A Rich History of Women's Golf in Hawaii
Timeline of
Women’s Golf in Hawaii
1924-26
Mrs. J.K. Lamberton wins first three Territorial Women’s Amateur Championships, at Oahu Country Club
1930-33
Mrs. Joseph Palma wins four consecutive Territorial Women’s Amateur Championships
1934-37
Teenager Codie Austin wins four consecutive Territorial Women’s Amateur Championships
1948
Betty Wong wins inaugural Moanalua Women’s Invitational
1950
Edna Lee Jackola wins inaugural Jennie K. Wilson Women’s Invitational at Mid-Pacific Country Club
1952
Jackie Liwai Pung becomes first Hawaii national champion with victory at U.S. Women’s Amateur. Pung also wins Jennie K. before turning pro.
1953
Jackie Liwai Pung loses 18-hole playoff against Betsy Rawls at U.S. Women’s Open. Pung would go on to win twice her rookie year and five times overall in an LPGA tour career that lasted until 1964.
1954
Jackie Yates sets scoring record of 5-under 217 to win Jennie K.
1955
Jackie Yates becomes Hawaii’s second national champion when she wins Women’s Intercollegiate
1957
Jackie Pung DQ’d for signing incorrect scorecard at U.S. Women’s Open at Winged Foot. Pung would have won by a shot over Betsy Rawls. Instead, Winged Foot members took up a collection and gave Pung $3,500 — twice as much as Rawls collected for the victory.
1960
Billie Beamer brings together 13 women’s clubs to form the Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association, believing it is necessary to standardize women’s handicaps under USGA rules and re-rate courses, along with providing more opportunities for female golfers.
1961
Jennie K. announces that only golfers who are members of HSWGA clubs are eligible for prizes. HSWGA members boycott Oahu and Waialae Women’s Invitationals because the clubs refuse to join the organization.
1962
A record field of 135 plays Jennie K., despite the HSWGA restriction. Joan Damon, a member of Oahu and Waialae Country Clubs, joins Pali so she can play and wins by 11 over Edna Jackola, another Waialae member who joined Pali for the same reason. Later in the year, Navy-Marine Women’s Invitational officials refuse to enforce the members-only restriction and other clubs follow. Clubs start to drop out of the HSWGA and Beamer acknowledges it is “doomed, but the rising of another association to take its place is inevitable.”
Jennie K. Wilson dies at 90
1964
Joan Damon wins fourth straight Jennie K. It is fifth of a record six Jennie K. victories.
1969
Edna Jackola wins her sixth Army Women’s Invitational
1970
Tura Nagatoshi wins 20th Jennie K. by 21 shots with tournament record-tying 217. She shoots course-record 70 (then 4-under par) in final round, including a hole-in-one and eagle
1971
Joan Damon wins her fifth straight State Women’s Stroke Play Championship
1973
Future Hawaii resident Susie Berning becomes only the third to win three U.S. Women’s Open Championships
1975
Brenda Rego collects second Waialae Women’s Invitational sweep, winning low-net and low-gross honors
1976
New HSWGA is formed with 20 member clubs. Objectives include “encouraging golf for women in the state, promoting junior golf and ensuring USGA standards of handicapping are maintained.” First president is Kay Banning, who wants “to guide and cooperate with clubs.” HSWGA grows to 36 clubs, on every major island, in three years.
1977
Althea Tome wins U.S. Junior Girls championship
University of Hawaii hosts AIAW national championship at Kuilima (now Turtle Bay). Rainbow Wahine Lenore Muraoka takes eighth.
HSWGA State Stroke and Match Play Championships established
1978
Kaiser High School senior Lori Castillo wins U.S. Junior Girls
1979
Lori Castillo wins U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links to become youngest to hold two USGA titles simultaneously
Lenore Muraoka captures her fourth straight Army Women’s Invitational and also wins her fourth Navy-Marine Women’s Invitational
HSWGA establishes State Senior Women’s Championship, with inaugural event won by future Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Hope Yee. She would win two more senior titles.
1980
Lori Castillo defends U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links championship and plays on winning U.S. Women’s Curtis Cup team in Wales. At one point, Castillo held or shared every individual record in the WAPL championship. She won 11 consecutive matches before losing in second round in 1981.
