It’s been the summer of success for 28-year-old Eric Dugas. Who? Eric Dugas. He grew up on the East Coast but he’s been in Hawaii. Winning golf tournaments. He’s become a regular in my column, in case you hadn’t noticed.

Eric is quite the “baller” – as they are wont to say on Golf Channel. For the uninitiated, “baller” also refers now to someone who really knows his or her stuff with a golf ball. It used to be reserved for the very proficient in basketball, but the golf guys are reaching out to all social groups – not just the country club set.

This summer Dugas won the 2011 Kona Open, the 2011 Pebble Beach National Pro Scratch Championship (his partner was Rick Tramontin, GM at Kuki’o), the 2011 Aloha Section Championship at Poipu Bay Golf Course, the 2011 Aloha Section Assistants Championship and made it to the final stage of US Open qualifying, something he did in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

And Dugas hasn’t just won these events. At the Kona Country Club, he set a new tournament scoring record with an 8-stroke victory over the second place finisher and 13 under par.

At the Aloha Section PGA Championship, he won by 7 strokes.  Poipu Bay Golf Course Director of Golf Craig Sasada said it was as if Dugas was playing a different course than the other guys in the field. It was windy at Poipu that day.

Dugas was on my golf radio show, “The Golf Club”, in August to talk a bit about his winning ways.

With this game, sometimes it just kind of all does go according to plan and you just try and enjoy it for those. Poipu has got the same greens that we have here at Kuki’o, the same grass, the paspallum. I was very familiar with those surfaces and I just enjoy playing in the wind. I grew up playing all of my early golf in some heavy winds on the East Coast. So when it gets blowing, I actually am very comfortable out there, I really enjoy it. You know, just made some putts, kept rounds going and it just kind of all fell into place.

With that win, everything did fall into place for Dugas. He won the lone qualifying spot for the Sony Open in Hawaii reserved for the Aloha Section PGA. Dugas says that is particularly satisfying after having had to go through Monday qualifying for Tour events.

Dugas has been working at the Kuki’o Golf & Beach Club for a couple years. Working at Kuki’o as an Assistant Professional but also as working on his game.

I’m in a place where they are very supportive of me to play and practice. Members, staff, everybody really is behind me in every tournament I play in as well as the day to day preparation for tournaments.

His goal? Become a PGA Tour member. But the odds are stacked against most young men with that desire even if they are very talented.

Dugas says it’s a desire you can’t ignore, if you love the feel of competition, the love of tournament golf.  “The little bit of butterflies,…that desire to play in competition, they are not necessarily nerves.”

It’s harnessing those butterflies, I believe, the ability to gather oneself, channel and focus that “butterfly” energy, to do it without thinking, that makes winners.

Dugas is now exempt to play in the 2012 Sony Open in Hawaii, and he has qualified to play in two PGA of America tournaments: the Callaway Golf National Assistant Championship in November at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida and the 20012 National Professional Championship in June 2012 at the Bayonet/Black Horse in Seaside, California.

The National Professional is special to him because back in 2008, he played his way into one of the big four major of the 2008 season, the PGA Championship.

Dugas says he is ready to be a professional on the PGA Tour:

Now more ready just because of experience. When you are younger you always think that you’re ready to go. The more you play, the more experience you gain in large events, the more ready you are for it because you have been explosed to all kinds of competition; all kinds of different golf courses; all different scenarios. You are not surprised by the situation anymore – you feel more comfortable in the situation. In 2008, when I played in the PGA Championship, it was definitely an overwhelming experience. It was a great experience, but it was overwhelming.

Dugas says it was overwhelming because of the course set up, playing 7500 yards on a par 70 with high rough, tight fairways, fast greens, the caliber of players he was competing against and the crowds. There are people everywhere you turn.

If Dugas were to win the Professional Golfers’ Association of America 2012 National Professional Championship, and go on to win the PGA Championship, he would join only Sam Snead and Bob Rosburg to accomplish that feat.

How about the physical part of the game? The game of golf may be 90 percent mental but that’s only after you have learned to play the game, taught the body how to play the game.

So what is your secret, Eric Dugas, to playing the game of golf? What guru are you following to get your game to the point you can win so consistently and with such dominance?

Dugas says picking the brain of many successful players has been key. But that “you have got to find your own routine. That’s the biggest thing – finding a routine and being comfortable with it and sticking to it. The game will throw so many ups and downs at you, that if you are always changing, you never find a comfort.”

