After taking much of the drama out of the 53rd annual Oahu Country Club Men’s Invitational for 12 holes Saturday, Jun Ho Won brought it back with three consecutive bogeys.
Driven by disgust, Won chased down a championship with spectacular shots on the final three holes to win by two over Scotty Yamashita and Mark Takahama.
“I was really mad at myself,” said Won, who closed with a 72 for a total of 6-under 207. “I thought, ‘I can’t just give it away. If you lose, at least finish strong.’ I can’t do anything about how Scotty does, I just didn’t want to make one more bogey going in.”
After winning the Hickam Invitational last year, Won fell to Tyler Ota in a playoff at the OCC Invitational. Won took the title at Pearl this year and captured the ILH championship and state team title as a Moanalua junior.
He took a two-shot lead into the final round at OCC this year. He was 3 up on playing partner Yamashita at the turn thanks to an eagle at their fourth hole (No. 13).
The gap “made me super nervous,” Won admitted.
Yamashita just got a degree in communications from the University of Hawaii. His unofficial minor was shrinking his scoring average, which he did each of his four years as a Rainbow Warrior golfer. Saturday, the focus was on chasing down Won.
The Kamehameha graduate cut his deficit to two when he birdied the 11th hole (par-5 No. 2). Won three-putted for par after launching his drive into the third fairway.
He lost another shot on their 13th hole (par-3 No. 4) when he bogeyed. Won drove the green at the next hole, blasting his drive up Nuuanu Valley into 25 mph gusts at the 281-yard par-4 fifth. Then he four-putted for another bogey.
Yamashita one-putted for birdie and suddenly had a one-stroke advantage.
Back at the par-5 sixth, Won hit his drive down the center but missed the green left and got another bogey. Yamashita pulled his drive over the trees, hit into them with his second shot, chipped out to the fairway and staggered to double-bogey to fall into a tie for first.
David Saka, the third player in the group, never found the fairway at the sixth. He lost his original ball, then found it in a flower bed by the third tee, got a free drop and ultimately chipped in for birdie without ever seeing the fairway.
After hitting his tee shot into the bunker on the next hole, Won gathered himself. He blasted to within a foot for an easy par, then drained an 18-foot birdie putt on the next hole to take the lead. It was the only meaningful putt he made all day, after needing just 51 putts in opening rounds of 67-68.
Yamashita’s bogey gave Won a two-stroke advantage heading into the final hole, which both one-putted for par.