1982
Jackie Yates Holt wins Moanalua Women’s Invitational for second time — first was in 1952
Cindy Carlin sweeps Oahu Country Club Women’s Invitational low-net and low-gross honors
Amy Alcott, representing Princeville, wins LPGA’s first Women’s Kemper Open at Royal Ka‘anapali. She is first of nine LPGA Hall of Famers to win in Hawaii, followed by Kathy Whitworth, Betsy King, Juli Inkster, Beth Daniel, Patty Sheehan, Meg Mallon, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam.
1983
Lenore Muraoka becomes second from Hawaii to win on the LPGA tour, capturing the United Virginia Bank Classic
In final amateur appearance, Lori Castillo wins Jennie K. by 17 shots, shooting record 66 in opening round and breaking tournament record by one shot
Hawaii hosts U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links for first time. The national championship attracts 1,008 entrants — 348 more than any previous year. Washington’s Kelli Antolock wins at Ala Wai.
HSWGA brings in Dean Knuth, Director of Handicapping for the USGA, to introduce newly developed Slope System handicapping to Hawaii. Kaneohe Klipper is first Hawaii course rated for women using new system, followed by Ala Wai, Fort Shafter and Navy-Marine.
1984
Sharon Goo sweeps Oahu Country Club Women’s Invitational low-net and low-gross honors
1986
In inaugural Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational at Kaneohe Klipper, the University of Hawaii shares team title with Arizona and Bobbi Kokx becomes first Rainbow Wahine to earn medalist honors at college event
1987
Former University of Hawaii golfer Cindy Flom Rarick wins LPGA’s inaugural Tsumura Hawaiian Ladies Open at Turtle Bay and the first LPGA World Wide Championship of Golf at Kiahuna. She would win the match-play exhibition at Kiahuna again the next year and at Kauai Lagoons in 1989.
1988
Jackie Pung is part of inaugural class inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
1989
Joan Damon is second woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
1991
HSWGA celebrates 15th anniversary with 53 clubs on Oahu and 19 on neighbor islands, representing more than 2,500 female golfers
Metropolitan Golf Writers Association establishes the annual Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award
1992
Ramona McGuire is third woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
Jamie Koizumi is U.S. Junior Girls champion and, with Megan Maeda, Anna Umemura and Christel Tomori, wins Hawaii’s first Girls Junior Americas Cup
1994
Jackie Yates Holt is fourth woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
1995
Lori Castillo wins her third consecutive Hawaii State Open women’s championship, giving her a record five state titles
1996
Codie Austin Cooke is fifth woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
Bev Kim wins her third Hawaii State Women’s Match Play championship. The first two were in 1971 and ’72.
1997
Anna Umemura, 18, becomes only golfer to win all three women’s majors (Jennie K., State Stroke and Match Play) in same year, and first to win three state high school championships
Yoshiko Koyama wins fourth Hawaii State Senior Women’s Championship
1998
Jackie Pung is first female golfer inducted into Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame
Edna Lee Jackola and Hope Yee are sixth and seventh women inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
Anna Umemura wins her third Jennie K. championship in four years, in a playoff with Christel Tomori, another future pro
Tomori stops Umemura 1-up to take State Match Play and wins 54-hole All Services Women’s Invitational by 18 shots
U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship returns to Hawaii — Kapalua Bay — and is won by Florida’s Amy Spooner.
1999
Tura Kahaleanu Nagatoshi is eighth woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
2000
Christel Tomori wins Connecticut Futures Golf Classic. After capturing three consecutive Hawaii Women’s State Opens, Tomori was medalist at Futures Tour Qualifier a year earlier.
2001
Stephanie Kono, 11, becomes youngest winner in 60-year history of Hawaii State Women’s Match Play, acing par-4 ninth hole at OCC in process
At 11, Michelle Wie becomes youngest Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play and Jennie K. champion and first female to qualify for Manoa Cup match play
2002
Michelle Wie, 12, becomes youngest ever to play in LPGA event when she qualifies for LPGA Takefuji Classic at Waikoloa. Later in the year, Wie wins Hawaii Women’s State Open by 13 and is first female to win a Manoa Cup match.
Hawaii State Women’s Golf Foundation is started to “support opportunities to promote women's golf as a competitive and recreational activity in the state of Hawaii.” At her retirement/birthday party, HSWGF co-founder Lily Yao raises $200,000 for the foundation, with $50,000 donated by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. A Lily K. Yao Scholarship is established for college-bound girls and travel stipends are offered to girls and women who qualify to compete in USGA championships on the mainland.
