Vivian Sasaki is a scoreboard watcher, especially at the Sony Open in Hawai'i at her home course, the Waialae Country Club.

There are no scoreboards on the course for the Waialae Women's Invitational, but she kept a mental count to see how many strokes she needed to catch Kathy Tsukada, who was playing two groups ahead. The two were battling for low-gross honors in the second-oldest women's event locally as it celebrated its 53rd year. Only the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational, which began in 1950, is older.

"I knew she was 1-under at the turn," said Sasaki, a three-time women's club champion at Waialae who took a one-shot lead going into yesterday's final round. She figured she was one back, then two, then three after the front nine. All that figuring and "trying too hard" resulted in three bogeys coming in, according to Sasaki, who wound up losing low-gross honors to Tsukada by two strokes.

Still, in the Waialae Women's Invitational, low-gross and low-net honors share equal billing and both have been declared co-champions since 1961 after the event started out crowning only the low-net winner. Tsukada took low-gross honors for the second time in three years, shooting a 74 yesterday for a 149 total, while Sasaki captured overall low-net with a 36-hole score of 137 with her 7 handicap.

"My putting was really good this time. I can handle fast greens," said Tsukada, who hasn't played much competitive golf this year. "Too busy. I have two grandkids."

But she still practices a lot out of Hoakalei Country Club, Ernie Els' new course in 'Ewa.

Tsukada plays to a 4 handicap, the same as her husband, Dennis, owner of six Baskins-Robins franchises in Hawai'i. He was the one who urged his wife to take up the game 15 years ago, instructing her along the way. "Give him credit," said Tsukada nee Chung. "I didn't want to play golf. Too much sun."

Now, she's glad she did. Especially when it's a tournament at Waialae.

Sasaki, who has played in other events such as the Jennie K., was more elated about finally getting interviewed after her round than taking overall low-net honors.

Jean Nagahiro won the Championship Flight low gross with a 156. Other low-gross flight winners were: Joan Dang (A-Flight, 171), Jo-Ann Chun (B-Flight, 179), Linette Tam (C-Flight, 187) and Gail Tandal (D-Flight, 190). The low-net winners were: Lily Yao (Championship-Flight, 143), Connie Bache (A-Flight, 145), Tomomi Ho (B-Flight, 143), Suzie Kimi (C-Flight, 151), and Susan Kuioka (D-Flight, 144).

NOTES

Maki Boudra, who plays in D-Flight, got her first hole-in-one at the 128-yard, par-3 eighth hole, using a 7-wood. She won a set of Callaway irons ... Bev Kim, who won the Waialae Women's Invitational for five straight decades, was a last-minute withdrawal this year ... A broken hip sidelined Waialae member Pam Anderson, 78, who has been playing in the event since the early 1960s.