Kaua‘i junior golfers in inaugural Mixed tournament

Five of Kaua‘i’s junior Golfers will join other golfers from around the state in the Hawai‘i State Junior Golf Association’s inaugural Mixed Team Championship this weekend.

Sean Mamaclay and Gabby Saiki, both familiar Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation golfers from Kapa‘a High School will team with Kohei Mitsui of ‘Aiea in the first group which tees off at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Po‘ipu Bay Golf Course.

According to a press release from the HSJGA, the Mixed Team Championship is designed to help prepare Hawai‘i Team members in a similar Ryder Cup format being played against the top junior golfers from Japan later this year.

Each two-person team will consist of one boy and one girl from the 13-18 age division.

The first round, teeing off tomorrow, will be played using Four-Ball Stroke Play and the second round, teeing off Sunday, will be played using Foursome Stroke Play.

Po‘ipu Bay Golf Course will be playing at 6,499 yards for the boys and 6,023 yards for the girls.

This will help the HSJGA gear up for its second annual USA Hawai‘i-Japan Junior Cup which will play at the Waikoloa-King’s Course on Nov. 17 to 19.

Darren Valencia of Koloa will join Matthew Messier of ‘Aiea and Alice Kim of Honolulu in the second group to tee off, tomorrow.

He will be followed by Jordan Oda of Kapa‘a and Rae-lyn Morikawa of Lihu‘e who will pair with Brian Lee and Kristen Sawada of Honolulu and Mililani, respectively.

The final grouping will have Tyler Ota and Hayley Young of Honolulu joining Landon Johnson of Pepe‘ekeo, and Nani Yanagi of Hilo.

Sunday’s play starts at 7 a.m. at the Po‘ipu Bay Golf Course.