still want to do good and be competitive, but they are nice to each other."

It is what he remembers growing up on Kauai’s Wailua Golf Course, and it worked for him. Ishii won the 1973 high school championship, captained Houston’s 1977 NCAA team champions and tenaciously worked his way onto the Japan tour. In 1987, he became the first foreigner to win the money title. Three years later he shocked much of the golf world when he won the Hawaiian Open on the PGA Tour. Ishii has played all the majors and won pretty much everything worth winning in Hawaii.

Now he is a grandfather and soft-spoken role model and mentor. And he’s still got game.