Jasmine Wong, 3 up thru 15, stepped to her golf ball, only a few feet away from the 16th hole and the Manoa Cup women’s championship. She stiffened her arms straight, peeked at the imaginary line and backed off. She was not quite ready.
One practice swing followed. Again, she positioned herself for the potential game-winning par. And again, she retreated. She walked to wipe her right hand on the pinflag, held horizontally by her caddie, Oahu Country Club member Brian Pang. Overcome with nervousness, amid a handful of media cameras and about a dozen parked carts, Wong took one final practice swing before she again found herself above the ball that, seconds later, ran a half-circle around the hole.
“I just got too nervous over the putt,” Wong said. “I was thinking too much with the media and everyone behind.”
She was still 2 up on Santa Clara junior and Kalani alumna Rachael Wang. So, en route to the 17th tee box, she wiped away what tears remained from her candid showing of emotion just moments earlier.
And her subsequent resolve reflected the final result Friday.
“I just told myself on the tee box, ‘Hey, Jasmine, this is your last hole,’” she said.
Wong faced the same circumstances ahead of a 12-foot putt for birdie, another would-be game-winner. Just as much media and perhaps even more onlookers hovered near the 17th green.
This time, she just forgot they were there.
“When I was standing right over the putt, I just forgot everything and I just did what I would normally do,” Wong said.
A month after Wong became the first ‘Iolani girls golfer to win an HHSAA state championship, the Manoa Cup women’s title was hers, too, by a 3-and-1 margin. The win was her first at a women’s amateur tournament hosted by the Hawaii State Golf Association.
“This is like her first big adult tournament win,” Pang said.
Wong’s path to the championship included wins over other top high school talents, Punahou freshman Alexa Takai and Kahuku senior Ava Cepeda, before Wang served as the college-level competition she will face at Gonzaga the next four years.
The match featured 12 lead changes and a combined eight birdies.
“I definitely think she’s really talented,” Wang said. “I haven’t played with her … at all, so it was cool to see her game and reflect on what I should work on more.”
As Wong displayed throughout the tournament, her ability to drive the ball 300 yards or longer from any given tee helped set her apart. One of her longest may have spanned approximately 340 yards, according to Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer and four-time Manoa Cup open champion Brandan Kop.
“She was hitting a lot of wedges to some of the par-4s,” Pang said.
“The greens toward the later part of the week started getting a lot firmer, so because she’s hitting just a short iron, she was usually getting relatively close and had a lot of birdie attempts.”
Throughout the week, Wong relentlessly focused on a perceived weakness from her day’s match to practice at OCC before heading home.
Wednesday had to do with wedge work. Thursday was putting. And Friday was, well, swimming. Pang, Kop, Takai and ‘Iolani girls golf coach Kevin Ing tossed Wong into the OCC pool — a tradition for those who hoist the Manoa Cup.
Ultimately, Wong is rather pleased that her latest stint walking up and down the hilly OCC course has come to an end.
“That’s a win for me, because my legs are so sore right now,” Wong said. “My legs are noodles and my feet are like, I don’t know, they just don’t feel like they’re there.”
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