Nobody wins the OIA girls golf title just once.
Mililani sophomore Mari Nishiura repeated as OIA girls champ and Moanalua’s Brant Grant cleared the field by three strokes as a senior to win the boys title on Turtle Bay’s Fazio Course on Wednesday.
Nishiura is the latest in the OIA title lineage, following Eimi Koga of Moanalua (2010-12), Kristina Merkle of Moanalua (2008-09), Haaheo Manini-Hew Len of Roosevelt (2006-07) and Britney Choy of Leilehua (2004-05). Xyra Suyetsugu of Roosevelt was the last golfer to wear the crown just once, doing so in 2002.
Nishiura, who won by four strokes over Koga last year, needed a playoff this time after being outplayed by Castle’s Iris Kawada 78-76 in the second round.
Kawada outdrove Nishiura on the playoff hole, but her second shot stuck on the green 40 feet from the cup after Nishiura’s effort hit the green but ran into a bunker. But the sophomore blasted it to within 6 feet and directly uphill. Kawada’s lag hopped and came up short, leaving her a tricky 6-foot breaker.
Nishiura did a little landscaping, moving two leaves out of her line and quickly lining up and draining her putt.
"I didn’t want to think about it too much," Nishiura said. "Because if I started thinking, I would have doubted myself. I just had to remind myself that I have practiced that putt a million times and just putt the ball."
Kawada had the read on her putt, but hit it a little hard and watched it bounce off the cup. After the tap-in, the competitors hugged and walked back to the clubhouse together, Kawada carrying her bag behind her with her chin up and Nishiura pushing her 3-wheeled cart with her head down. Out of 100 times, Nishiura said Kawada would make that difficult putt "a lot."
"Her putting is really good," Nishiura said. "Just both me and her were very nervous going up, I know she is going to play so good at states."
Nishiura was 14th at states last year at Kaanapali, and hopes to just have two rounds in the 70s on the Fazio Course beginning Monday.
Mililani won the team title for its first-ever all-girls crown, stopping Moanalua’s six-year reign as champs. Mililani’s girls have not been part of a title since helping to the coed crown in 1987. Nishiura spent the time during the boys awards ceremony seeking out each member of the team, as well as Kawada, to reward them with a lei.
"We are all so close, we are like a family," Nishiura said. "Everyone is so much fun to be around; we all just genuinely love each other."
Grant gets it done as a senior
Grant didn’t need a playoff to lock down the boys title, but he thought he did. Grant shot a 71 to teammate Kyosuke Hara’s 72 to win by three strokes. Grant was the only senior on the course for Moanalua, with two-time defending champ John Oda off playing in Indonesia.
Grant closed birdie-par-par. He thought he trailed Hara by a stroke going into the last hole after lipping out a 25-footer for par. When he approached the green on the last, he found he had the same putt and got the same result a 20- to 25-foot downhill left-to-right putt that lipped out. He tapped in thinking he would have to go to a playoff because he had just missed the kind of hero putt that Oda made against Pearl City’s Colby Takushi last year. Grant signed his scorecard and was surprised to be declared the winner.
"I wanted it to be me, very badly," Grant said of last year, when he finished third, just three strokes back. "He and I are very fierce competitors. Had I made a putt like that, I probably would have gone nuts. I am a lot more emotional, a lot more fiery than he is. It felt good to see a teammate do that and I think it helped me."
Moanalua won the boys team title for the eighth straight year, lining up for pictures afterward with six of the top seven finishers, a lone Kailua golfer breaking up the dominance. Grant will play the Mid-Pacific Open this week before concentrating on retaking the state title Punahou took from Moanalua last year.
"All of the gray shirts (worn by Moanalua golfers) means we are close," Grant said. "We just need a few putts to fall and a few things to go our way and we can win states. We were all just out here having fun, though."