2003
Bev Kim and Marga Stubblefield are ninth and 10th women inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
Stephanie Kono wins State Stroke Play Championship by 12 shots, breaking tournament record by five with 212 total. The Punahou eighth grader also is victorious at Jennie K., Hawaii State Women’s Open and Hawaii State Junior Golf Association Tournament of Champions.
Karrie Webb wins ConAgra LPGA Skins Game at Wailea, over Annika Sorenstam, Laura Davies and Laura Diaz
Michelle Wie, 13, wins U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links championship and plays in final group Sunday at Kraft Nabisco Championship, finishing ninth in first major of year and becoming youngest to make an LPGA cut
2004
Mary Bea Porter-King is 11th woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. The same year Porter-King, a member of the USGA Executive Committee, finally convinces USGA that the expense of competing on the mainland is so high that Hawaii should host its own U.S. Open and Women’s Open sectional qualifiers.
Amanda Wilson opens with 66 and breaks Jennie K. scoring record with 211 total. Stephanie Kono (212) also breaks record.
Bev Kim’s low-gross victory gives her Waialae Women’s Invitational wins in five consecutive decades
At PGA Tour’s Sony Open in Hawaii, 14-year-old Michelle Wie misses cut by one. Later in the year, she is youngest in history to compete in Curtis Cup.
2005
Michelle Wie becomes first female to qualify for adult open USGA championship, then becomes youngest to reach quarterfinals at 77th U.S. Amateur Public Links
2006
At 14 years and 11 months, Kimberly Kim is youngest champion in 106-year history of U.S. Women’s Amateur. She also finishes second at U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and is youngest to make cut at U.S. Women’s Open.
Cyd Okino breaks Michelle Wie’s record by two months, becoming youngest Hawaii State Women’s Open champ 13 days before her 13th birthday
Dale Gammie wins Heather Farr Memorial, becoming first UH Wahine to win a college event in 20 years
2008
Lori Castillo is 12th woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame
2009
Mona Kim wins fifth State Senior Women’s Championship, in a field that includes 10 women older than 80. Two years later, 17 women in their 80s would play.
At 11 years, 5 months, 7 days, Punahou sixth-grader Allisen Corpuz becomes youngest State Match Play champion with victory in finals over Punahou freshman Kacie Komoto
2010
Maui’s Cassy Isagawa earns medalist honors to lead Hawaii to Girls Junior Americas Cup championship, with teammates Kacie Komoto, Cyd Okino and Alina Ching. The next week, Isagawa wins 35th Junior PGA Championship.
2011
Mary Bea Porter-King named recipient of PGA First Lady of Golf Award, presented to “a woman who has made significant contributions to the promotion of the game of golf.” Porter-King is co-founder of Hawaii State Junior Golf Association and served on USGA Executive Committee and and as an Independent Director on The PGA America Board of Directors.
2012
Hawaii’s team — Eimi Koga, Mariel Galdiano, Rose Huang and Ciera Min — captures its third Girls Junior Americas Cup championship, at Wailea Gold on Maui
2013
Lenore Muraoka is 13th woman inducted into Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame, three years after her induction into Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame
Nicole Sakamoto wins 48th and final Hawaii State Women’s Stroke Play Championship. It is Sakamoto’s fourth consecutive Stroke Play title. She owns scoring record of 6-under 210, set in 2012.
2014
Michelle Wie wins LPGA Lotte Championship at Ko Olina and captures 69th U.S. Women’s Open two months later, finishing the year fourth on LPGA money list
Mariel Galdiano wins 64th Jennie K., breaking tournament record by five at 10-under 206. A month later, the 17-year-old goes to her third U.S. Women’s Open and makes first cut, finishing as second-low amateur. Galdiano also became only the second ever — boy or girl — to win three state high school championships.
Kacie Komoto defends title at 73rd and final State Women’s Match Play Championship (formerly Territorial Women’s Amateur Championship)
2015
HSWGA votes to make its major championships open to members only. Two-time State Women’s Senior champ Mira Han is victorious at the inaugural members-only State Women’s Match Play and named HSWGA Player of the Year and Patty Schremmer wins members-only State Stroke Play title.
2016
In 108th year of Manoa Cup (Hawaii State Match Play Championship), Mari Nishiura wins inaugural women’s division. Miki Manta captures inaugural women’s division at Hawaii State Amateur Stroke Play Championship and Mira Han takes Senior Women’s division.
Bev Kim, 70, wins overall low net to extend her streak of Waialae Women’s Invitational wins to six consecutive decades