The Ho’olaule’a Hawaii Golf Award Ceremony will be held on February 10, 2024, at the Japanese Cultural Center in Moilili.
The event celebrates the champions and award winners in Hawaii golf from the PGA of America – Aloha Section, the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame, Hawaii State Golf Association, Hawaii State Women’s Golf Association, Golf Courses Superintendents of Hawaii, and Hawaii State Junior Golf Association. The event is open to the public and ticket sales will open on December 1, 2023.
This year the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame will honor Scott Simpson, a PGA Tour Professional. For more information contact the Aloha Section PGA Office (808) 593-2230
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
This event is proudly sponsored by Friends of Hawaii Charities
Brian Sasada, PGA
2023 Hall of Fame Honoree
HONOLULU – HAWAII — Brian Sasada’s golf success in Hawaii has come at every level of the game. That history will bring him home in February when he becomes the 76th inductee into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.
The 13th annual Hoʻolauleʻa Awards banquet, which honors all of Hawaii golf’s diverse players, will be Feb. 10 at the Japanese Cultural Center. It is the first Ho`olaulea since 2020.
Sasada’s start in the game remains one of his most memorable golf “moments”
“Growing up as a kid, in the first tournaments I entered I’d see all the kids get excited and the adrenalin flowing and everything else,” Sasada recalls. “I remember the first tournament, what got you started and got you interested. You know how much more you have to learn after you see all the good players, and you know you have to put more time into the game.”
Without a doubt, Sasada has, watching players like Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Al Geiberger along the way and trying to imitate their swings and timing.
In 1977, he helped Maui High win the first of its four state high school championships. Brother Craig Sasada, now General Manager at the Poipu Bay Golf Course, was one of his teammates.
“For us, we were small kids and didn’t know what to expect because we were going against a lot of big high schools with better players,” Brian recalls of that week 45 years ago. “We stuck with if we, as a team, do this and do that we might have a chance.”
Sasada’s game blossomed at University of Hawaii-Hilo, where he earned his degree in Business Administration and medalist honors at the 1984 NAIA District 2 regional as a senior. The Vulcans advanced to NAIA Nationals his last two years and he also won the 1982 Hawaii Amateur Stroke Play Championship.
Before turning pro in 1998, Sasada took low-amateur honors at the Maui and Pearl Opens and qualified to represent Hawaii at three consecutive Public Links national championships.
He calls that trifecta and his 1997 Callaway Hawaii State Open championship his greatest accomplishments in the game.
There was much more, including qualifying twice for the Sony Open in Hawaii, winning three Maui Opens and capturing Aloha Section PGA Match and Stroke Play titles.
Those were complemented by many more ASPGA championships and a runner-up finish to Larry Stubblefield at the 2001 Mid-Pacific Open — just before Stubblefield was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame.
In between, he worked at Makena and Waiehu before moving to the “Ninth Island” in 2011 “just for a change.” He works now at Las Vegas National Golf Club.
The game remains close to his heart after all these years.
“Just the love of the game keeps me going,” he says. “It always keeps you interested, whether it’s working on the short game or long game. It might be what you did right or wrong trying to improve and be perfect. It’s a sport where you can’t be perfect but you can always improve.
“That’s the intriguing part about it. You could improve, and then you just get hooked on it. It takes only takes one good shot, or one great shot.” He’s had many of those in his career, particularly around the greens, but his reaction when he heard about being inducted was … absolute silence. “I was speechless,” he admits. “It’s a big thing to me with all those players and legends. It’s an honor to be with them.”