In 2006, Chan Kim won the state high school golf championship. He could not defend his title last year because he had moved to Arizona. That move came soon after he won the 2007 Hawai'i State Amateur Stroke Play Championship, which also leaves this week's State Amateur without a defending champion.

Kim beat 2006 champion Toru Nakajima by three shots last year, becoming the first high school golfer since Chase Chulakote, in 2003, to win this tournament. Kim, Nakajima and Casey Watabu were the only players to break par in the 72-hole event. Nakajima, who had a win and two second-place finishes the last three years, is now a pro in Japan.

The State Amateur tees off at 11:17 a.m. today, Saturday and Sunday. The first tee time is 6:50 a.m. tomorrow, and the field will be cut to the low 40 and ties for the weekend.

Punahou sophomore Bradley Shigezawa might be the most likely high school golfer to follow in Kim's shoes. Shigezawa is coming off a sixth-place finish at last month's Hawai'i Pearl Open. He was also low amateur, and fourth overall, at last year's Hawai'i State Open.

Shigezawa is paired with 13-year-old Lorens Chan the first two days. Chan came within a shot of qualifying for this year's Sony Open in Hawai'i and is a four-time Hawai'i State Junior champion.

The field of 85 also includes former Manoa Cup champions Jonathan Ota, 46, and Travis Toyama, a senior on the University of Hawai'i team.

TOP FIELD AT KLIPPER

Three top-10 teams will take part in the 23rd annual Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational, Monday to Wednesday at Kane'ohe Klipper. University of Hawai'i-Manoa and UH-Hilo are also in the 16-team tournament, which includes Nagoya and Osaka Gakuin of Japan.

Fourth-ranked Arizona State is the highest-rated team in the tournament, followed by seventh-ranked Arizona — with Hawai'i's Amanda Wilson — and ninth-ranked Oklahoma State. Arizona won the inaugural event in 1986 and has won six times since, the last in 2000. It was led by medalist Annika Sorenstam in 1991 and '92. Oklahoma State won here in 2001 and 2002.

Texas A&M won last year's tournament with 295—897. Wilson was fifth individually.

Also returning to Hawai'i is former Rainbow Wahine Kari Williams, in her first year as Columbia's head coach. Williams is a two-time Jennie K. champion and qualified for NCAA Regionals as a senior. Punahou graduate Lindsay Hong is a senior on Yale's team.

Senior Xyra Suyetsugu, a Roosevelt graduate, leads the Rainbow Wahine. She was 12th at the SJSU Spartan Invitational earlier this month and has been UH's top finisher in all but one event this season.

NOTES

Kailua's Bridget Dwyer, Hilo's Leah Whiting and Wailuku's Shayna Miyajima are scheduled to tee off in the Bright House Networks Open tomorrow. The $85,000 tournament opens the 2008 Duramed Futures Tour at Cleveland Heights Golf Course in Lakeland, Fla. It is the first of 18 stops on the LPGA Developmental Tour.

Punahou graduate and presidential hopeful Barack Obama is No. 123 in Golf Digest's second ranking of the "200 best and most avid golfers in Washington, D.C." Obama plays to a 16 handicap — eight shots better than Hawai'i senator Daniel Akaka, who was ranked 181st. The ranking is in the magazine's April issue.