Dugas says he is more of a feel player than a mechanical player. He doesn’t have a swing coach right now because he is more of a feel player and when he puts too much emphasis on mechanics, his game suffers.

But he’ll work on his game inside 100 yards, cause everyone can hit the ball great who is playing championship level golf but it’s whether you can score that makes the difference. But he doesn’t practice during tournaments.

In tournaments, you gotta go and enjoy it. You just gotta go and have fun. That’s kind of been the turnaround for me in the past two years, I’m back to enjoying the game. I almost took it too seriously and ruined the fun of it. I just started having fun with the game again. Just really enjoying the simple beauty. If I can’t stare out at the Pacific Ocean and the other islands, and enjoy what I am doing – I have to reconsider.

So figure out how you learn, how you internalize something best. Is it seeing, hearing, feeling something that makes it part of your route memory? Are you a feel or a mechanical player? Once you’ve learned who you are, stick with that.

You can hear the conversation this part of my column is based on here:

http://www.hernco.com/golfclub/ac82011.htm

Dugas says he grew up hating golf and then at 14, 14 years ago, a young golf professional, Chris Dupill at The Captains Golf Course in Brewster, Maryland, not only introduced him to the game, he gave him his first job in the golf industry. Says he was hooked after the first round on a regulation course.

Dugas went to high school at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod and took his game to Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The only person he’s considered a swing coach thus far, Steve Conley, didn’t give him a spot on the golf team until his sophomore year.

I told Eric I was featuring him in my column this month and asked him who he likes most in the professional ranks – based on attitude and playing style. I told him it could be different people. And I asked him to tell me whom he would like to thank. This is what he wrote:

In professional golf I really admire the way that Luke Donald not only plays the game, but carries himself.  

There are so many people I could and would like to thank, but the ones who really stand out are; my parents for their endless support, Chris Dupill for not only introducing me to the game, but for all his personal time he invested in me. My girlfriend Amy who I can’t say enough about, all the members at not only Kuki’o, but every club I have been at for their continuous support, the staff at Kuki’o who encourages and supports me to represent the club and take time off to play, and finally I need to thank Kevin Hayashi who took me under his wing when I moved out to the islands and has been a large part of my comfort and success here in Hawaii and golf in general.

 

Kevin Hayashi has been the Aloha Section Player of the Year 8 times and inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame this year. Over his 30 years in tournament golf, Hayashi has won 47 times.

FUTURE OF THE HYUNDAI TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Looks like we have an executive director to handle to duties of overseeing the Hyundai Tournament of Champions at Kapalua in January 2012.

The name of the new executive director hasn’t been officially announced. The beneficiary charity is also just about nailed down. Once that is done, the PGA Tour will make the official release of the information.

Nancy Cross has been tournament director since 1982 when it was called the Kapalua Open, so the adequate preparation for this years’ event has never been a question.

But questions there still are. Will the Hyundai Tournament of Champions be played in Hawaii after 2012? Bottom line is we don’t know.

The sponsors dictate the tournaments and their locations. Remember: follow the money. 

At this point, the money behind the Sony Open in Hawaii and the Mitsubishi Electric Championship are happy to be in Hawaii. I imagine the Sony Corporation is very happy to benefit from the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. When top players from the year before come across the Pacific to play in the Hyundai, more often than not, they’ve stayed to play in the Sony.

But what if the Hyundai gets a better offer? Hawaii, the state and the business community, if there is a Hawaii based one left that is strong enough, need to step up and make a PGA Tour Hawaii stop a big deal. They need to want the prestige a PGA Tour stop brings. They need to recognize not just the visitors it brings, the money those visitors spend but also the marketing benefit we get through the power of the television coverage.

The Hyundai Tournament of Champions kicks off the new golf season – and most of the world is watching the action from frozen climes.

In the July 29 issue of the Pacific Business News, on the Opinion page, titled “We should consider all options to keep Champions Tourney here”, the PBN our View column writes:

If the most important thing is to keep this tournament in Hawaii – and it is – stakeholders should be prepared to consider all options.

I couldn’t agree more.

Let us not forget, “given the plethora of ‘luxury’ golf destinations, and the hunger the uber rich have for experiencing those destinations, Hawaii has a lot of competition”.

