One of Hawaii’s all-time golfing greats, former PGA Tour member Dean Wilson, returned to his old stomping grounds at the Pali Golf Course for the Hawaii Junior Golf Association’s Dean Wilson Junior Golf Classic.
“It’s a pleasure for me to be a part of this and be a part of the junior golf community and get back in touch with Hawaii Golf,” Wilson said. “It’s just been a pleasure watching all these kids play at my home course and watch them battle it out.”
The three-day tournament celebrates the state’s best young golfers and is named in honor of the Castle High School graduate, who won 11 professional tournaments in his career, including the PGA Tour’s International in 2006.
“My hope in this is just to create a fun environment and make golf fun. Have them come out here and have fun competing with each other and just make golf enjoyable. Junior golf is the roots of everything, I think. So that’s where you want to start to grow the game and get the kids to enjoy the game and play it with fun and passion. And that’s what I saw out here. All the kids had a lot of fun. We were blessed with good weather, and the course is in great shape, so like I said, it was just a pleasure being out here.”
In the tournament, Kihei’s Lakota Lee and Pearl City’s Tyler Tamayori took top honors in the boys’ divisions, while Mara Gillespie from Waipahu and Mililani’s Kate Nakaoka captured the girls’ titles.
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For more information on the Hawaii Junior Golf Association and future events, click here.