Hawai'i's amateur golfers got a huge boost when the United States Golf Association made a significant revision to its amateur status code by permitting amateurs to accept reimbursement for tournament expenses, effective Jan. 1, 2006.

Under the previous USGA policy, only amateurs involved in team competition and junior golfers (18-under) were allowed to accept financial assistance from outside their families. With the change, players of all ages will be able to accept outside assistance for tournament expenses, which the USGA defines as transportation, lodging, meals and entry and caddy fees.

"This is a major advance for amateur golf. It gives amateurs who do not have access to substantial family resources the opportunity to receive help from friends and supporters so they can compete against their peers," said USGA president Fred Ridley in a press release last week.

It's a bigger step forward, especially financially, for golfers from Hawai'i, who have to fly thousands of miles to a national tournament.

"I think it's great. The biggest thing is that you cannot drive to a tournament. Sometimes even here, if it's on a different island," said Maui's Royden Heirakuji, who played in his 10th U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links Championship this summer in Lebanon, Ohio. "Airfare is the biggest expense."

It's doubly expensive for the 40-year-old Heirakuji, an air conditioning installer from Makawao. He has taken his wife, Brigid, to six of the national public links events. Also his sister, Sonya, several times.

The revision in the amateur code should help increase participation, according to Jay Hinazumi, a director for the Hawai'i State Golf Association, which handles local USGA qualifiers.

"I think it's a great thing," Hinazumi said.

Hinazumi said he noticed a significant decline in the number of players qualifying for the nationals because it is too costly to take the next step.

And fewer entries meant fewer available qualifying spots.

It wasn't always that way.

Guy Yamamoto, who won the 1994 men's championship, recalled when the USGA once allowed public links qualifiers to be reimbursed for their expenses.

The USGA eliminated that exception in 1999 to have it conform with its other amateur championships, according to Art Fujita, the USGA's Kaua'i publinks representative.

"It had been an ongoing discussion with the R&A (Royal & Ancient Golf Club). The USGA wanted to standardize the ruling so that all amateur levels would be the same. The thinking had been it was unfair that only the public links (players) could get reimbursed," Fujita said.

"When they changed the rule it dramatically reduced the number of players from Hawai'i," said Yamamoto, who remembers when there were as many as 12 Hawai'i players in the men's championship one year.

There were only five at this year's championship in Ohio, including Michelle Wie, the first female to qualify for a USGA men's event.

BOOSTING HOSTING HOPE

A bigger impact as a result of the change wasn't the drop in the number of publinks qualifiers. It also meant that Hawai'i, which had hosted five national publinks championships (three men, two women), was no longer a viable venue because the players now had to pay their own way here.

Who knows? The new revision might lead to the USGA considering Hawai'i as a possible site for one of its championships in the future.

"With this new amateur status change, it opens the doors for us," said outgoing USGA official Mary Bea Porter-King, who was happy to serve on the committee recommending the change.

"It's still one of my goals to try and get a USGA championship here. Any golf course interested should get a hold of me."

In the meantime, Hinazumi and Hal Okita, HSGA president, hope to set up a funding committee in preparation for the new revision. The USGA requires that all reimbursements for expenses must be channeled through the state or regional association even if a friend gives money to a specific golfer for the designated tournament.

The reimbursement rule change is great for amateur golf, according to Porter-King, who said that the sport has gotten too expensive for many players.

"The main reason I turned professional was because I couldn't afford to play as an amateur," said the former LPGA Tour veteran who is president of the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association.

"Not that money will be pouring in. But Hawai'i is producing some terrific players. I hope we can get the funding to help them."