With his dramatic win at the Masters in 2025, Rory McIlroy became only the sixth golfer to achieve the career Grand Slam. The first ever to do so was Gene Sarazen, and he accomplished it almost a century earlier. Along with two U.S. Open victories, three PGA Championships, and a lone victory at the 1932 Open Championship, it was Sarazen’s triumph at the 1935 Masters that completed the full set — making him, for decades, the only man in history to have won them all. He was golf royalty, a living monument, a man whose footsteps on any fairway in the world carried the full weight of history.
In late 1981 he was traveling to Tochigi, Japan to appear at the Gene Sarazen Jun Classic, a PGA tournament named in his honor. On the way, he made a point to come to MPCC at the invitation of members Richard and Charlotte Lum (Charlotte knew Gene through her career in New York, promoting famous musicians and sports celebrities). And so, on a clear fall afternoon, this historic sportsman found his way to a hillside course in Lanikai. Here, a warm welcome and a friendly game awaited, courtesy of head professional Mark Sousa, a man who knew these fairways like the back of his hand and had the aloha spirit to match.
By that time, Mark was already four years into his tenure as MPCC’s head professional—a role he had earned through nearly two decades of devoted work on these very grounds. He began as a caddy at the tender age of twelve, later becoming an employee and earning his first formal paycheck in 1967. After attending Arizona State University, Mark returned in the role of assistant golf professional and was promoted to MPCC head pro in 1977, a position he would hold with distinction longer than any head professional at a private golf club, ever.
So when Gene Sarazen drove through the Mid-Pacific Country Club gates, he was looking for a good game and (hopefully) some competition. Mark and Gene shook hands, sized each other up, and set out for a match that would prove tighter than anyone might have anticipated. Here was Sarazen—the diminutive 5-foot-5-inch champion who had swept all four major championships in an era when such a feat was considered nearly impossible. Still in excellent health in his late seventies and possessing the same ingenious mind that had invented the sand wedge (back in the 1930s). And here was Mark, the young pro towering over his opponent, the quiet custodian of a club who knew every blade of grass and every break on the greens.
Word of the match spread quickly through the club, and one of the top golfers at MPCC, Keiki Dawn Izumi, was invited to play in the group. Keiki later recounted that during the round Gene advised her “Don’t turn pro, stay an amateur and you will have more fun!” The fourth player in the group that day was a board member who pulled Mark aside and suggested that it would be wise not to try to beat Sarazen. The old champion’s pride and the club’s hospitality were, after all, deeply intertwined matters. Mark received the counsel with a respectful nod—and then proceeded to do what any honest golfer must do: he played his own game.
Hole by hole, the two men traded birdies and pars across MPCC’s sun-drenched layout. Sarazen, well into his senior years but still possessed of the fluid swing that had carried him to 38 victories on the PGA Tour, showed why his reputation endured. At some point during their round, the old master paused, turned to Mark, and shared a piece of wisdom drawn from a lifetime at the pinnacle of the game. “In order to succeed at golf, you need to be able to putt!”
The advice, it turned out, was perhaps exactly what Mark needed to hear. When the final putt dropped on 18, it was Mark who held the honors. He had beaten Gene Sarazen on home soil—a feat that brought equal measures of pride and, perhaps, a slightly sheepish glance toward the board member who had offered that gentle pre-round “advice.”
Always the gentleman, after returning from his trip Gene made sure to send a hand-written thank you note on his personal stationery, which Mark has treasured to this day.
As MPCC celebrates one hundred years of golf, fellowship, and aloha, that autumn afternoon so many years ago stands as one of the club’s most legendary chapters. It brought together the man who first conquered the career Grand Slam—a distinction only five other golfers in history have ever matched—and the man who would dedicate his entire professional life to one club, a unique and singular achievement in itself. Now serving as our Ambassador of Aloha, Mark is a man who has given this club not just his skill, but his spirit, for more than sixty years.
One hundred years on, the fairways still hold the memory of every great player who has walked them. And somewhere in the grain of the greens—those greens that Gene Sarazen said you had to learn to master—the story of that legendary match endures. Here’s to a century played, and many more to come.