Global Golf Post - February 15, 2010

Amateur
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The Big Kaahanui Has A Big Heart, Too

Trey Kaahanui won the AJGA’s 2009 Jerry Cole Sportsmanship
Award for his efforts both on and off the course.
Like father, like son. In a sports context, this
adage held true for Hawaiian Ted Kaahanui’s
first three sons. Like him, his boys all used their
stout genetics and played both high school and
college football.
So when Trey, Ted’s youngest son, announced
at age 8 that he wanted to play golf, it was not
met with enthusiasm. Flash forward to today.
Not only has Trey emerged as a premier junior
golfer, the rest of his family has taken up the
game as well.
A lot has changed since Trey was 8. Before
hitting his teens, he suffered through more
anguish than any child should have to endure.
Two years after Trey’s grandfather intro-
duced him to golf, his life was taken by cancer.
To this day Trey, who lives in Arizona, carries
a photo of his “greatest golfing buddy” in his
bag, never forgetting the man who inspired
him to take up the game during his summers
in Hawaii.
Would that the tough times have stopped
there.
Six months after his grandfather’s death,
Trey’s father, Ted, was sent into a coma after
a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler. It took
six perilous weeks before his dad awakened.
Often out of adversity comes strength. Not
the kind of strength his father and brothers
displayed on the football field. But an inner
strength that comes from life’s daily battles.
And when Ted’s strength returned, Trey’s
blossomed.
“I learned that every day is special,” Trey
said in his speech at the American Junior
Golf Association’s Rolex Junior All-America
Banquet, where he accepted the 2009 Jerry
Cole Sportsmanship Award. “Today, as I see
my dad walking the fairways, I think, ‘What a
miracle.’”
A year-and-a-half ago, Trey vaulted into the
national spotlight as he won the AJGA Heather
Farr Classic at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa,
Ariz. After surviving a sudden-death playoff
just to make the field via an 18-hole qualifier,
Trey found himself leading the tournament
after a pair of 65s. He coasted through the final
round and earned a five-stroke victory against
one of junior golf’s strongest fields.