Kaneohe’s Derek Chinen comes alive after lunchtime nap to win the 117th Manoa Cup title
· Yahoo Sports
Oahu Country Club has never had a Manoa Cup champion like Kaneohe’s Derek Chinen.
Playing with his shirt as untucked as his emotions and a greasy Burger King bag in the back of his cart, Chinen beat polished Ryan Takeshita 2-up after 36 holes in Saturday’s championship.
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The staid tournament has had plenty of unconventional winners in its 117 years, but has never seen one take a nap at lunchtime trailing by five holes with 18 to play and turn it into victory. Ken Rogers beat Sadaji Kinoshita after trailing by four at the break in 1937. The last four champions trailed at halftime, but not like this.
“On the second nine I took a little nap, like literally 15 minutes,” Chinen said. “When I woke up I told my caddie (Dylan Sakasegewa, who lost to Taylor George in the round of 32 before Chinen avenged it in the quarterfinals), ‘This is no longer a marathon — it’s a sprint and we are sprinting on the first hole.’ ”
Chinen won the first three holes in the afternoon, punctuated by shouts of “Money!” and “It’s a different game right now” and put Takeshita, a polished amateur with his name stitched on his bag and clad in his Weber State golf attire, on his heels.
Chinen shot a 32 on the front nine of the afternoon round after a 38 in the morning and erased the entire deficit by the 10th hole, when he stood on the tee and barked at his caddie, “Baby cut, give me that driver!”
He delivered with the big club by carrying the bunkers fronting the green and landing just long of the carpet. After Takeshita pushed his par putt and the scorer announced that the match was all square, Chinen unleashed a cheer that had a few of the people following the group referring to him as Happy Gilmore.
“I came alive on that second 18 — that’s how I normally play when I am playing money matches with my friends,” Chinen said. “I brought that dog out, that’s what we like to say. I finally was myself on that second 18. I’m not proud of how I played (in the morning), and now I know going forward that that mentality, that’s what it gets you. Playing timid gets you timid results.”
Takeshita relinquished the lead for the first time on the 12th hole when he outdrove Chinen by 40 yards and unleashed a high shot into the wind that landed past the flag stick but spun 30 feet to the fringe fronting the elevated green. Chinen buried a bender for birdie to Takeshita’s bogey.
“I just have to shout out to Derek on that second 18, in this wind in these conditions, I have to tip my hat to him,” Takeshita said. “I’m used to being down to my friends and usually winning, but Derek played some great golf out there.”
Takeshita, who rallied from 3-down in the semifinals, had some dog in him as well, winning 14 and 16 to tie the match back up. But each time he had the honors, he hit his driver right, losing the ball once. Chinen took his final lead after one of Takeshita’s wayward drives on 17 and clinched it when he opted for a soft 7-iron on a nasty sidehill lie on the fringe of the 15th green with no stance and got too much of it but still made it to the fringe within 18 feet of the cup.
Takeshita was sitting pretty in the fairway but found the bunker and struggled to get out cleanly. Chinen skipped a low chip within 4 feet of the hole and the drama was largely concluded. His celebration was subdued after 136 holes of raw emotion. Before the final, his largest deficit in any match was two holes. Even his traditional pool plunge was anti-climactic.
“I had enough of those moments all week,” Chinen said. “Yesterday on my 36th hole I ended up making an unreal par putt from 8 or 9 feet and I didn’t think it was going in and it snuck into the left lip and everything just came out involuntarily. It was an adrenaline dump like I have almost never experienced and I had a headache the rest of the night and I was tired and I was like ‘OK, tomorrow I have to control my energy a little bit better.’ ”
Chinen has played the Manoa Cup every year since 2021 to mixed results, never getting out of the third round, and he is walking away a champion. The 29-year-old who never played college golf is the oldest Manoa Cup winner since 44-year old Jonathan Ota in 2006 but won’t be back to defend his title. He intends to turn pro and get into golf instruction at his family business, Sports Box Hawaii. One of his goals now is for his young sons to get their names on the cup.
“I wanted to cap off my amateur career with the Manoa Cup,” Chinen said. “I wanted to win the state amateur and the Manoa Cup and I didn’t get the State Am, but I am even happier to get this historic trophy with 117 years. That’s crazy.”