Even after 100 years — and because of it — the Manoa Cup is a golf tournament unlike any other. Its uniqueness is part of the Hawai'i Amateur Golf Championship's charm and quirkiness.

The format transforms a genteel game into a radical risk/reward proposition. The site — it has been played at Oahu Country Club every year since 1944 — can be as ludicrous as it is lush. The champions are legendary, with 15 already in the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame. The endurance required is rare in a game that only recently focused on its physicality.

The tradition is like nothing in Hawai'i golf and the tournament will celebrate its centennial beginning with tomorrow's qualifying round. The highlight of opening day, which will cut the field to 64 for match play, is the 8 a.m. foursome on the first tee. Former champions Jack Omuro (1960), Art Fujita (1964), Paul Spengler Jr. (1969) and Guy Yamamoto (1985 and '92) will play together. Omuro and Fujita will also be honorary starters for Saturday's 36-hole final.

That is presuming they won't be playing. Stranger things have happened. George Nahale was in the midst of a few.

Francis I'i Brown won his ninth, and last, Manoa Cup in 1934 by beating Nahale. No other golfer has won more and no win was more unexpected. A little more than a year earlier Brown, who set course records at Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, was involved in a head-on collision in Waikiki. By the time he left the hospital his left leg was two inches shorter and he was down to 90 pounds.

Brown is the only golfer to win the Manoa Cup when it was stroke play — through 1926 — and match. He would have had 10 Cups, but was shocked by teenage caddie Francis "Maru" Hong in 1927.

It took Nahale 21 years to fully erase the pain of his 10-and-9 loss to Brown. He beat former OCC caddie and four-time Cup champion Charlie Makaiwa in 1955. Nahale was the first to get thrown into OCC's then-new pool in a spontaneous gesture that has become tradition. Nahale was tossed in again the following year, at 51, and remains the oldest Manoa Cup champion.

Ken Miyaoka might be the tiniest. A man of few words, he is 5 feet 5 barefeet, which is precisely how he played in 1944 because he couldn't afford shoes. He didn't win until 1961, but captured six Cups in a 15-year span and is second only to Brown.

Now 80, Miyaoka is an honorary club member, plays to a 28 handicap, and prays he "hits the lottery" when he goes to Las Vegas so he can afford a lesson with golf guru Butch Harmon.

"The one time I played him he never said a single word to me while we were playing," said Fujita, one of Miyaoka's many golf victims. "I asked Ken, 'How come you never say anything to the guys you play with?' His answer was, 'I don't want to encourage my opponents by saying good shot.' In his heyday, I've got to believe he was one of the best golfers Hawai'i ever produced."

Miyaoka's Manoa Cup memories are vivid. He was on the "short" end of what might be the most memorable match, falling to Al Souza, 2 and 1, in 1980. Souza blasted his way to double eagle — sometimes called a "dodo" or extinct bird here — on OCC's uphill 13th (440 yards). He shattered his driver off the tee, then blindly one-bounced the ball into the hole through a chute of trees.

Miyaoka recalls that Souza shattered another driver that day, picked up eight birdies and only beat him, 2 and 1.

Miyaoka won his last title in 1975, firing nine birdies at Owen Douglass Jr. and clinching the match by banking a putt off Douglass' ball into the hole.

Brandan Kop, a 47-year-old OCC member who will tee it up tomorrow for "the 28th or 29th time," has been the most dominant player since. He tied Makaiwa and George H. Angus (1909-1912) by winning his fourth Cup in 1998. He would like nothing more than to win again.

Kop can also remember specific moments and momentum shifts from many matches. He still squirms when he recalls how Shane Hoshino, ironically now one of Kop's employees, started to pound his club in frustration when he hit a bunker shot fat from the back of the eighth hole. His ball barely crawled out of the bunker then, as an incredulous Hoshino gaped, startlingly picked up speed down the Nu'uanu valley and ended up next to the hole.

Hoshino kept Kop from a three-peat and his fifth Cup. Kop kept Greg Meyer from a repeat, and a 10th straight match win, in 1983 by burying 12 birdies in 36 holes. Meyer had 10 birdies and an eagle and lost.

When Kop beat Chad Burrows in 1997, he one-putted 16 of the 35 holes. "His putter beat me to death," Burrows said back then.

Like many, Kop believes OCC's eccentric, elegant nature contributes significantly to the Manoa Cup mystique. The course is extremely short by modern standards at about 5,800 yards (PGA events average about 7,200). It has steep declines and steeper inclines with a 400-foot rise in elevation, and features beastly bunkers and slick greens with serious slope. Very often, it is very wet, and very windy.

OCC has an innate ability to bring out the best and worst in golfers, often on the same hole. Brilliant shots can be penalized and bad shots rewarded at its whim. No professional field would stand for it, but as a match-play venue for Hawai'i's finest amateurs it has proved ideal. The fact it is private only makes it more fun to play.

