Cyd Okino has grown out of her sometimes startling “Cyd the Kid” phase and graduated from her collegiate golf career at the University of Washington. She is about to embark on the dream she has had since before playing in the Jennie K. Invitational at the tender age of 9.
Now she just has to clear her head while finding a way to communicate in Japan.
Okino has been in Japan for nearly a month, preparing for the LPGA of Japan’s first qualifying stage, and trying to find her comfort zone.
“I have to overcome my own mind,” she said by email. “In college I became a lot more aware of my thoughts and how they can affect the way I play. I still have fear in letting those who believe in me down. Everything physically feels great so as long as I can keep my mind steady and positive I should be fine.”
The LPGA of Japan qualifying system is similar to the one in the U.S., with four stages instead of three. The top 20 percent advance out of each of three first-stage events this month, with a maximum of 100. Those that reach the Third Stage earn status on a tour.
Okino, who graduated in communications in June, will play in the Fukushima qualifier Aug. 26. Former Hawaii State Junior Golf Association and UW teammate Eimi Koga, who just transferred to Hawaii for her final two seasons, is also trying to qualify.
Koga graduated from Moanalua and won the 2011 state high school championship. She finished 38th at this year’s NCAA Championship and speaks Japanese.
Okino played in the U.S. Women’s Open at 14, captured four team titles at Punahou and two Hawaii State Open championships, and won UW’s debut in the NCAA’s relatively new match-play format this year.
But her Japanese … let’s just say she was very quiet her first few weeks away.
“After being annoyed multiple times,” she recalls, “I realized that it really isn’t anything I can control at the moment so I just have to go with the flow. It was much better after that.”
She has golfed every day this month and will move to the qualifying site next week. Jin Takahashi, owner of Musee Platinum in Japan and Hong Kong, offered to sponsor her for three years to help her get her card. She met him on the golf course during winter break, through a friend of her father’s.
“It wasn’t my initial intention to try out the Japan tour, but after that opportunity had come about I couldn’t pass it up,” says Okino, who earned All-Pac 12 Academic honorable mention. “It was an unbelievable offer and I figured I definitely should try to see where it will take me.”
Her coach, Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Casey Nakama, is all for it after seeing a transformation over the past year.
“She had so much fun her last year at Washington she got rejuvenated,” he says. “She’s been playing golf all her life so this was the next step. She’s excited to go to Japan. I told her if you go to Japan you’ve got to love it.”
That’s precisely Okino’s mind-set.
She worked on her short game with Nakama before leaving, listening to him tell her repeatedly “every time you make a bogey it will cost you money now.”
College helped immensely with the mental aspects of the game. She is consciously more relaxed and upbeat when she plays, she says; able to tune out things she can’t control.
Turning pro might have been a life-long dream, but Okino concedes she doubted her path when she saw so many great players struggle. After Takahashi’s generous offer, she knew she had to give it a shot.
Friends and family were right with her.
“They always tell me to look to God for guidance, as He will always be there,” Okino says. “Because everything seemed to happen so fast, they wanted to make sure that this was something I really wanted to do. Once I assured them that it was, they just want me to have a lot of fun.”
Ideally, that’s what will happen over the next few months and years. Golf has a way of grabbing you, frustrating you, then grabbing again. Okino, who turns 22 in December, knows that as well as most her age.
She promised Nakama she is not scared to succeed.
“There were many times in the past few years where I doubted myself and saw golf as something I HAD to do rather than something I enjoyed and really wanted to do,” Okino says. “I have learned to really love to play golf again. Right now I just love that I am able to have this opportunity to try to play professionally. I love that I am in a different country by myself, and being able to have all of these experiences that most people won’t ever get to have.”
Now she just has to communicate that on and off the golf course.
