Kara Kaneshiro caps a week at Oahu Country Club as Manoa Cup champ

Kara Kaneshiro made sure to stay in the moment to earn a well-deserved dip into the Oahu Country Club pool on Friday.

The Kalani alumna played steady golf and avoided any distractions to defeat Ava Cepeda 4-and-3 to win the women’s bracket in the 116th Manoa Cup.

Kaneshiro, who recently finished her sophomore season at Colorado State as the 2024 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, pulled away from Cepeda by winning three of the six holes played on the back nine to close out her fourth match-play win in as many days to take home the state’s premier amateur championship.

She was congratulated by a few friends once it was over after the 15th hole and eventually made her way to the pool for the celebratory refreshing pool plunge.

“It’s awesome. This week is such a special tournament,” Kaneshiro said. “It’s different because we don’t play match play too often, but it’s just a really fun week. Great to be around so many people, my friends caddying for me, it’s just really fun.”

Kaneshiro is the eighth different winner on the women’s side in as many years. The women’s bracket was established in 2016, with Mari Nishiura winning the first two as the only repeat winner.

Kaneshiro reached the final once before, in the summer of 2022 between her junior and senior years of high school.

She lost 3-and-2 in that one but didn’t really spend any time hearkening back to that experience as she maneuvered her way around the course during Friday’s final.

“I tried not to think about it too much because it’s a new year playing against a different person,” Kaneshiro said. “Just tried to stick to my game plan.”

Kaneshiro and Cepeda teed off at 7:09 a.m. Friday, before the start of the men’s quarterfinals.

Kaneshiro birdied the par-4 third hole to take an early lead and never trailed.

Cepeda tied the match with a birdie on the par-5 sixth, but it lasted only two holes.

Kaneshiro retook the lead with a par on the eighth hole and poured it on on the back nine. She managed to birdie both par-5s, including the 15th on a short putt after Cepeda failed to get up-and-down on a chip from behind the front right bunker to end it.

“I think I was hitting the ball pretty well, keeping it in play, fairways and greens and then made a couple of putts here and there, which is good,” Kaneshiro said. “Short game helped me a lot today.”

Kaneshiro said she would celebrate with family and friends before flying to Maui today to play a U.S. Women’s Amateur qualifier in Wailea on Monday.

Cepeda will also play in the qualifier after a strong week on the tail end of an impressive two months.

She became Kahuku’s first individual girls state golf champion to close her senior year in May when she won the David Ishii/HHSAA State Championships by three strokes.

She went 3-1 in her second appearance in the Manoa Cup. It included a win over her sister, Mia, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, with mom and dad each caddying for one daughter.

“It was a great experience for me. This was my first time making it to the final,” Cepeda said. “Just coming to this beautiful course every day has been really nice. I think I played all right. My putting wasn’t great today. I had a couple three-putts and just putts I was making before (that) I didn’t make today.”

Men’s 36-hole final set

Roosevelt alumnus Kolbe Irei won five consecutive holes on the front nine en route to a 5-and-4 victory over two-time champion Peter Jung to reach today’s 36-hole final against Remington Hirano, who mounted a late charge to stun Zachary Sagayaga in the other semifinal.

Irei, who started the day with a 4-and-2 win over Aidan Sugihara in the quarterfinals, needed only 14 holes to beat Jung, who knocked out two-time defending champion Joshua Hayashida in Thursday’s round of 16 and was 22-3 in his Manoa Cup match-play career before the loss.

Irei has reached the final once previously, losing to Jung in 2022.

Hirano, a Punahou alumnus, reached the final for the second time in his career after winning five of the last seven holes to turn a three-shot deficit into a 1-up victory.

Sagayaga, a Kalani and University of Hawaii alumnus, was attempting to become the lowest seed at No. 43 to reach the final since Layne Morita made it to the final day of the 2009 tournament as the No. 44 seed.

He managed to win the 14th hole to get back to a 2-up advantage before Hirano closed winning the next three holes to take the lead. Both golfers made par on 18.

Sagayaga started the day with a 2-and-1 win over 64-year-old Brandan Kop, who has won the tournament four times.

Irei and Hirano will tee off today at 7 a.m.