"There is no other course in the state like OCC," insists Kop, who is at his best when conditions are the worst. "You just drive in and watch out! People can hit your car from the seventh tee. It makes it special that it's stayed on the same course.

"There's no other tournament like Manoa Cup. The membership is so supportive. (Superintendent) Curtis Kono has it in such great shape. Ask any amateur what tournament they want to win and this will be the No. 1 tournament."

In the last decade, with one exception, it has been dominated by the young and the tireless. Golfers must walk every step of the Manoa Cup and only the strong survive the hills and valleys — literally and figuratively. To win, you must walk six rounds and some 144 holes, and take all the shots your opponent, match play and OCC fire at you. It is a unique challenge.

Until 2002, Chipper Garriss was the youngest to win, capturing the Cup in 1967, at age 17. Garriss is now in the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame, along with five guys he beat, but Travis Toyama shattered his record six years ago when he won at 15. Forever inspired by Miyaoka's kind words after his first championship, Toyama won again three years later and leads the young guns this week along with past champions Kurt Nino, Ryan Perez and Kellen-Floyd Asao.

Kop, Yamamoto and 2006 champ Jonathan Oda are now the "old guns," but they are still smoking. The "next guns" include Alex Ching, TJ Kua, Max Bonk and Lorens Chan, who made the semifinals last year at 13.

People can speculate about what it means to win the Manoa Cup, but until you accomplish it, you have no idea. Last year Nino characterized it as his Masters. After Oda won he sighed and said simply, "You can't imagine the total satisfaction," after admitting he had been "tired since Tuesday."

In 2000, Randy Shibuya thought for several moments before explaining: "Now I can tell them I'm a Manoa Cup champion. That means a lot. That means a whole lot."

For the last few generations of Hawai'i amateurs it has been priceless. Yamamoto recalls practicing with David Ishii on Wailua's putting green as kids, pretending "if you sink this putt you win the Manoa Cup."

"It's always our dream," said Yamamoto, who believes his wins here lifted him to the 1994 U.S. Public Links championship. "For all the golfers who have tried to win Manoa Cup, you know how hard it can be, physically and mentally. The week is long and there are a lot of ups and downs. It's always been the tournament I wanted to win.

"I think it's the tradition. It makes it exciting for all of us to win. That's why we step up even more than ever to create something of ourselves here."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043

QUALIFYING ROUND

Tomorrow

Tee Times

At Oahu Country Club

Tee No. 1

7:00 a.m.: Edward MacNaughton, Erick Ellgren, Samuel Pratt, David Hamada. 7:07: Reo Saito, Alex Ching, Zachary Na Pier, Brett Komoto. 7:15: Rodney Doo, Glenn Niitani, Jonathan Ota, Brandan Kop.

7:22: TJ Kua, Samuel Rodriquez III, Bill Henry, Jaime Matsumura. 7:30: Masao Toyama, Christopher Akau, Grant Natori, Sean Doi. 7:37: Garret Hayashi, Kurt Nino, Bou-An Fujieki, Bradley Yosaitis. 7:45: Corey Kozuma, David Fink, Kellen-Floyd Asao, Alex Chu. 8:00: Jack Omuro, Arthur Fujita, Guy Yamamoto, Paul Spengler Jr. 8:07: Samuel Crocker, Craig Watanabe, Nicholas Kim, Edson Nakanishi. 8:15: Christian Agosto, Randoplh Yadao, Chris De Almeida, Alan Wong. 8:22: Brandon Nahale, Steve Wilhite, Paul Yap, Tyler Ota. 8:30: Ethan Wang, Bobby Matsui, Ron Haranda, Richard Ingalls.

Tee No. 10

7:00 a.m.: Lorens Chan, Michael Fan, Shakil Ahmed, Cole Yamane. 7:07: Andy Toth, Jeff Weinstein, Chris Byrer, Adrian Doo. 7:15: Joey Sakaue, Max Bonk, Isaac Jaffurs, Brian Lee. 7:22: Alika Bell, Thomas Yamashita, Donny Hopoi, Travis Toyama. 7:30: Jon Burkard, Kane Anguay, Evan Nagano, Kyle Yawata. 7:37: Nicholas Matsushima, Cory Oride, Jared Sawada, Haku Maluenda. 7:45: Layne Morita, Keenan Lum, Robert Greenleaf, Jonathan Khil. 8:00: Kellen Watabu, Ryan Perez, Patrick Murakami, Ray Schab. 8:07: David Saka, Jeffrey Fagnant, Neal Takara, Raymond Tendo. 8:15: Jordan Thomas, Mark Franzman, Phil Anamizu, Wyan Vong. 8:22: Kawika Shoji, David Yamasaki, Christopher Armanini, Michael Park. 8:30: Wade Nakamura, Jeff Garma, Dane Akina, Dwight Kahoohanohano. 8:37: Steven Matsuno, Eric Takai, Doug Williams, Raymond Fortucci.