KAILUA-KONA — The pint-sized sensation that stirred the Big Island with his natural gift of golf is ready to take the next step on the road to attaining as many trophies as he can get his little hands on.
Blake Nakagawa, now five, will travel to Oahu this weekend to compete in his first statewide tournament at the Hawaii Kai Golf Course. The tournament is apart of the U.S. Kids Aloha Tour.
“This will be a huge step up in competition,” Blake’s father Kiley Nakagawa said. “He just turned five and most of the kids will be a year older than him.”
The Aloha Tour features eight tournaments, all in Oahu, and over a relative short two month time span. Nakagawa will compete in the 6-and-under division.
“The distance will be similar to what he is used to,” his father said. “The Big Island does a good job of mimicking what the Hawaii State Golf Association and U.S. Kids do.”
Kids competing in the Aloha Tour will have a chance to earn points to qualify for regional competition on the West Coast of the Mainland. However, for someone competing on one of the outer island, the chance to compete against state competition does not come cheap.
“It is very expensive, especially with airfare around Thanksgiving,” Kiley Nakagawa said. “Then you have the sign-up fee and the rental car. We are going to take it one tournament at a time and see how he does.”
Blake Nakagawa doesn’t have to focus on everything that it takes for the chance to play against competition statewide. He just has to focus on his game and he shows no lack of confidence there.
When asked what he is looking forward to most on Oahu, Blake Nakagawa simply replied, “winning more trophies.”
Blake is getting used to winning at an early stage. Over the past year, the pint-sized golfer has won 10 of the 11 tournaments he has entered while playing with the Big Island Junior Golf Association.
Recently the BIJGA held its annual banquet and Blake Nakagawa was honored as the Most Inspirational Player of the Year.
“This is an award that I believe is usually handed out to out-going seniors,” Kiley Nakagawa said. “He was able to be the male winner because of his attitude and willingness to learn. He is always hugging and shaking everyone’s hand. Even when he loses, he is always upbeat and smiling.”
Blake loves the trophies and he loves the recognition, but on the night of the banquet, his primary focus was on something else.
“My kids are candy fiends and when we walked in, there was this big jar of skittles and you had to guess the number of pieces inside,” Kiley Nakagawa said. “Blake put down 100 because that was the number of the week in preschool, but my daughter said there was way more than that, so my wife wrote down an eight afterward to make it 1,008. It ended up being 1,030 so he won.
“We walked out with a lot of trophies after that banquet, so much so that other parents were laughing because his name kept being called to come up and collect some kind of award. But as we were leaving with all this hardware, the thing Blake was holding on to the most of the jar of skittles. He was so happy.”
Blake Nakagawa’s skill with a golf club has brought him a lot of attention as of late on the Big Island, and on the mainland as well thanks to social media.
The young golfer’s Instagram account (blake_nakagawa) has allowed the Big Islander to connect with people all over the world. He is followed by others like him, golf enthusiast, PGA and LPGA Tour professionals and even a 104-year golfer from Florida by the name of Gus Andreone, who is known as the oldest living PGA golf professional.
“He really wants Blake to fly out and he knows some pros who work with the Golf Channel, so he was going to see if he could set something up,” Kiley Nakagawa said. “It is just so expensive to fly from Hawaii to Florida, but it might be something we look into later.”
Blake Nakagawa also gets to show off his goofy side on social media.
“He likes to mimic the things he sees whether it be the Tahitian fire dance or skeet shooting,” his father said. “One time he hit a golf ball and then took off like he was running the bases and then he slid at the end. I think that was around the start of the MLB playoffs.”
Around town, Blake Nakagawa gets noticed all the time. He has people come up to him when he is at Target with his parents and he has his photo up on the wall at Laverne’s Sports Bar and Grill.
“It has been good,” Blake said about all the attention he has received. “I like meting all the people.”
Blake Nakagawa practices twice a week, which might not seem like a lot to the average pro, but as a five year old, the attention span only holds for so long. Blake’s father is also fearful of having him get burnt out on the sport so he doesn’t want to overdo it at such an early age.
Throughout the rest of the week, Blake plays soccer and does jiu jitsu, as well as spend time at the beach and at his sister’s hula classes.
“He is the second youngest kid in his jiu jitsu class so he gets beat up a lot, but it is good to keep his ego in check,” Kiley Nakagawa said with a laugh. “It is good exercise and he likes it.”
At such a young age, it appears as that there is nothing Blake Nakagawa doesn’t like to do. Well, except hula.
When asked by his father if he would join his sister doing hula, Blake Nakagawa replied emphatically, “no hula, never hula.”