Back in 1962, 16-year-old Bev Kong was crushed when her $7 entry fee was returned by the Oahu Country Club Women’s Invitational committee. The tournament, then beginning its second decade, was full and hoped she would “be among the first to enter next year.”

Kong — now Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Bev Kim — still has the letter. Organizers of most events now wish it was still necessary to write those letters. Tournament players between the ages of 25-50 are becoming a rare breed and filling events can be a struggle.

“I remember at the OCC Men’s Invitational and Manoa Cup (also at OCC), up to about 2000 we used to have very few junior golfers,” OCC head pro Andrew Feldmann says. “They were mostly in college, all the way to their late 40’s. That demographic has disappeared. It’s either real young kids or people ready to retire. It’s changed and I think the economy has a lot to do with it.”

With a tenacious assist from tournament chair Paula Trask — “she puts her heart and soul into it,” Feldman says — this week’s OCC Women’s Invitational had a waiting list. It was only seven so Trask took them all and accepted a few under the 15-year age minimum.

Katrina Huang, 14 and about to start her freshman year at ‘Iolani, led after the first day. She was overtaken by Chloe Wong in Tuesday’s final round. The 2016 ‘Iolani alum captured overall low gross honors, while 2013 OCC champion Jeannie Pak took overall low net honors.

Huang won championship flight’s low gross, with 67 Stableford points, one less than Wong. Pak, a single-digit handicapper playing with about a dozen juniors in the championship flight, scored 74 net points.

The tournament moved to a modified Stableford format (one point for bogey, two for par, three for birdie, etc.) in 2009, to lessen the impact of OCC’s famous “big numbers” and encourage more to play. The change came after the last of three long breaks, for a tournament that dates back to the early 1950’s. No one is sure exactly when it started.

But it was full, for sure, this week with 87 golfers in five flights.

Huang, whose interest in golf was inspired by cousin and golf pro Lorens Chan, was one of the youngest. Kimi Komatsu, 81, was oldest, and proud of it.

Both appreciate the long history of women’s golf in Hawaii and are acutely aware of the demographic that has gone missing, save for the rare Matt Ma and Anna (Umemura) Murata.

Komatsu skipped that golf demographic, starting in the game at 62, after selling her Japanese bookstore and being advised to get more exercise by her doctor — a member at Waialae Country Club.

Komatsu, now a Mid-Pacific Country Club member, got so hooked she once played 78 rounds over 52 consecutive days.

“I just wanted to play,” Komatsu said. “Golf is a really strange thing. Once you start playing you want to keep playing and get better. You think maybe tomorrow you can do better than yesterday. It kept me going. By the time I went through 50 rounds I thought, ‘Gee how many rounds can I play?’”

Komatsu figures she been in about 10 OCC Women’s Invitationals. This was Huang’s first invitational — ever. She was inspired to enter after experiencing the “really nice conditions, facilities, everything” when she played Manoa Cup at OCC in June.

This week was different from golf with just her peers, in some good ways. For one, “everyone is much nicer here.” The social aspect of invitationals is hard to miss.

Organization at women’s invitationals is meticulous, prizes valuable, programs and food unique and inspired. It is a tournament and a party — at Mid-Pac’s Jennie K. Wilson, which celebrated its 68th birthday in May, Waialae’s Women’s Invitational, which turned 62 last month, and OCC.

“At a tournament you meet so many people,” Komatsu says. “People you’ve never met before, but you have to compete with and I think it’s a really good social experience.

“My belief is, your friend is my friend, my friend is your friend, and so you will get to meet so many nice people and mostly I like the golfers who are very friendly and honor you. They are just wonderful people and it’s wonderful for your health too.”

Huang’s understanding of why the three major invitationals have lasted so long is “pretty much what she said,” along with the simple “thrill of golf.”

“Being able to get the ball in the hole and the competition,” Huang says. “Plus, playing against people you’ve never known. It helps you get to know them better.”

Does she think she will be playing the OCC Women’s Invitational at Komatsu’s age?

“Yeah,” Huang says. “Probably.”