KAHUKU — With impeccable timing and a putter nearly as perfect, Cyd Okino shot the round of her young golf life yesterday to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open.

Okino, 14, blew through the breezy Turtle Bay Palmer Course with a bogey-free 67 in the afternoon round to win Hawai'i's 36-hole sectional by 14 shots over Margarita Ramos and 15 over Anna Jang.

Ramos, 18, is from Mexico City but has trained in Florida, Georgia and Arizona the past eight years and will play for the University of Arizona in the fall, following in the footsteps of her idol, Lorena Ochoa. Jang just finished her junior year and was Okino's teammate on Punahou's state championship team. Jang won the state individual title last year.

Yesterday they were no match for Okino, who accumulated an impressive resume even before she got to Punahou. She is the youngest to win the Hawai'i State Open (2006 and '07) and State Women's Match Play Championship, capturing that at age 11.

Sophistication set in yesterday. She shot her career low on the biggest stage of her golf life — until later this month at Interlachen Country Club in Minnesota — and played bogey free for the first time. Okino opened with 75 in the morning and was one shot ahead of Jang and three up on Ramos going into the afternoon. Okino worked on her putting at the lunch break and drained everything she looked at in the afternoon.

"She played amazing," Ramos said. "She was just making all the putts."

Okino sank birdie putts of 30 feet and 5 feet on the front to open up an eight-shot advantage over Ramos, who made the cut at this year's LPGA Corona Championship. Ramos bogeyed the 10th to fall back by 10, along with Jang, but birdied the next two holes to give Okino something to think about.

The 14-year-old was never fazed. She got up and down for par out of the bunker at the 12th, then birdied the 14th and 15th and drilled a 35-footer on the 17th. Okino needed just 27 putts in the afternoon, one-putting five times on the back nine.

"In the afternoon they were going in randomly," Okino said. "I wasn't even expecting them to go in. The first birdie (No. 5) I was just trying to get it close, but somehow it just dropped. From there, I guess my confidence level went up and I kept on making pars.

"On the back they just kept dropping. It was really funny. I can't even explain how. I never played this good before."

Okino laughed out loud at her last birdie putt, completed her remarkable round on the next hole and jumped into her father's arms. Cyrus Okino, who couldn't watch his daughter on the course, said he "felt like an expectant father" as he waited it out.

Casey Nakama, Cyd's coach and caddie, saw it coming.

"She hit the ball really good all day," Nakama said. "Early in the morning she was a little tight, all the girls were. But when she got into the round she started hitting some really quality golf shots.

"The last couple years we've just been working on her short game. I tell her 'Get rid of the bogeys, get rid of the bogeys.' Making birdies is just a matter of time, but you've got to get rid of the bogeys. Her short game was wonderful today."

She has two weeks to savor it, and train for the Open.

"I was riding her all the way on the back side," Nakama said. "I'm trying to get her into the mode of playing golf at a higher level now. The next level they're making a whole lot of birdies. I told her we're not going up there for vacation. We've got to try and compete, at least make the cut and see what happens."

NOTES

Former Hilo resident Kimberly Kim will also be at the U.S. Open. The high school senior now living in Arizona received a two-year exemption after winning the 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur.