Ho’olaule’a

The 12th annual Hawaii Golf Ho’olaule’a Awards Ceremony honored Hawaii’s golf champions. This premier gala event celebrated the champions of five of Hawaii’s major golf associations and the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame who honored professional Bobbi Kokx, PGA as their 75th member of the Hall of Fame.

HONOLULU—Bobbi Kokx, a champion college and amateur golfer who became one of the state’s first female Class A PGA professionals, will be inducted into the Aloha Section PGA Hawai’i Golf Hall of Fame at the 12th annual Hoʻolaulea Awards banquet.

Kokx is the 75th golfer and 15th woman to be inducted into the Aloha Section PGA Hall of Fame since its inception in 1988. “I was stunned when they told me I was being inducted,” Kokx said. “There are so many great golfers in our state, and so many people who have done wonderful things for golf in Hawaiʻi, it’s surreal to even be considered, let alone chosen. It’s a great honor.”

Kokx came to Hawaiʻi in 1982 on a University of Hawaiʻi golf scholarship. While at the UH, she captured the 1984 Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, the state’s most prestigious women’s championship, and the 1986 UH Rainbow Wahine Invitational, an event that attracted top college teams from across the country.
Following graduation in 1987, Kokx pursued a career in golf, and between 1992 and 1997 worked as one of the state’s first women PGA club professionals. Apprenticing under Art and Brenda Rego at Maui’s Waiehu Municipal Golf Course, she earned her Class A status and later served as head professional at Oʻahu’s Royal Hawaiian Country Club.

In 1997, she left professional golf to pursue a career as a public school teacher. After regaining her amateur status, she captured the Jennie K. Wilson award for a second time in 2000. Kokx is also a two-time winner of both the Women’s Hawaiʻi State Match Play Championship (2002 and 2003) and the Maui Women’s Invitational (2005 and 2010).

In addition, she won the Maui Women’s Amateur in 2002, 2004 and 2008 and the Hawaiʻi State Women’s Neighbor Island Championship in 1988, 2000 and 2001. She captured the Lester Hamai Memorial Golf Tournament eight times over three decades.

“My second victory in the Jennie K. Wilson is the one that means the most to me,” she said. “The first time I won it I was young and didn’t realize how prestigious a tournament it was. When I won for a second time, it meant so much more because I understood the weight and responsibility it carried.”

Kokx was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and took up golf in the third grade after attending a summer instructional class. Michigan had lots of public daily fee courses, including one near her home where juniors could play for free.

During her senior year at Forest Hills Northern High School in Grand Rapids, Kokx was a member of the state champion girls golf team, as well as member of the all-state girls team. That same year, she was the Michigan state representative in the Girls Junior PGA Championship.

Those accomplishments earned her a scholarship offer from then UH Wahine Golf Coach Jackie Pung, a former USGA national women’s amateur and LPGA Tour champion and inaugural inductee into the Hawaiʻi Golf Hall of Fame.

Kokx herself served as the UH Women’s Golf Coach from 1995 to 1997, guiding her team to victory at the 1996 Texas Pan-American Lady Bronc Classic.
After joining the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education in 1997, Kokx worked for 12 years at Kīhei Elementary on Maui, and in 2009 was honored as Maui District Teacher of the Year.

She now lives in Aiea, Oʻahu, and works as a DOE state resource teacher, in induction and mentoring, supporting beginning teachers in the Hawaiʻi public school system.