Kaua‘i’s Kua advances in 102nd Manoa Cup

LIHU‘E — It was bound to be the end for one of the main storylines at the 102nd Manoa Cup on Thursday, as defending champion TJ Kua was matched up against O‘ahu’s Alina Ching who, in reaching the Round of 16, had become the first female player ever to win two head-to-head matches at the historic Hawaiian event.

In the end, it was Kua’s run at back-to-back titles that will continue into today’s quarterfinals after he came away with a 4 & 3 win over Ching.

Coming in as the automatic top seed due to last year’s victory, Kua took the lead on Ching, the 17th seed, from the opening hole. He parred the 424-yard par 4 and Ching bogeyed, giving Kua the 1 up lead.

The match never got back to even footing, as Kua won the third hole with a par-4 to go 2 up.

Ching birdied the 281-yard fifth to pick up her first win of the day and get back within one of squaring the match, but Kua then eagled No. 6 and birdied No. 7 to move to 3 up.

He extended to a 4-up lead with a par on the ninth hole, putting Ching in a very difficult situation with just the back nine to play.

She did respond by winning the 10th hole, then birdied No. 13 to get to 2 down with five holes to play.

But Kua re-upped his game and birdied the following two holes to ice the match and collect the 4 & 3 win.

Ching surpassed Michelle Wie’s previous record of advancing past one match-play round, which she accomplished in 2002.

Now Kua will continue his run at another Manoa Cup title when he faces off with Colton Knedler, the 40th seed, in this morning’s quarterfinals. They are scheduled to tee off at 7 a.m.

In the other three quarterfinal matches, Sean Maekawa (No. 4 seed) will take on Hunter Larson (5); David Fink (2) will face Jonathan Ota (23); and Bou An Fujieki (35) will face Michael Fan (27).

The semifinals will then be played by the winners of this morning’s four matches today at noon to decide the two finalists.

That championship will be a 36-hole contest, teeing off Saturday at 7 a.m.