Cepeda sisters spend special day going head-to-head at Manoa Cup

The women’s bracket for the 116th Manoa Cup provided Mia and Ava Cepeda the perfect birthday gift idea for their father.

It took 16th-seeded Mia knocking off No. 1 seed and defending champion Jasmine Wong in Tuesday’s round of 16, but once the 2-up victory was secure, it set the stage for Wednesday’s family affair at Oahu Country Club.

With her dad, Baxter, as her caddie and mom Karla, accompanied by younger brother Max for 11 holes before they had to leave for his golf tournament, serving as Mia’s caddie, Ava advanced to today’s semifinals with a 4 and 3victory.

Who would win was the last thing on anybody’s mind during the 15 holes the two played before it was over.

The sisters played heads up for the first time in a major match play tournament with Baxter celebrating a birthday he could have only dreamed about when the family started this golf journey more than a decade ago.

“This will be a fun, memorable day for me for sure. What can I say?” Baxter Cepeda said. “We compete all of the time. You like all of these people you compete with, but you want to beat them. Today was a day that I knew that no matter what happens, one of them is advancing and we’re going to get this unique experience we’re all going to remember. It’s just a special day.”

The sisters walked the course together, talking and laughing throughout. The parents had the kids’ golf bags in their own golf carts before mom and brother had to bolt for a tournament at Hawaii Prince.

Dad had both golf bags on the back of his cart the rest of the way before the two sisters embraced on the 15th green when it was over.

“It was definitely a new experience,” said Ava Cepeda, who last month won the high school state title as a senior to become Kahuku’s first individual girls golf champion. “We don’t get to play against each other most of the time. Growing up, in tournaments when we would be in the same age division, they would put us in a different group always. So being able to go head-to-head is a lot of fun.”

Mia Cepeda just completed her freshman season at the University of Albany with a 12th-place finish at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Championship in mid-April. She said the car ride to the tournament was like any other day.

The sisters both listened to music.

“(Playing with Ava) just kind of took the edge off and made me kind of more calm and relaxed than usual,” Mia said. “We realized when the bracket first came out that we knew we’re going to play each other. We were both excited about the possibility of it.”

Ava, who will attend New Mexico in the fall, built a four-hole lead through 10 holes before the two matched each other over the next five holes to end it.

Neither one had to carry their clubs up and down the hilly course like the group behind them.

That’s a credit to both parents, including Baxter, who has been fortunate enough to mostly be a stay-at-home dad and guide his kids through their golfing journey from the very beginning.

“It means a lot. They’ve really given so much for our golf game and our success in and out of golf,” Mia said. “I just love how we can always come here together and they can help us on the course. It’s really special and I appreciate all of the work a lot.”

Ava Cepeda had a chance to end the match on the 14th hole when Mia Cepeda’s putt came up roughly 2 feet short. Ava made her putt to force Mia to have to make the 2-footer. She refused to concede the short putt to her sister, who calmly tapped it in to continue the match.

“I would have given it to her, but it was like, downhill you know,” Ava said before both sisters laughed.

Ava advanced to play Varnika Achanta, from San Jose, Calif., in today’s semifinals with the tee time set for 8:12 a.m. Leia Chung will play Kara Kaneshiro, who finished runner-up in 2022, in the other semifinal.

On the men’s side, two-time defending champion Joshua Hayashida won 6 and 4 to advance to today’s round of 16 match against Peter Jung, who won the Manoa Cup in 2021 and ’22.

Four-time champion Brandan Kop, a back-to-back winner in 1997 and ’98, is also into the round of 16 and plays Hilo’s Jake Otani today.

The women’s champion will be decided on Friday in an 18-hole match while the men’s winner will be decided in a 36-hole finish on Saturday.