SOLEHEIM CUP 2011

Here is a look at the team – the top ten by points earned through the Safeway Classic and the two captains picks.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-digest-woman/2011-08/photos-solheim-us#slide=1

Hawaii’s Michelle Wie certainly has been having challenges on the golf course. I don’t think that is going to change until she is ready to make a full time commitment to the game.

In an interview recently with the LA Times, Wie said the first decision she made for herself was the decision to go to college.

Somehow I understand the state of her game just a little bit better.

2011 OAHU COUNTRY CLUB MEN’S INVITATIONAL

Leading from start to finish, Matt Ma capped off his 2011 Oahu Country Club Men’s Invitational victory with an even par 71. Lorens Chans, finishing 2nd and two strokes back, just couldn’t catch Ma after his first round 66.

From Andrew Feldman, PGA, head professional at Oahu Country Club:

The last hole provided a great deal of excitement as Matthew had just a one shot lead over Lorens. Matt hit his tee shot on the ninth (final hole) long and left while Lorens also went left into the trees. Matt was able to safely make bogey while Lorens was unable to get his ball on the green and went on to make a double bogey five. Layne Morita and David Saka tied for third at even par 213.

The team of “Duck Fat” (Matthew Ma, Todd Rego, David Saka, Cory Oride, & Seung Jae Maeng) captured the team competition with a two round team score of four under par 564. The team event was conducted over the first two round of the event, where the best four scores of the five were used to determine the team score.

Paul Kimura won the Senior Championship.

SENIOR PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Fred Couples won the Senior Players Championship, his first major victory on the Champions Tour, after going to Germany to try a new back procedure. All he said about it was that it was a “blood procedure”. Couple said he felt great the first couple of weeks after the procedure and that leading up to the SPC, he felt a little stiffness. But that stiffness he could handle.

Whatever the case, it was great to see him play well for four days and win.

His victory comes the same week the world of golf is still buzzing over whether Tiger Woods ought to be, deserves to be, a Presidents Cup captains’ pick. The decision is certainly reserved for the captain but the voices against from the fans and media are loud, and have been since Woods did so poorly in the PGA Championship

Couples originally said Woods would be on his team. Period.

Then he refined his position by saying he’d like to see Woods in competition before the Australian Open, which was a President Cup requirement Couples imposed to begin with.

Woods is now thinking about doing just that.  Read his blog, way down at the end – “I might add another PGA Tour event to my schedule. Right now, I'm looking at my options.”

http://www.tigerwoods.com/news/article/2011082223574514/blog/

UNITED STATES GOLF ASSOCIATION

Desiree Ting won the 2011 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur Sectional Qualifier on Sunday, August 21st. Played at Wailea Old Blue, it was a two woman contest. Medalist Desiree Ting had to decline traveling to Virginia after advancing to the Championship at Bayville Golf Club in Virginia Beach September 17-22.  2nd place Lisa Judge will go representing Hawaii.

THE MAYORS CUP - REMINDER

In a collaborate effort between the Mayor’s office and the Hawaii State Golf Association, the Mayor’s Cup has been revived and will be played at the Ala Wai Golf Course on September 17th and 18th, Saturday and Sunday. The tournament will be a 36-hole stroke play tournament with five flights. The flights will be as follows: Championship, A Flight, B Flight, C Flight and Senior Flight. The Senior flight will have a gross and net winner and will accommodate players 55 years of age or older.

Entry fee of $125.00 per golfer will include all fees including green, cart and banquet fees. All golfers must be HSGA members with an active GHIN handicap.

This tournament will also count towards Governor’s Cup points to qualify to play in the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Applications and more details of the tournament: http://www.hawaiistategolf.org/ or  http://www.808golf.com/

OAHU JUNIOR GOLF – PEARL JUNIOR OPEN WINNERS

Final results now posted click here to see.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

See you “on” the radio.

Thank you for your Mana and may you hit the sweet spot every time,

Danielle

PS You can hear “The Golf Club” radio show online at http://www.radiogolfclub.com/ or on one of these fine radio stations:
It’s “The Golf Club” show every Saturday morning at 7 AM on KGU FM 99.5 FM and KGU AM 760 AM on Oahu, KONI FM 104.7 on Maui, KTOH 99.9 FM on Kauai and on KPUA AM 670 in Hilo.