HONOLULU — Over lunch Monday in the wardroom of the U.S.S. Chung-Hoon, Lt. j.g. Lauren Griebel acknowledged that she met President Obama over the holidays while playing a round of golf with her father on a local course. Smiling broadly, Griebel said, “It wasn’t Billy Hurley, but yeah.”

As her voice trailed off, laughter filled the silence. Leading the revelry was Billy Hurley III, a Naval Academy graduate who spent two years on the Chung-Hoon as part of his mandatory five-year military commitment and returned to town this week to fulfill his golfing dream.

With a No. 25 finish last year in the Nationwide Tour standings, Hurley, 29, became the first Naval Academy graduate to earn a PGA Tour card. To the casual golf fan, Hurley is just another face in the sea of newcomers competing at the Sony Open, the first full-field event of the season. But to the sailors aboard the Chung-Hoon, he is a luminary along the lines of Roger Staubach or Yogi Berra, two others who delayed professional athletic careers for naval wartime service.

“It’s really inspirational for our sailors to think about all the golf he gave up to serve his country,” said the ship’s commander, Justin Orlich, who added, “It’s nice for them to see that someone who served five years in the military honorably can step out into the civilian world and so quickly reach a high level of success.”