Kevin Hayashi says winning his third consecutive Aloha Section PGA player of the year award — and a record sixth overall — is quite an honor.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. I feel really honored. I didn't know that this was the first time somebody won it six years," said the 47-year-old Mauna Kea Resort teaching pro.

Still, when Hayashi steps to the podium to be recognized at the Aloha Section PGA awards luncheon Sunday at the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki, it'll be with mixed feelings.

Not only because it comes as a pleasant surprise since he missed two major events, including the season-ending Hawai'i State Open. But also because it's an honor in name only now that its biggest perk is gone.

Until this year, the Aloha Section's player of the year got an exemption straight into the Sony Open in Hawai'i. It was Hayashi's ticket to the PGA Tour event the five previous times he won the award.

Hayashi now finds himself one of 17 players trying to earn the one exemption into the Sony Open in the section's member-qualifying Monday at the Waialae Country Club.

The number of spots was reduced from three to one after the PGA of American reached a buy-back deal with the PGA Tour earlier this year.

"With only one spot, it's the right thing to do. I think it's fair," Hayashi had said a couple of months ago. But, then, what could he really say otherwise?

Well, let me say it for him.

Perhaps it's time to make the honor meaningful again by giving the Aloha Section's exempt spot to the player of the year next year.

Make it a goal for everyone to try to be the player of the year, thereby getting that prized exemption. In that way, too, the section's tournaments will get more player support and be more competitive.

"I think a lot of players didn't really play too many tournaments because it didn't matter since the player of the year didn't get an exemption," Hayashi said.

"I know for me it was. Once I knew I could qualify (for the member-qualifying) I kind of made up my mind and put emphasis on my kids," added Hayashi, who tutors around 40 junior golfers in his native Big Island.

So that's why winning the player of the year award again was merely a pleasant surprise, nothing more.

Of the six times he won it, Hayashi feels the one in 1998 ranks as his best.

"That was the first year I won it, so that was kind of special for me," said Hayashi, who also won the first of his four Aloha Section Stroke Play Championship titles that year.

Now even winning the stroke-play title doesn't seem that big a deal unless the Aloha Section PGA finds a way to improve its method to determine who gets the Sony Open exemption.

If it isn't feasible to do entirely away with the member-qualifying for the Sony Open, at least limit the field, giving more weight to those winning the player of the year award and the stroke-play championship.

You have to feel for Hayashi, who achieved both this year, and yet finds himself in an 18-hole crapshoot for an exemption which he merited in the first place.