Hawai‘i PGA Hall-of-Famer to retire from Wailea Golf Club

Brenda Rego, PGA, is retiring at the end of this month as head golf professional at the Wailea Blue Course but plans to continue coaching junior golfers.

“One of Hawaiʻi’s most respected golf professionals will soon be turning in her keys to the pro shop, but not her devotion to a sport she fell in love with as a teenager,” according to an announcement from Wailea Golf Club.

The Aloha Section PGA Hall-of-Famer and former LPGA Tour player has been a mainstay at the Wailea Golf Club for the past 23 years. She started in December 1998 as assistant golf professional at the Wailea Gold and Emerald courses, and was later promoted to head golf professional at the Wailea Blue Course in 2010.

As a teenager, Rego began working at a golf course on Oʻahu and discovered she liked it. She went on to amass an impressive number of amateur titles in Hawaiʻi and competed collegiately for Florida University before turning professional in 1980.

After returning to Hawaiʻi, Rego continued to push herself in golf, becoming Hawaiʻi’s first female Class A PGA professional in 1990; the Aloha Section PGA’s Assistant Golf Professional of the Year in 2006; and with her promotion at the Wailea Blue Course, the first female head golf professional in the state.

“We are so incredibly happy for Brenda and at the same time, very sad as we are going to miss her greatly,” said Anne Takabuki, president, Wailea Golf. “She’s an exemplary professional, and she’s contributed tremendously to Wailea Golf and to the sport itself–as a trailblazer, a mentor, and an exceptional coach for junior golfers.”

Rego plans to continue coaching at Maui High School and teaching junior golfers on Maui, but will always have fond memories of her time at Wailea. She’s proud to have been part of the team that produced the Senior / Champions Skins Games at Wailea–featuring such legendary pros as Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus–and especially enjoyed having the LPGA Skins Game at the Gold Course in 2003. In particular, Rego said, she’ll cherish the friendships she’s made at Wailea and will miss the staff she helped assemble at the Blue Course.